11- Century Spear Excavated in Bitola, Southern Macedonia
BalkanTravellers.com
This is the first find of this kind in the region, according to the Vecher newspaper. “It is an iron spear, 27 centimetres-long, with a special trait at the top serving to drive through a shield. The spear will soon be conserved and presented to the public,” Gordana Filipovska-Lazarovska of the Bitola Bureau and Museum told the publication.
The spear is believed by archaeologists to date to the attack and conquest of one of the three churches located in the centre of former Bitola.
Since 2003, as BalkanTravellers.com reported in June, artefacts from three churches and two mosques have been found by archaeologists at the site of the Jeni Mosque.
The most recent find was this summer’s discovery of altar pieces from an Early Christian church. The archaeological excavations that yielded both this find and the spear are focused on research of the period between the seventh and the fourteenth centuries.
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Like quicksand, poverty is hard to escape - the harder you fight, the worse it can get. In Skopje, some work hard scouring the city for "treasures." They are bottle collectors, spending the day in search of recyclable plastic which they can sell for a subsistence income.
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Useful Reads
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Through Another Europe (2009) | Edited by Andrew Hammond
When Henry Blount journeyed through Bosnia in the 1630s, two things struck him: the purity of the water and the great height of the Bosnians, which, he noted, “made me suppose them the offspring of those old Germans noted by Tacitus and Caesar for their huge size.”
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Music
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Photogalleries
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A Perfect Shot
Koprivshtitsa Fair, Bulgara. Photographs by Neva Micheva
In Homo Urbanus Europeanus, exhibited May 9-24 in front of the National Theatre in Sofia, Jean-Marc Caracci presents his photographs of people in the urban environment of European capitals.
RED&WHITE SOFIA. On the 1st of March Bulgarians say goodbye to the winter. They buy each other red&white threads to carry around until they see a stork and spring can begin. Photography by Lode Desmet
BULGARIA D'OR: The Bulgarian countryside, patinated with the noble golden dust of the autumn. Photographs by Lode Desmet
360 degrees Bulgaria, an exhibition by photographer Alexandar Ivanov, is on display at the Sea Garden in Varna until August 28. It will be shown at Plovdiv’s Central Square from Sept 5.
The exhibition Photographs of a Trip Through Bulgaria by Hungarian photographer András Balla can be seen in Sofia's Hungarian Cultural Institute, at Aksakov 16 Street, until August 22
Instant Spring in Sofia | Photographs by Lode Desmet
Off-the-season Beauty of Bulgaria's Black Sea Coast | Photographs by Adelina Iliev
Bulgaria's Northern Black Sea Coast
Photographs by Albena Shkodrova
excellent smugs
