Anna Buxton

Life and Death in Medieval Bulgaria

• by anna
• 13 May, 2013

Life and Death in Medieval Bulgaria

In seeking to describe everyday life in 14^th century Bulgaria, the historian is unable to draw on the wealth of primary accounts, available in many Western European countries.  This is because of the wholesale destruction of documents, following Bulgaria’s defeat by and assimilation into the Ottoman Empire.  The picture that emerges is therefore drawn on increasingly detailed archaeological discoveries and their interpretation.

The acceptance of Bulgaria as an identified nation state by other European powers, (witnessed in innumerable diplomatic documents and maps) is attributable to the unifying factors of religion, literacy and trade.  The adoption of Orthodox Christianity not only placed the country in the family of other Orthodox powers, thus allowing it to benefit from exposure to Byzantine learning and culture, but it also allowed Bulgarian Tsars to create a national church, which through the Bulgarian Patriarchy would be easily controlled.  The independence of this church from other Orthodox hierarchies was strengthened by the development of a written Bulgarian language.  Bulgaria’s geographic position, along with its natural resources greatly enhanced its value as a trading partner, particularly as Italian nation states began to develop the Danube as a trading route.

The context of frequent wars and epidemics required the development of science and medicine.  Close contact with the libraries of Constantinople encouraged the production of several authoritative Bulgarian texts on the human organism and how specific ailments and traumas were to be treated.  An example is The Shestodnev of Ioan the Exarch. ⁵  A feature of Bulgarian medical texts was their identification and naming of precise diseases, prevalent locally and their treatment.  They include stomach ailments, Parkinson’s Disease, toothache, madness, urinary problems, as well as the two diseases, which swept though the Balkans during the 14^th century – leprosy and scrofula.  The existence of old Bulgarian words, describing those ailments, indicates that they have been known for a long time, while we find evidence in the writing of a number of the Bulgarian 14^th century writers – Gregorious Tzamblak, Patriarch Euthymius and Joasaph of Bdin, that practicing doctors were familiar with them. ¹

Barbers were the first to offer medical help and with time, expanded their ability to offer treatments to men after battles. ⁴ The medical skills present in the Middle Ages allowed for fairly complicated procedures like:

• Trepanning of the skull to alleviate pressure to the brain, done to live patients for prophylactic, medical or ritual purpose.  This demonstrated the excellent chirurgical knowledge and skills of the person operating.
• Examples found demonstrate good skills in setting broken bones of all sorts. ¹

During the Second Bulgarian Kingdom medical skills improved greatly and there were two types of treatments on offer – those from doctors with medical training and experience and intervention from traditional sooth-sayers, shamans and medicine men and women.

The idea of separating the healthy from those with diseases in towns resulted in the creation of hospitals.  Monks also used some of the knowledge gathered from the books they were translating – especially in the area of medicine, healing, magic, plant-remedies, etc to open medical sections in the monastery complexes to cure local people.

Clement of Ohrid set up the first hospital in Bulgaria in the St Panteleymon Monastery in Ohrid. ⁴ Other hospitals were set up from the 11^th century onwards in several monasteries – The Bachkovo Monastery, the Rila Monastery, Troyan Monastery, the Cherepishky Monastery and others. ¹

During the 14^th century, many towns in Bulgaria had their own doctors, but were also visited by famous doctors from Byzantium and even from as far away as India and Persia.  A Jewish doctor from Skopje became very famous at the time. ¹ The Bulgarian Royal family would have benefited from the services of their own doctor in the palace.

The medicines offered to patients were mainly derived from herbs; but also from figs, prunes, dates, salt, sugar, rose water, honey, yogurt, and other foodstuffs, which were thought to be beneficial.

Dispensaries, offering herbs and other foods (specially recommended for particular illnesses) could be found in most of the larger cities in Bulgaria.  Apothecaries were also able to produce medication as prescribed by the doctors.  The fact that Bulgarian herbal medicines were of good quality, could be confirmed by the fact that on the 12 of December 1366, Amadeo of Savoy’s doctor purchased 2 florins worth of medicines (a large quantity) to use for the treatment of Amadeo’s soldiers, who were at the time in Bulgaria and were afflicted by illness. ¹

After Bulgaria was taken over by Byzantium for almost two centuries and even later, after the successful re-establishment of the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, new influences affected life in Bulgaria – not only in social, cultural and economic terms, but also in the addition of new ethnic groups, which settled and blended into the Bulgarian nation.  Most of those came from the north – Tartars, Pechenegs, Cumans, Alans and the southeast – Turks, Armenians, Byzantines, and Arabs.  They brought with them new medical skills, cultural influences and economic and commercial expansion. ²

While the aristocracy and the rich traders could afford to use the doctors and apothecaries available, the poor people had to content with sooth-sayers, shamans and medicine men and women.  While some used spells and incantations – a number of compilations of those had been found from the Middle Ages – others offered more practical help – with childbirths, teeth, etc. ¹

The state of health in Medieval Bulgaria had particular characteristics, typical for the time (the 12^th – 14^th centuries):

• high birth rate existed
• 1 in 5 children died in early childhood; statistics suggest that from 35% to 50% of children died from epidemics
• life expectancy was of abut 30 years of age
• there was a comparatively small number of elderly people (7% aged over 60 years of age)
• the death rate of women below the age of 35, could be explained by frequent pregnancies and complications, arising from those
• the percentage of women living over the age of 55 was larger that that of the men
• the higher death rate of young men (20 – 39) was explained by frequent wars.¹

The demographic picture of medieval Europe was quite similar – for comparison – life expectancy in medieval Hungary (in the 14^th – 15^th) was 28 years of age; that in Czech and Slovak principalities was about 27/8 for women and 29/30 for men. ¹ 

During their lives, the people in Bulgaria in the Middle Ages practised varied and numerous crafts – many of those were related to the needs they had in their daily lives.  Those included production of textiles, weaving, knitting, tailoring, smithying and carpentry – all the crafts needed to sustain peasant feudal communities.

With the growing wealth of the local Boyars, the development of roads and therefore trade routes, towns appeared and with them more specialised crafts designed to meet the new demands for luxury goods.  The Royal family would have had the pick of the best and most beautiful dishes, made locally and imported from abroad.  d Household objects and furniture items, belts, shoes, decorative belts, jewellery, etc were made by metalwork (including precious metal), bone, glass and woodwork,.  There were some fine examples of intricate work – plates, jugs, bracelets, earrings, and so on.

As far as cooking ceramics were concerned, there was little difference in style, make and colour.  However – a great variety of forms and shapes were evident in the production of table ceramics and several decorational styles were obvious. ⁷

One of the most popular styles of ornamentation was the complex sgraffito technique (from the Italian verb “graffiare”, which means “to scratch”). ⁸ Sgraffito ceramics in Bulgaria often depict flowers, animals and geometrical shapes.  With time, different styles were used – near the seaside – in the Dobrotiza Despotate, more popular were the Byzantine styles and traditions, while far from the Black Sea coast, in the capital Tirnovo – Bulgarian traditions dominated. ⁷

Another technique of decoration used in Bulgaria in the Middle Ages was the angoba technique.  This used a background dye, on which several layers of different colours were added, after each of those, some parts of the dish were left uncoloured.  Lead glaze was used in the hues, and a heavy glaze layer was applied to the whole dish prior to firing it in the kiln in high temperature. ⁹

The third technique, used to decorate table pottery was the incised technique.  This was very simple – it used carved by hand letters and pictures on pottery and ceramics, prior to firing the dish in the kilns.  The pictures depict animals, fish, flowers, birds (included double – headed eagles in a heraldic position).  On some of them, monograms were stamped (mostly with Greek letters), with the name of the owner – Michael, Demeter, Ioan, etc. ⁷

There was always employment for stonemasons – sizable building projects in the large cities and towns, including fortifications and churches, kept the stonemasons busy.

The many wars resulted in the need of armaments to be manufactured – mail shirts, reaching below the knees, conus-shaped helmets, bows and arrows, swords, knives and other battle equipment – many of which were exquisitely crafted with decorative elements.

With time, by the 14^th century, there were not only special quarters in the large cities – like Tirnovgrad, Pliska, Cherven, which related to crafts and manufacturing, but they appear to be cosmopolitan – we find in them not only Bulgarian craftsmen and women, but craftsmen from Byzantium, Italy and other western European countries.  By then, specialization had reached high levels and the products produced were of good quality, colourful, and highly individual.  With the development of trade, they had to be equal in quality or better than the imports, to get sold. ¹

Some idea of the entertainment, available to the Bulgarian people in the Middle Ages can be obtained by the mural paintings in churches and monasteries and drawings in books and on walls.  Dice and bones for games have been found near army barracks, this implies that hazard games would have been popular at the time.  There were drawings of sex scenes on the walls.

Some of the population in the towns, who could afford candles, spent their time in the evenings reading books or played games and music and sang.  The fact that reading was a popular past-time was supported not only by the many archaeological discoveries of different candlesticks and lighting implements, but also the records of the number of secular books made available at this time.

Evidence that Royal children would have spent her childhood in well lit rooms has also been established.  In the digs at the Royal Palace in Tzarevetz, archaeologists discovered several large standing bronze candlesticks, each with at least 4 candles and remnants from many coloured clay and glass candlesticks. ²

In the Hrelyo’s Tower in the Rila Monastery there is a mural, depicting a group of five young people playing music together – a band, consisting of a tuba, a lute, cymbals, drums and castanets.  Solo musicians also played a variety of instruments – bagpipes, lyre, gusla, horn and many others.

Singing solo, as a duet or in a group was traditional past-time in all celebrations, as well as private gatherings in the evenings.  Young girls would embroider and sew, spin and knit wool, while singing in the evenings, while boys would play dice, games with animal bones, play instruments, carve wood and make musical instruments, sing and dance.  Royal children would have engaged into some of those activities in their youth.  Young men would also be trained to acquire military skills in preparation for their army recruitment.  Sporting/military games would be organised in towns, in which the youngsters would demonstrate their skills, which on occasions may be concluded by performances by actresses.  Sources are dubious on the subject of the nature of these performances.  With typical male disapproval actresses were characterized as women with loose morals. ²

The aristocracy would play chess in the evenings, drafts or backgammon, which by the 13^th century were known in Western Europe.  Royal children would have definitely known how to play chess, and backgammon.  They watched staged performances – acrobats from Egypt regularly travelled and performed in the Balkans, shows with freak people and unusual animals.

All citizens of the city would turn up to watch public floggings, hangings and other punishments much in the same way, as we go and watch horror films in the cinema. ²

In their initial cohabitation on the Balkans, the Slavs tribes in the Bulgarian territories practised cremation, while the Bulgars practised burial.  With the universal acceptance of Christianity, cremation was gradually phased out.  Pagan rituals survived – the burial tombs are often found to contain “burial gifts” – food, ceramic dishes, armaments, household objects, even drink.  With time, however fewer objects were buried with the deceased, unless they were of royal blood, nobility or religious leaders, when they could be buried with gold rings, gold-woven clothes, jewellery and other exquisite textiles.  A good example is the recently discovered grave of an Episcope of the Eastern Rhodopes from the XIII – XIV centuries, in the church “St John Podrom” in Kurdzhaly – he was buried with his gold woven liturgical vestments.¹

The laws, established from the time of Khan Krum were generally taken to mark the foundation of the legal system in Bulgaria.  Orbini, however cites examples of laws promulgated by Khan Tervel in the 8^th century (laws referring particularly to theft, its proper investigation and if proved, its punishment by beheading).  ⁶

In the 9^th century, the Agricultural law was introduced – a century after it came into practice in Byzantium.  Khan Krum’s adaptation of Byzantine law regulated the relations between food producers and consumers. ²

Krum’s law allowed the individual redress, if he or she felt they were the victims of crime or civil abuse.  From the many records left, we can learn about the offences people were prosecuted for and the appropriate punishments for them.  Examples include: the whole estate of the rapist given to the raped woman; the cutting of the nose of the offender for sexual molestation, etc.

Divorce was allowed if one of the partners infected the other, without prior warning of the ailment.  A woman from Devol, in the 11^th century, was granted divorce, because her husband did not “lie with her” – he was more interested in his own sex.  So far, this is the only record of a sexual deviance in the Middle Ages in Bulgaria. ²

Political crimes were punished in the cruellest ways –Tikhomir was stoned to death by Peter Delyan’s army, once they had decided that Delyan was the rightful leader.  Samuil killed his brother and almost the whole of his family for the supposed crime of treason.  Following the Byzantine example, however, Tsars could be more merciful to traitorous members of their family.  For example Prince Vladimir was blinded by his father Boris for his treason.  However, when examples needed to be made, Tsars could act ruthlessly against Boyars and religious leaders.  Boris held mass executions of Bulgar Boyars and their families in order to enforce Christianity.  Both Ivan Asen II and Svetoslav Terter had Patriarchs thrown to their deaths from the Tirnovo Castle ramparts.

The Religious Council of Ivan Alexander and Theodora was set up to punish the “heretics” – in this case Jewish deviants, Bogomils, Adamites, Barlaamites, etc.  The members of the Jewish sect “Followers of the Jewish Gospel” in particular were accused of blasphemy against the Christian Holy Scriptures – the Life of Theodosius stated that they had been actively preaching against certain Christian practices. ³  There were 3 Jewish heretics – one repented, accepted Orthodoxy and was released, while the other two were tortured.

Most castles would have a jail, which would be in the coldest, darkest and wettest part of it.  Archaeological findings have not substantiated the sophisticated methods and tools of punishment, popular in Western Europe at the time and used by the Inquisition.  The methods of punishment on Bulgarian lands appear to have been much simpler – predominantly sticks, cudgels and chains. ²

In any survey of crime it is worth noting that the Balkans, perhaps because of their mountains, forests and narrow passes, have always been famous for brigand activity.  Members of the Boyar class could easily turn to brigandage, when their lands were threatened or occupied.  Thus, in times of foreign occupation these brigands can be seen to take on a further dimension as national heroes.  This explains the frequent mention of such characters in Bulgarian folk songs.  The outstanding example from the 14^th century would have been Momchil.

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Life and Death in Medieval Bulgaria – Sources

1. Подбрани извори за Българската история: Българските Държави и Българите през Средновековието, (Selected Sources),Том Втори, Книга 14 от Библиотека Българска Вечност на Тангра ТанНакРа ИК, София, 2004; Автори и съставители: Георги Бакалов, Георги Владимиров, Диана Илиева, Ваня Мичева, Пламен Павлов Подбрани извори), ст 295-338
2. Петрински Иван: Истинската История на България, Началото, Ciela, София, 2008, ст76-194
3. Fine John V.A. Jr.: The Late Medieval Balkans, Ann Arbour; The University of Michigan Press, 1996, p 366-451
4. Петрински Иван: Истинската История на България: Битието, Ciela, София, 2009, ст 222–229
5. Златарски, Васил: История на Българската Държава през Средните векове – том ІІ, Наука и Изкуство, София, 1972,ст 410-412
6. Orbini Mavro: Kraljevstvo Slavena; Prevela Snežana Husić; POVIJEST HRNATSKIH POLITIČKIH IDEJA; Golden marketing, Zagreb, Narodne Novine, Zagreb, 1999, p 463
7. Атанасов Георги: Добруджанското Деспотство – Към Политическата, Църковната, Стопанската и Културна История на Добруджа през ХV век, Фабер, Велико Търново, 2009, ст 261-264
8. https://primrosia.co.uk/ken-luckhurst/sgraffito.php
9. www.bulgariatravel.org