Archaeological museum

Main Hall
Nessebur, located on a small rocky peninsula, is one of the most picturesque towns along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, while its thousand-year old history and numerous cultural monuments are the reason for its taking a very special place in both Bulgarian and European science and culture. The town of Nessebur was established at the end of 2 000 B.C. by the Thracians. Greek colonizers turned it into a Greek Polis (a city-state) at the end of 6th c. B.C.; Rome joined it to the Empire in 1st c. B.C.; and A.D. 4th c. saw Nessebur within the frontiers of Byzantium. Nessebur, conquered by the Bulgarians in 812, reached its new zenith between the 13 and 15th centuries. Together with Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, fell under the reign of the Osman Turks in 1453. In 1878 Nessebur welcomed the Russian liberation troops.
The archaeological study of the Nessebur peninsula and its aquatory done during the last four decades revealed rich collections of significant cultural monuments illustrating the history of ancient Messambria and medieval Nessebur. A large part of them are present exhibits in the new Nessebur archaeological museum. The museum exhibition area includes a foyer and four halls. The UNESCO Diploma, certifying the Ancient Nessebur registration on the world cultural heritage list in 1983, can be seen in the foyer.

Hall one - Messambria and the Thracians
The name of the town sounded different in the languages spoken by its population. Thracians and Greeks pronounced it as Messambria. Strabo, the Greek geographer, wrote, "Next comes Messam-bria, a Megara colony, earlier called Melsambria, i.e., 'the town of Melsa', for its founder was called Melsa, and the Thracian for 'town' is "bria". The Romans and Bysantines called the town 'Messembria' but they did not forget its Thracian founder. The epitaph of Roman Julia read," ...My homeland is Messambria, of Melsa and bria...". In the Middle Ages the Bulgarian inhabitants called the city "Nessebur".
A large number of stone anchors dated to 12th c. B.C. and demonstrating energetic seafaring in those early times were found in the aquatory of the two town ports. The greyish black pottery with decorations engraved and embossed, and dated to 9 -6 th c. B.C., make up the greatest part of the everyday life remains left by Ancient Thracians.
A most important inscription - decree in honour of Thracian leader Sadala, dated to 3rd century B.C., was found in Messambria. This monument supplied rich information concerning the relations between the Greek polis and neighbouring Thracians. The silver coin treasure (tetradrachmae) exhibited, where the Thracian imitations of Tassos tetradrachmae are prevalent, too, added to the knowledge of the role played by the local Thracian population in the political and economic life of the town between II nd - I st c. B.C.

Hall two - Messambria, the pontic polis
After the peninsula was colonized by settlers coming from the town of Megara and its colonies Byzantium and Calchedon at the end of 6th c. B.C., Pontic Messambria became polis of a Greek type closely connected to the way of life and culture of the peoples inhabiting the coastal areas of the Mediterranean, the Sea of Marmora and the Black Sea. Numerous monuments dated to 6-2 nd c. B.C. serve as an illustrative picture of the large trade connections, the spiritual and cultural life as well as artistic crafts flourishing in this small Thracian coastal town.
Messambria was governed by a council elected by national assembly. The council resolutions (decrees) engraved on marble were exposed in the central temple of the town, the Apollo temple. Messambria was the place where a number of memorial decrees in honour of notable persons and their noble deeds were found referring to the tutor from Calathus, Glaucus the medical doctor, the goddess; Demeter priestess, etc.
The marble votive tablets found at the foot of the Zeus temple are unique monuments demonstrating the administrative life of Messambria during 2nd c. B.C. Upon the embossed margins of these sculptural monuments there are pictures of the town magistrates; attending a solemn ceremony in honour of Melsa of the hero Sozipolis, etc.
The Messambrian sculptors have left numerous works of sepulchral and religious plastic arts.
There are life scenes of Messambrians depicted on the gravestones, e.g., Matroy, wife f Tyndareus; Calicrete, daughter of Hyparch; Menis, son of Atanayon; dancing Agazyclea, daughter of Noah, etc. Four unusually rare bronze vessels, the so called "hydryas'' were found in the Messambrian necropolis. The two hydryas exhibited used as funeral urns are decorated each below its vertical handles with an application based on Greek mythology. The Messambrians decorated their houses with statuettes of baked clay, the so called terracottas: idols, smart ladies, graceful girls. A great number of them were imported while some moulds found there witnessed to a local produce as well.
The religious life of Messambrians was marked by richness and diversity. Interest was roused by the remnant of the colossal statue of Apollo; the torso of the Heracles statue; the magnificent statue of Tyche, the goddess of chance (4th c. B.C.); etc. It is in Nessebur where the richest collection of ceramic architectural ornaments for Hellenistic houses was opened and exhibited: cymae, antefixa, frontal tiles with plastic decoration. Among the funeral gifts in Messambrian tombs some exquisitely made gold jewellery could be seen, such as hooks, fasteners, earrings, rings, necklaces, etc., part of which were made in the local jeweller's work.
As an independent polis, Messambria minted coins as early as 5th c. B.C. Gold, silver and bronze coins of several basic types were found there. Corinth helmet with a mane, the Messambrian symbol, was depicted on the face of the most widely spread coins while on the re-verse side there was a wheel equipped with spokes together with the initial letters of the town of Messa. The best image of Messambria trade connections during 6-2nd c. B.C. can be given by the imported pottery, such as blackfirn craters, kylikes, ascos, lamps, embossed bowls, the so called 'Megara cups', as well as the large number of amphorae and amphora seals found in the land and the aquatory of the peninsula.

Hall Three - Messembria with in the limits of Rome, Byzantium and Bulgaria
Messembria continued trading, minting coins, developing local crafts during the Roman reign. The pottery covered with red varnish, the marble funeral gravestones and the votive reliefs of Hercules and the Thracian Horseman are all dated back to this epoch. Another monument of interest is the marble pedestal for a bronze statue of Claudius I (A.D. 41-54) placed there by Gneus, son of Gneus, the town gymnasiarch.
After the division of the Roman Empire in A. D. 395, Messembria remained within its Eastern part. The town acquired growing significance as a strategic, economic and cultural centre in close connection to the Byzantine capital Constantinople. Massive defences and vast Christian basilicas were built. Sealed bricks bearing the names of Constan-tine and Justinian were made in the brickworks of the Byzantine capital. Marble foundations, columns, capitals of various kinds, parts of altar partitions as well as other elements belonging to the internal plastic decoration of the buildings were made and imported from the isle of Prokonissos in the Sea of Marmara.
With the establishment of the Bulgarian State in 7th century, Messembria turned into a significant military fortress of the Byzantine Empire against her new neighbour. It was not earlier than 812 that the town was conquered by Bulgarian Khan Kroum and included within the First Bulgarian State. The pottery made of grey clay are the material vestiges left by the first Bulgarian inhabitants of the peninsula.
The collection of am phorae and white-clay glazed vessels exhibited in the hall funish proofs as to the continuous trade connections between Nessebur and Constaninople and.other trade centres in 9-12th centuries. Nessebur enjoyed its great flourishing under the reign of Bulgarian kings Ivan Assen II, Todor Svetoslav, and particularly, under the reign of Ivan Alexander. The magni-ficent examples of medieval churches as well as the rich archaeological material offer a brilliant illustration of both the welfare and cultural advance of medieval Nessebur in 13-14th centuries. Arts and crafts flourished. Sculptors, icon-painters and potters worked in the town and its neighbourhood. The architectural elements with plastic ornaments used in the external and internal decoration of the temples were produced in the Nessebur sculptural ateliers. During the last decade of the Byzantine Empire Nessebur was the place where the representatives of well-known imperial families resided. The tombstone of Byzantine Princess Mattaissa Kantakhouzina Paleologuina deceased in 1441, was dated back to this period.

Hall four - Icons
A collection of Nessebur icons, brilliant examples of Bulgarian iconography dated to 13-19th centuries, is exhibited in the hall. These icons decorated the iconostases of the numerous Nessebur churches. The icons below are referred to the royal row of the iconostasis: the Virgin Mary under various names (Gracious, Protectress, etc.), St. Dimitar, St. Elephteri, Christ Pantokra-tor, Christo Archbishop. To the festive row of the iconostasis are referred : the Assumption, Christmas, the Ascension, and other saints and prophets. Also exhibited are: royal gates, episcopal throne, choirbook, and other church furniture as well as icons with a silver repousse cover.