Bulgaria’s Amazing History

[Steve Herschbach]

No wonder metal the place is a hotbed of metal detector development!

“The world's oldest known gold artifacts, a couple of 6000-year-old goat figures with holes punched in them, were not found in Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley or Egypt, they were discovered in 1972 in a grave by a tractor operator laying some electric cable in northeastern Bulgaria. [Source: Colin Renfrew, National Geographic, July 1980] The largest golden goat was about two-and-a-inches long. It was discovered along with about 2,000 other gold pieces (weighing more that 12 pounds) in 250 excavated graves in an ancient cemetery near the Black Sea town of Varna. The pieces included golden necklaces, breastplates, chains, bracelets, earrings, a hammer, and a bowl painted in gold. The find was shocking. Most cultures still used stone tools in this period, a few had developed copper axes and awls, and the development was bronze was a thousand years away, and iron two thousand years. The gold pieces date back to at least 4000 B.C., and they may go as far back as 4600 B.C.”

“The first residents of Bulgaria to be recorded in the written historical record were Thracians who are believed to have been around since at least 3000 B.C. according to the archaeological record. The Thacians had no written language so all that we know about them is inferred from Greek or Roman accounts or the archeological excavations. A mound discovered near Varna, dated to 1000 B.C., contained a four wheeled chariot and the skeletons of three horses, one with silver bit and harness. Next to them was the skeleton of a woman with a spear in her chest that may have been a human sacrifice. Another grave contained a 30-year-old man with 70 bronze arrows and silver and gold armor, and a an 18-year-old woman with a golden crown and knife blade lodged in here ribs.”

“On a wooden chest containing two different sets of gold treasure left behind by the Getae, a Thracian tribe at the largest mound at the Sboryanovo Historical and Archaeological Reserve in northeastern Bulgaria, Svetla Dimitrova wrote in se times.com: “Weighing more than 1.8kg, the treasure was from the late 4th or early 3rd century B.C., buried as part of the funeral of a Getic ruler, archeologist Diana Gergova said. We found the chest in a vesicle at a depth of 8 metres … Inside were two sets of gold objects. The first was a set of women’s jewelry, including a unique tiara of a type never found before. There were also four spiral bracelets and a ring with an incredible haut-relief image of a lion,” Gergova told SETimes. The other set comprised an iron bridle and a number of gold items the bridle was decorated with, including horse harness decorations and buttons, as well as two large round pieces with the image of the goddess Athena and an exquisite forehead piece with a horse head.” [Source: Svetla Dimitrova, se times.com. January 18, 2013]”

Much more at https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub362/entry-6012.html, well worth the read.

[Tom_in_CA]

Interesting.  Thanx for posting.

 

Ok, who's up for a road trip ?  🤪

[JCR]

You might want to take a boat along too.

And an extra paddle. You never know.

[Cal_Cobra]

It's no joke in central and eastern Europe, takes treasure hunting to an entirely different level 👍

Years ago I spent two summers in the Czech Republic doing historical research (not metal detecting related).  One weekend we had an appointment to visit a curator at a museum that so happened to be in the town center of the town the museum was located in.   I had only been detecting for a year or two at this time.  Imagine my surprise when the road that traveled up the old town directly to the front gates of the castle was all tore out!!  There were literately layer upon layer of cobblestone streets upon each other, with massive dirt piles lining the sides of the road where the construction project was taking place. 

My heart sank knowing I couldn't detect those piles, I can only image the old coins and relics that were in those dirt piles.

Always bring your detector.

[Matt4gold]

That’s going way back and humans still can’t come together.  Some things never change.  Mans desire for gold has been around for a very long time. 

[MSC]

Incredible finds as well as incredible archaeological information. There have been many recent finds around the world that shows there is still much to learn about the past.