Читать книгу Walking in Bulgaria's National Parks. Pirin, Rila and Central Balkans National Parks онлайн

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History

Situated at the edge of Europe, Bulgaria has long been an important eastern gateway to the continent, and a melting pot for a range of different peoples and cultures, all of whom have left their mark on the country, and helped to shape its development and rich historical legacy.

The earliest traces of human life on Bulgarian territory date back to Palaeolithic (Stone Age) times, and archaeologists from the Bulgarian Academy of Science are currently investigating a cave encampment in northwestern Bulgaria, which has been dated to between 1.6 million and 1.4 million years ago. This has led to claims that the initial ‘conquest’ of the European continent by humans was through what are today Bulgarian lands. Later, during the Neolithic (New Stone Age) and Eneolithic (Stone-Copper Age) periods, people began to settle in the plains, cultivating the fertile soil and domesticating livestock.

By the Middle Bronze Age, about 2000BC, a distinct people, known as the Thracians, had become established. An amalgamation of independent tribes rather than a united kingdom, they were not only farmers and shepherds, but also accomplished craftsmen, producing what are today world-renowned golden treasures. However, during the fourth century BC, Philip II of Macedon temporarily over-ran the region, and after another brief spell of independence, the Thracian tribes were finally subjugated by the Romans in the first century AD. Eventually, during the fourth century, and after the separation of the Western and Eastern Roman Empires, the territory of present day Bulgaria fell under Byzantine control.