The project “Thrace and Egypt in the Greco-Roman World” appeared at the Institute for Balkan Studies with Center of Thracology “Prof. Al. Fol ”at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences *IBCT-BAS) in 2017 under the leadership of Assistant Professor Dr. Vessela Atanasova, but not without the valuable support of Prof. Valeria Fol, Prof. Sergei Ignatov and Prof. Vanya Lozanova-Stancheva. Due to its interdisciplinary nature, it successfully brought together scientists from various scientific disciplines. Of great importance for its launch was the long-term experience of the IBCT-BAS in the management of various international and national projects. The authority of the scientists working at the Institute turns them into high-level experts, cooperating closely with many Bulgarian state institutions and leading scientific organizations worldwide. For this reason two foreign specialists in the relevant field were quickly involved in our project: Prof. Laurent Bricault, a specialist in the field of “The Isiac cults in the Greco-Roman World” and Prof. Thomas Faucher – a numismatist and one of the leaders of the excavations in the Eastern Desert of Egypt.

  Prof. Laurent Bricault in RHM-Sofia Prof. Tomas Faucher at the New Bulgarian University

Prof. Vladimir Marinov at the New Bulgarian University

     In 2020, the team of the project was formed with under the leadership of Assistant Professor Dr. Vessela Atanasova, the PhD student at IBCT-BAS Stefan Yanakiev and Victoria Videvska, student at the Plovdiv University. Funding was obtained from the National Research Fund for the elaboration of the first direction of the project – “Egyptian Cults in Thrace during the Hellenistic and Roman Periods – Distribution, Impact and Interaction”, which began the systematic collection of monuments with Egyptian influence from the territory of ancient Thrace. The team aims to visit museums in Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey and Romania and to register, photograph and study all of the monuments with Egyptian influence.