During the past month, a team of the National History Museum devoted itself to the design of a new exhibition space, designed to show one of the most dynamic periods of the history of the Bulgarian lands - Late Antiquity.
A new exhibition space in the National History Museum dedicated to Late Antiquity
During the past month, a team of the National History Museum devoted itself to the design of a new exhibition space, designed to show one of the most dynamic periods of the history of the Bulgarian lands - Late Antiquity.
During Late Antiquity, significant political, economic and religious changes took place in today's Bulgarian lands, related to the construction of a new administrative and military structure of the empire, the imposition of Christianity as the leading religion, the construction of new cult centers. At the same time, the era was marked by disastrous phenomena related to the resettlement of large masses of barbarian tribes, who penetrated through the Lower Danube limes (border) of the Eastern Roman Empire and set the stage for permanent settlement of Goths, Slavs, Avars and proto-Bulgarians.
Among the exhibits, which are already part of the permanent exposition of the museum, extremely valuable finds can be seen, among them a stone bust of the emperor Flavius Julius Valens (364 – 378), a lead funeral coffin from the region of Vidin – an extremely rare find, a fragment of silver dish from Sirmium (Sremska Mitrovica), with the name of Emperor Licinius (308 – 324), dethroned in the internecine wars with Emperor Constantine the Great.
The showcases also present the most impressive finds from the sites that the National History Museum studies - the Chrysosotira peninsula and the Akra peninsula, near Chernomorets, the Kalyata fortresses near Yakoruda, Bukelon, near Svilengrad, St. Archangel over the village of Dabnitsa and many others. Ongoing archaeological investigations of these sites in the future will enrich the museum's exposition.
The exhibits saved from mining raids are also extremely interesting and intriguing. The collection of period fibulae displayed in the display cases is only a small part of the many held in the museum's holdings. The reconstruction, with original bronze elements, with silver plating, of a Roman military belt from the end of the XNUMXth, beginning of the XNUMXth century, from the region of the village of Ribnovo, is also an exceptional find.
The exhibition "Bulgarian Lands in Late Antiquity" can be viewed in the space between halls 2 and 3 of the National History Museum.
