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Bulgaria unearths huge hoard of gold Bulgaria

Submitted by coldrum on Saturday, 20 August 2005  Page Views: 15184

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Country: Bulgaria
Dubene Cemetery
Dubene Cemetery submitted by lnikolova : The newly discovered golden adornments from Dubene-cemetery, Karlovo District (Bulgaria). Third millennium BC. (Vote or comment on this photo)
A 4,200-year-old hoard of gold, comparable to the fabulous treasures of Troy, has been found in Bulgaria to the delight of archaeologists desperate to beat looters to tombs in the former communist country.


The miniature pieces were unearthed in an ancient tomb in Dabene, 75 miles east of the capital, Sofia. The objects, including around 15,000 ornate golden rings, may have been made by a race predating the ancient Thracians.

Scholars have described the objects as the oldest ever found in Bulgaria.

Bulgarian archaeologists said the find matched the magnificent trove of jewels, bracelets, golden diadems, rings, and cups unearthed at Troy in 1873 by the retired German merchant Heinrich Schliemann.
"This treasure is a bit older than Schliemann's finds in Troy and contains many more golden ornaments," said Vasil Nikolov, director of the Bulgarian Archaeological Institute, who oversaw the dig.

Prof Nikolov said the finds had been gradually unearthed over the past year.

More on this in The Guardian and click on our Bulgaria link above for similar finds.
Contributor Bio for coldrum: Based in Milkyway, contributing since 2002. Favourite site: Avebury.

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"Bulgaria unearths huge hoard of gold" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Bulgaria fights to save its golden past from the curse of the gangsters by coldrum on Tuesday, 16 January 2007
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Luck is only sometimes on the side of Bulgaria's archaeologists, as they race gangsters to unearth the treasure of the ancient Thracians.

It was with Daniela Agre last month when she came across a Black Sea hotel owner flattening a 2,000-year-old burial mound and found a horde of gold and silver jewellery that she thinks belonged to a Thracian priestess. Another archaeologist was served in a remote rural shop by a woman wearing a string of 5,000-year-old gold beads, found by her husband in sunflower fields where a large Thracian treasure trove was later discovered.

Famed for their ferocity and horsemanship, the Thracians - who lived between modern-day Ukraine and Turkey - were long considered a barbarian race whose greatest contribution to history was Spartacus, the slave who rebelled against Rome. But just as a series of spectacular finds is deepening their understanding, academics fear the violent mafia that has dogged Bulgaria's bid to join the European Union are beating them to vital pieces of the historical jigsaw.

Gavrail Lazov, head of archaeology at Bulgaria's National History Museum, is celebrating another remarkable find while lamenting his country's failure to crush crime. Last month, his colleagues unearthed 20,000 Thracian ornaments, one a dagger made of platinum and gold.

'It is 5,000 years old and still so sharp a man could shave with it. Perhaps it belonged to a king, but it is too early to be sure,' Lazov said.


observer.guardian.
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Re: Bulgaria unearths huge hoard of gold by lnikolova on Monday, 22 August 2005
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The oldest golden objects in Bulgaria and in the world come from later 5th millennium cal BCE, most popular of which are those from the Varna cemetery. We know them even from tells (multilevel settlements) such as Hotnitsa tell in Northern Central Bulgaria. In the third millennium cal BCE in the Bulgarian lands there is a second period of distribution of golden adornments, this time together with silver objects. Dubene golden ornaments are neither bigger nor older than Troy's finds in light of recent evidence. It is not a huge hoard but the newly discovered cemetery is very essential for European prehistory since had confirmed many already well defined theses in historiography and updated them. For instance: 1. During the third millennium Thrace was a flourishing region in close contacts with Troy (I-III) and northwestern Balkans. 2. In Western Thrace developed a leading cultural center known as Yunatsite culture and there was a chiefdom or chiefdoms. 3. The tell of Dubene-Sarovka to which the cemetery belongs was a central place. 4. Since Dubene was a center of production of bronze objects including a lead fledge axe, the golden objects could be a result of exchange or even local production, but we do not have a detailed publication of the newly discovered finds for more comprehensive interpretations. For the first time it was also discovered a cremation tumuli cemetery in Thrace that connect the population with the rituals from Western Balkans and Central Europe and confirmed two theses: first, cremation was distributed in the Balkans from west and the tumuli have in the Balkans different origin - some of them are connected with the Steppe nomadic tribes while other (coming with cremation) have Central European origin. The tumuli are very small (c. 6 m in diameter according to preliminary information) and almost invisible (abt 0.50 m high). Unfortunately, the cemetery of Dubene being discovered by local people, has been excavated by non-professionals in Early Brozne Age cemeteries seeking obviously for sensations and popularity instead being tight to the science. On top of everything, instead of bringing the finds in the City Museum of History, Karlovo which is abt 7 km from the site and where have been curated all material from the settlement, the golden objects were looted to Sofia National Museum without the knowledge even of the local cultural leaders trying to keep all discoveries in secrets (this is in 21st century guys!). But after enormous fight of Karlovo valley community and their supporters, finally we know a little bit. We believe soon the finds will be back to the Karlovo Museum as well. Dubene-Balinov Gorum cemetery is really very important for Balkan and Indo-European Prehistory, but only in the context of the already known discoveries in Thrace and especially in connection with the village located in abt 200 m from the cemetery. More at http://www.iianthropology.org
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