THE HELLENISTIC BIG ROCK HUMAN HEAD FROM BULGARIA
THE HELLENISTIC BIG ROCK HUMAN HEAD FROM BULGARIA

Summary/Abstract: The subject of this paper is the impressive in its size rock image of ahuman head from the rock sanctuary located in the area Gradishteto, near themodern village of Dolno Dryanovo, Blagoevgrad region, Bulgaria. The place inthat area is defined as a prehistoric and Thracian rock sanctuary and one ofthe oldest megalithic sanctuaries in Southeastern Europe. The attention hereis focused only to the big rock head from the sanctuary of Dolno Dryanovoand an attempt is made to identify this remarkable image as well as its dating,and also to answer the question – who exactly has ordered making it to thisplace. According to the detailed observations of the magnificent rock portraitimage and having used the most suitable parallels, including gold and silvercoins, as well as two marble portrait images and one made of a black basalt,kept respectively in three major world museums, the conclusion was formed,that the big rock human head from Bulgaria in fact is a magnificent portraitimage of Ptolemy I Lagos, king of Hellenistic Egypt. According to the author ofthe paper here, this quite large in size and majestic rock portrait of the king ofHellenistic Egypt, Ptolemy I, was made in the lands of ancient Thrace by orderof the king of the Celtic/Galatian kingdom in Thrace, Kavaros. Because it wasalready found that the king Kavaros was the grandson of Ptolemy I on the sideof his mother. It was made around the middle of the 3rd c. BC as an apotheosisof the king of Egypt. Only in this historical context can be explained makingthis grandiose rock portrait image of Ptolemy I in the lands of ancient Thrace– now in present-day Bulgaria. In fact, this is the greatest portrait image of thedeified king Ptolemy I Soter, ever seen in the world.

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