Некрополът при Макак

The Necropolis at Makak

Abstract

The necropolis at Makak, Shumen municipality, was excavated in two stages in 2012-2013 in connection with the construction of the Hemus motorway. It was found that there are two types of structures on the site - the western part includes a large Muslim necropolis, and the eastern part is occupied by structures with the character of a settlement. The number of graves with inhumations that are the subject of the investigation is 778.

The necropolis under investigation was used for the needs of a population that professed unorthodox Islam. In this case, it is the largest Muslim necropolis investigated on the Balkan Peninsula. The important and extensive information it provides in terms of the grave structures, the location of the skeletons and the secondary cultural disturbances becomes particularly clear when compared with the other archaeological studies of Muslim necropolises that have been carried out so far on the territory of Bulgaria.

The demographic characteristics of the studied series of bone remains show the peculiarities of the population that developed in the pre-industrial period. The characteristic trends of the prevalence of the pathological changes of the period for the population of the Balkan Peninsula and the border areas with the Central European countries have been established. On the basis of numerous signs of congenital diseases, the question of a possible closed structure of reproductive relations of the population inhabiting the village of Makak is raised.

The unorthodox Muslim burial rite of the 15th-17th centuries is socially motivated, conservative in its basis and to some extent has a protective, precautionary function. Probably as a result of numerous migrations, abandonment of settlements and creation of new ones, elements of the rites of one group were brought into the reach of another, just as elements of Christian funeral rites were brought in. The exceptions found in the Maqaq necropolis from Muslim burial practice are significant and distinct, indicating on the one hand the unorthodox nature of the Islam professed, and on the other suggesting a certain proximity of the settlement's inhabitants to the existing nearby Christian population of the site.

On the basis of the studied components included in the composition of the funerary rite and the customs practiced during the era, a general pattern of the Muslim necropolises of the early centuries of Ottoman rule is outlined.