The first underwater archaeological research in Bulgaria was carried out in 1959, led by Professor Ivan Galabov, with the help of amateur divers. The first qualified archaeologist-diver in Bulgaria was Lyuba Ognenova-Marinkova, who conducted her first underwater archaeological expedition just two years later – in 1961 – uncovering the submerged fortification walls of Mesembria (Nesebar).
Bulgarian underwater archaeology would not be the same without the names of two other outstanding researchers – Goranka Toncheva, who explored prehistoric settlements in the Varna lakes and the Northern Black Sea coast, and Hristina Angelova, long-time director of the Bulgarian Centre for Underwater Archaeology.
LYUBA OGNENOVA-MARINKOVA (1922 – 2012)
Lyuba Ognenova was born in Ohrid into an intellectual family on 17 June 1922. She is one of those remarkable women about whom we know little, yet who changed the course of history in one way or another. She completed French primary school in Bitola and classical high school in Tirana, then studied classical philology with a focus on archaeology at Sofia University. She worked as a curator in Shumen and at the National Archaeological Institute with Museum in Sofia, and taught at Sofia University. In 1960, she was invited for a specialization at the French School in Athens – an exceptional event for a Bulgarian scholar at that time. She remained a member of the School, a corresponding member of the Archaeological Institute in West Germany, and of the International Association of Epigraphy.
Lyuba Ognenova was the first woman underwater archaeologist and diver in Bulgaria and one of the pioneer women in global underwater archaeology. She led the team conducting underwater research in Nesebar beginning in 1960. Until 1983, together with her team of volunteer divers from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and the UNESCO National Expedition Club, she conducted 15 expeditions, systematically investigating the underwater heritage of the ancient city. She uncovered the most impressive and monumental ancient archaeological site underwater on the western Black Sea coast – the sunken fortification system of Mesembria – remains of massive walls, towers, gates, stairways, and other structures dating from the Thracian pre-Greek period, the Classical and Hellenistic eras, Late Antiquity, and the Middle Ages. Her discoveries contributed significantly to the designation of Nesebar as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983.
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GORANKA TONCHEVA
(23 August 1922 – 24 September 2002)
Born in Shumen, Goranka Toncheva graduated in History from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski.” In 1957, she specialized in Athens and defended her doctoral dissertation titled “The Funerary Banquet Reliefs from Odessos and Its Surroundings.” From 1948 to 1969, she worked at the Archaeological Museum in Varna. She became a research associate in 1953, and from 1969 to 1972, worked at the Institute of History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS). From 1972 to 1982, she was a senior research fellow at the Institute of Thracology at BAS.
Goranka Toncheva was among the pioneers of underwater research in Bulgaria. She conducted long-term studies of submerged settlements in the Varna Lakes dating back to the Late Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age.
HRISTINA ANGELOVA
(1955 – 2016)
Born on April 29, 1955, in Burgas, Hristina Angelova graduated from an English language high school and later from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” with a degree in Classical Philology.
She joined the Centre for Underwater Archaeology (CUA) in 1981 and served as its director from 1988 until 2016. Thanks to her longstanding efforts, the Centre initiated and completed numerous significant and large-scale projects – including research under the Getica Program in Kavarna, Bulgaria’s first stratigraphic excavations of submerged settlements in the waters around Kiten, Sozopol, and Ropotamo, and the exploration of a medieval shipwreck in the southern Kiten Bay. She spearheaded numerous interdisciplinary studies along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast starting in the late 1980s, placing the Centre at the forefront of such initiatives. She also oversaw the surveying of Bulgaria’s maritime zone for the South Stream gas pipeline route, and initiated the underwater predictive modeling project – one of the few of its kind globally – which led to the world’s first bathymetric LiDAR scan used for archaeological purposes. Thanks to this innovation, the CUA was awarded by ESRI Bulgaria and took first place in the “Academia” category for applying airborne bathymetry and LiDAR data in archaeological research.
Hristina Angelova organized and hosted in Sozopol one of the largest international scientific forums in the field of underwater archaeology – Thrace-Pontica. Among the participants were some of the world’s most renowned underwater archaeology researchers, including George Bass, Honor Frost, Gerhard Kapitän, David French, Jan Bouzek, John Hind, Dimitrios Samsaris, and Roland Paskoff.
In 2001, Hristina Angelova saved the Centre for Underwater Archaeology (CUA) from closure by achieving what seemed impossible – ensuring that the UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage was acknowledged, adopted, and ratified into Bulgarian law. Thanks to her tireless efforts, to this day, all relevant legal and regulatory frameworks comply with underwater heritage standards, empowering the Centre to lead and implement the national policy for the protection of heritage across all Bulgarian aquatic zones. In practice, she carried the entire transformation of the Centre on her own shoulders over the years.
In 2015, she was part of the leadership of the Bulgarian team in the largest marine archaeological expedition ever conducted – the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project (Black Sea M.A.P.), funded by the Expedition and Education Foundation and carried out in collaboration with the Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Southampton (UK), the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, and the University of Connecticut (USA). The result of this project was the mapping and surveying of over 1,200 square kilometers of Bulgaria’s Black Sea waters, and the exploration of more than 60 shipwrecks from all historical periods. The oldest investigated ship lies at a depth of 1,700 meters and dates to the time of Ancient Greek colonization of the Black Sea in the 5th century BC. Two exceptionally well-preserved Roman-era ships from the 3rd–4th centuries AD were also discovered, along with a remarkably intact Early Byzantine ship found at a depth of 2,000 meters. The majority of the wrecks explored belong to the Ottoman period (17th–19th centuries).
On May 18, 2016, Hristina Angelova was awarded the “Golden Age” – Star by the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture for her outstanding contribution to Bulgarian culture.
After her passing in 2016, the University of Southampton (UK) established two full PhD scholarships for young Bulgarian researchers in her name.