THE 'BULGARIAN GRAVES' REVISITED - FUNERARY FORMS AND RITUALS AND THE NARRATIVES OF THE MEDIEVAL BALKANS

Abstract

The narratives of the medieval history of the Balkans represent an important link between the antiquity and modernity, not just for that region, but also in a more global scale. The Balkans, that important 'crossroad of civilizations' would be situated during the Medieval centuries in the 'cultural geography' between the 'fountain of wisdom' Byzantium and the world that is to become the 'West' of the modernity. This transforms the  narratives, the material culture and the constant reconceptualizations of the region, into an important quest for the equilibrium of the East and West, and the understanding of the self and other of the contemporary researchers and audiences.