CEO of Balkan Heritage Foundation, Bulgaria and Chair of Bulgarіan-Amerісan Commіѕѕіon for the Preѕervatіon of Bulgarіa’ѕ Cultural Herіtage. Adjunct professor, New Bulgarian University. Area of research expertise and interest: Medieval Balkans, ecclesiastic architecture in late medieval Balkans (1200s-1600s), field archaeology, training for archaeologists and conservators, field schools.
THE BALKAN HERITAGE FIELD SCHOOL AT TELL YUNATSITE:
A POSITIVE CRM PRACTICE FROM BULGARIA
Balkan... more THE BALKAN HERITAGE FIELD SCHOOL AT TELL YUNATSITE: A POSITIVE CRM PRACTICE FROM BULGARIA
Balkan Heritage Field School (BHFS) is a program of the Balkan Heritage Foundation (BHF), Bulgaria since 2008 intended for education in the field of archaeology and heritage conservation. It is affiliated with ongoing research and conservation projects in the Balkans and several academic institutions. The Program enables students, volunteers and junior specialists to obtain valuable hands on and intercultural experience and knowledge.
In 2013 the BHF together with the archaeological team of Tell Yunatsite and the Regional Museum of History Pazardzhik, Bulgaria launched the first international archaeological field school at the site in tandem with the archaeological excavations. The field school became part of a larger cultural resource management program combining education, research and preservation following the BHFS model for sustainable collaboration and solidarity in benefit of cultural heritage developed in the previous years. The paper discusses the key to its success. Between 2013 and 2019 forty seven students from nine countries attended the field school. The field school outreach went beyond education. The synergy of different stake-holders: students, museums, scientists, NGOs allowed the Foundation to provide funding and external expertise to the research, to promote the site worldwide and launch a strategy for its preservation and presentation.
Presentation (in Bulgarian) of the results of the non-destructive archaeological investigation of... more Presentation (in Bulgarian) of the results of the non-destructive archaeological investigation of late medieval ruined church dedicated to St. Petka in Balsha (Bulgaria) at the annual reporting sessions of Bulgarian archaeological community at the National Archaeological Institute with Museum, BAS. The paper was presented twice: first, during the Session for Medieval Archaeology on 7.03.2018 and second during the Session for Interdisciplinary Studies on 10.03.2018.
The report and the poster were presented on the 2nd International Meeting for Conservation & Docu... more The report and the poster were presented on the 2nd International Meeting for Conservation & Documentation of Ecclesiastical Artefacts, which held place in the Technological Educational Institute of Ionian Islands, Department of Environmental Technology - Conservation of Cultural Heritage at Zakynthos (Greece), 14-15 December, 2016. The report was part of the afternoon session of the 14 December.
The poster was presented on the 36 th Symposium on Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art and Archaeolo... more The poster was presented on the 36 th Symposium on Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art and Archaeology, which held place in the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens (20-22 May 2016). The poster was part of the morning session of the 22 May. The interest in the topic was significant and the authors, advised by other participants, consider future publication in the The Deltion of the Christian Archaeological Society Journal.
This article presents the outcomes of the observation and non-destructive survey of the semi-ruin... more This article presents the outcomes of the observation and non-destructive survey of the semi-ruined late-medieval church of St. Petka in the village of Balsha, Bulgaria. Making use of contemporary photographic techniques, the examination allowed the authors to further and deepen the available information on the architecture and wall paintings of the church, while the analysis of the collected data led to reevaluation of the arguments supporting its dating.
АРХЕОЛОГИЧЕСКИ ОТКРИТИЯ И РАЗКОПКИ ПРЕЗ 2017 Г./ ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES AND EXCAVATIONS IN 2017, May 22, 2018
The ruined single-nave, barrel-vaulted church of St. Petka in the village of Balsha (25 km north ... more The ruined single-nave, barrel-vaulted church of St. Petka in the village of Balsha (25 km north of Sofia) is a cultural monument with national importance. In 2017 Dr. A. Angelov, I. Vasilev (co-directors), M. Raykovska (deputy director) and Dr. George Bevan (consultant) conducted non-destructive research and recorded the church’s architecture, wall-paintings, graffiti and the preserved burial crosses around it. They employed conventional architecture scale-drawing, digital photography, photogrammetry, Reflectance Transformation Imaging and color decorrelation, thus creating a contemporary documentation database. Observations and in-depth analysis suggest revision of some common facts about this monument. The construction and decoration of the church can be dated to the late 16th century; originally the monument had ceramic tile flooring and lead roofing, the wall-paintings are most probably a product of Sofia workshop transmitting Cretan-Athonite icon-painting style to broader areas in Central Balkans. The paper is published in Bulgarian. There is a short summary in English.
With the advent of high resolution digital cameras and fast, multi-core computers in the early 20... more With the advent of high resolution digital cameras and fast, multi-core computers in the early 2000s, Digital Photogrammetry has rapidly become a standard documentation technique in Archaeology and Architecture. Combining high-accuracy, low-cost and relative ease of use, digital photogrammetry seamlessly fuses photo-realistic texture with 3D geometry in a way difficult to accomplish with competing 3D techniques, such as LiDAR. This image-based 3D workflow also lends itself, uniquely, to the integration with other computational photographic techniques. Here presented is the case of the digital documentation of the partially ruined 16th century Church of St. Petka, located in the village of Balsha in the Stolichna Municipality of Bulgaria. In addition to the production of a full photogrammetric model of the entire church, both inside and outside, the 2014 field campaign undertook to record difficult-to-read graffiti on the surface of the interior frescos using the surface normal fields generated by Reflectance Transformation Imaging, and to improve the contrast on the oldest, faded frescos using colour-decorrelation via the DStretch plug-in for ImageJ. Demonstrated is the integration of these three computational photographic techniques – photogrammetry, RTI and colour decorrelation – in industry-standard 3D modelling software. The resulting model allows the virtual exploration of 2D surface investigations at a small scale in the context of a dimensionally accurate architectural textured model of the entire structure.
THE BALKAN HERITAGE FIELD SCHOOL AT TELL YUNATSITE:
A POSITIVE CRM PRACTICE FROM BULGARIA
Balkan... more THE BALKAN HERITAGE FIELD SCHOOL AT TELL YUNATSITE: A POSITIVE CRM PRACTICE FROM BULGARIA
Balkan Heritage Field School (BHFS) is a program of the Balkan Heritage Foundation (BHF), Bulgaria since 2008 intended for education in the field of archaeology and heritage conservation. It is affiliated with ongoing research and conservation projects in the Balkans and several academic institutions. The Program enables students, volunteers and junior specialists to obtain valuable hands on and intercultural experience and knowledge.
In 2013 the BHF together with the archaeological team of Tell Yunatsite and the Regional Museum of History Pazardzhik, Bulgaria launched the first international archaeological field school at the site in tandem with the archaeological excavations. The field school became part of a larger cultural resource management program combining education, research and preservation following the BHFS model for sustainable collaboration and solidarity in benefit of cultural heritage developed in the previous years. The paper discusses the key to its success. Between 2013 and 2019 forty seven students from nine countries attended the field school. The field school outreach went beyond education. The synergy of different stake-holders: students, museums, scientists, NGOs allowed the Foundation to provide funding and external expertise to the research, to promote the site worldwide and launch a strategy for its preservation and presentation.
Presentation (in Bulgarian) of the results of the non-destructive archaeological investigation of... more Presentation (in Bulgarian) of the results of the non-destructive archaeological investigation of late medieval ruined church dedicated to St. Petka in Balsha (Bulgaria) at the annual reporting sessions of Bulgarian archaeological community at the National Archaeological Institute with Museum, BAS. The paper was presented twice: first, during the Session for Medieval Archaeology on 7.03.2018 and second during the Session for Interdisciplinary Studies on 10.03.2018.
The report and the poster were presented on the 2nd International Meeting for Conservation & Docu... more The report and the poster were presented on the 2nd International Meeting for Conservation & Documentation of Ecclesiastical Artefacts, which held place in the Technological Educational Institute of Ionian Islands, Department of Environmental Technology - Conservation of Cultural Heritage at Zakynthos (Greece), 14-15 December, 2016. The report was part of the afternoon session of the 14 December.
The poster was presented on the 36 th Symposium on Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art and Archaeolo... more The poster was presented on the 36 th Symposium on Byzantine and Post-Byzantine Art and Archaeology, which held place in the Byzantine and Christian Museum in Athens (20-22 May 2016). The poster was part of the morning session of the 22 May. The interest in the topic was significant and the authors, advised by other participants, consider future publication in the The Deltion of the Christian Archaeological Society Journal.
This article presents the outcomes of the observation and non-destructive survey of the semi-ruin... more This article presents the outcomes of the observation and non-destructive survey of the semi-ruined late-medieval church of St. Petka in the village of Balsha, Bulgaria. Making use of contemporary photographic techniques, the examination allowed the authors to further and deepen the available information on the architecture and wall paintings of the church, while the analysis of the collected data led to reevaluation of the arguments supporting its dating.
АРХЕОЛОГИЧЕСКИ ОТКРИТИЯ И РАЗКОПКИ ПРЕЗ 2017 Г./ ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES AND EXCAVATIONS IN 2017, May 22, 2018
The ruined single-nave, barrel-vaulted church of St. Petka in the village of Balsha (25 km north ... more The ruined single-nave, barrel-vaulted church of St. Petka in the village of Balsha (25 km north of Sofia) is a cultural monument with national importance. In 2017 Dr. A. Angelov, I. Vasilev (co-directors), M. Raykovska (deputy director) and Dr. George Bevan (consultant) conducted non-destructive research and recorded the church’s architecture, wall-paintings, graffiti and the preserved burial crosses around it. They employed conventional architecture scale-drawing, digital photography, photogrammetry, Reflectance Transformation Imaging and color decorrelation, thus creating a contemporary documentation database. Observations and in-depth analysis suggest revision of some common facts about this monument. The construction and decoration of the church can be dated to the late 16th century; originally the monument had ceramic tile flooring and lead roofing, the wall-paintings are most probably a product of Sofia workshop transmitting Cretan-Athonite icon-painting style to broader areas in Central Balkans. The paper is published in Bulgarian. There is a short summary in English.
With the advent of high resolution digital cameras and fast, multi-core computers in the early 20... more With the advent of high resolution digital cameras and fast, multi-core computers in the early 2000s, Digital Photogrammetry has rapidly become a standard documentation technique in Archaeology and Architecture. Combining high-accuracy, low-cost and relative ease of use, digital photogrammetry seamlessly fuses photo-realistic texture with 3D geometry in a way difficult to accomplish with competing 3D techniques, such as LiDAR. This image-based 3D workflow also lends itself, uniquely, to the integration with other computational photographic techniques. Here presented is the case of the digital documentation of the partially ruined 16th century Church of St. Petka, located in the village of Balsha in the Stolichna Municipality of Bulgaria. In addition to the production of a full photogrammetric model of the entire church, both inside and outside, the 2014 field campaign undertook to record difficult-to-read graffiti on the surface of the interior frescos using the surface normal fields generated by Reflectance Transformation Imaging, and to improve the contrast on the oldest, faded frescos using colour-decorrelation via the DStretch plug-in for ImageJ. Demonstrated is the integration of these three computational photographic techniques – photogrammetry, RTI and colour decorrelation – in industry-standard 3D modelling software. The resulting model allows the virtual exploration of 2D surface investigations at a small scale in the context of a dimensionally accurate architectural textured model of the entire structure.
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A POSITIVE CRM PRACTICE FROM BULGARIA
Balkan Heritage Field School (BHFS) is a program of the Balkan Heritage
Foundation (BHF), Bulgaria since 2008 intended for education in the field of archaeology and heritage conservation. It is affiliated with ongoing research and conservation projects in the Balkans and several academic institutions. The Program enables students, volunteers and junior specialists to obtain valuable hands on and intercultural experience and knowledge.
In 2013 the BHF together with the archaeological team of Tell Yunatsite and the Regional Museum of History Pazardzhik, Bulgaria launched the first international archaeological field school at the site in tandem with the archaeological excavations. The field school became part of a larger cultural resource management program combining education, research and preservation following the BHFS model for sustainable collaboration and solidarity in benefit of cultural heritage developed in the previous years. The paper discusses the key to its success. Between 2013 and 2019 forty seven students from nine countries attended the field school. The field school outreach went beyond education. The synergy of different stake-holders: students, museums, scientists, NGOs allowed the Foundation to provide funding and external expertise to the research, to promote the site worldwide and launch a strategy for its preservation and presentation.
Free download of the entire book: http://series.naim.bg/index.php/ADE/issue/view/Archaeological%20Discoveries%20and%20Excavations%20for%202017/Archaeological%20Discoveries%20and%20Excavations%20for%202017
A POSITIVE CRM PRACTICE FROM BULGARIA
Balkan Heritage Field School (BHFS) is a program of the Balkan Heritage
Foundation (BHF), Bulgaria since 2008 intended for education in the field of archaeology and heritage conservation. It is affiliated with ongoing research and conservation projects in the Balkans and several academic institutions. The Program enables students, volunteers and junior specialists to obtain valuable hands on and intercultural experience and knowledge.
In 2013 the BHF together with the archaeological team of Tell Yunatsite and the Regional Museum of History Pazardzhik, Bulgaria launched the first international archaeological field school at the site in tandem with the archaeological excavations. The field school became part of a larger cultural resource management program combining education, research and preservation following the BHFS model for sustainable collaboration and solidarity in benefit of cultural heritage developed in the previous years. The paper discusses the key to its success. Between 2013 and 2019 forty seven students from nine countries attended the field school. The field school outreach went beyond education. The synergy of different stake-holders: students, museums, scientists, NGOs allowed the Foundation to provide funding and external expertise to the research, to promote the site worldwide and launch a strategy for its preservation and presentation.
Free download of the entire book: http://series.naim.bg/index.php/ADE/issue/view/Archaeological%20Discoveries%20and%20Excavations%20for%202017/Archaeological%20Discoveries%20and%20Excavations%20for%202017