Bulgaria Discovery Sheds Light on Ancient Thracians

[Faísca]

Archaeologists have unearthed a treasure of gold and silver in a Thracian tomb in Bulgaria, calling it a unique find from classical antiquity.

The artifacts belonged to the ancient Thracians, who lived in what are now parts of Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Turkey and Greece, and are thought to date to the 5th century BC, said archaeologist Georgi Kitov on Tuesday.

Kitov and his team came across a chamber in a large tomb in the Valley of Thracian Kings in southern Bulgaria. It was filled with gold, silver and bronze jewels as well as crafted ceramics, including three big wine amphoras.

"Some of the gold jewels have engraved images unknown in Thracian art - a deer head with strong horns, a raging lion and black people with palm trees," he told reporters.

"We did not have enough time to study the finds, but the first impression is amazing. Unfortunately we could not taste the wine in the amphoras, as it has evaporated with time," he said at the site, guarded by the police to avoid looting.

Since 2000, archaeologists have sought to shed light on the little-known Thracian culture, among the oldest in Europe.

Recent finds, such as a solid golden mask and a bronze head found by Kitov's team this summer at two of Bulgaria's 19,000 Thracian tombs, showed they had a highly developed culture with a refined taste.

The Thracians left no written account of their customs so archaeological finds are the only window to their world.


[Source]

[Awar]

Umm, those images remind me more of Scythian and Sarmatian symbols. They always used the deers and lions.

I think the border between Thracians, Iranians and Slavs was really fluent, so, anything along those lines doesn't surprise me. The only thing that surprises me is the
idiocy of the real educated historians and archeologists who seem to understand the
ancient peoples in terms of today's nations, not in the proper context in which they lived.

[Bulair]

These are the two most spectacular finds:

The bronze head really is a masterpiece.This is believed to be the head of Zeus or some other ancient god.



This is supposed to be the mask of an ancient Thracian ruler, who still remains unknown.

[Zrinski]

Very interesting...that golden mask looks familiar...isn't there a similar maks found in some Greek or Iranian tomb?

[Bulair]

Originally Posted by Zrinski

Very interesting...that golden mask looks familiar...isn't there a similar maks found in some Greek or Iranian tomb?

Well the only other similar find is the mask found in Mycena (believed to be Agamenom's mask):

[Awar]

troy I think

[Zrinski]

Yes thats it. Very interesting...

[Menydh]

I wonder why we made a forum for Archeology.

Hi V.O.

[Faísca]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

I wonder why we made a forum for Archeology.

Hi V.O.

Ooops, my bad. Hey I found this in a news site so bear with me... Will move it now anyway.

[Nerthus]

Agamemnon's mask isn't actually Agamemnon's, the tombs where it was found are apparently dated a few centuries before the Trojan war took place. The name has been kept though.

[Antiquarian]

Originally Posted by Awar

troy I think

No, it was Mycenae.

[Awar]

I stand corrected.

[Antiquarian]

Originally Posted by Awar

I think the border between Thracians, Iranians and Slavs was really fluent, so, anything along those lines doesn't surprise me.

Though the linguistic relationships of Thracian within Indo-European arent known its suggested that they migrated from the north. So it would make sense if Thracians were fluid with the other two groups.

[Reltih]

Originally Posted by Bulair

These are the two most spectacular finds:

The bronze head really is a masterpiece.This is believed to be the head of Zeus or some other ancient god.

Not Zeus, nor God, since his features are too realistic, thracologists said. Unidentified yet thracian ruler, most probably Sevt III.

[Bulair]

Every thracian piece of art has realistic features, they probably used models.

By the way, that is quite a nordic looking fellow.

[Awar]

What's so nordic about him? He looks like a man with a huge beard and bushy eyebrows.

[Bulair]

On second thought he is indeed a regular man with huge beard.

My first impression was that he was nordic, don't want to sound Kemp-like, but thats how I imagine Thracians - tall and quite fair.Some even suggest that people in the Rhodopes in Greece and Bulgaria are remnants of the ancient Thracians, they are mostly muslim now, but are known with their high stature and light hair/eye color.

[Awar]

If they're not dolichocephalic, then, it's impossible to call them nordic.

[Vojvoda]

No! They were Nordic and ancestors of the Svvedes!

http://www.osterholm.info/thracian.html

Herodotus (425 BC Greek historian) wrote: "The Thracian people are the most numerous of the world; the Thracians have several names, according to their specific regions, but their habits are more or less the same...and only their chronic disunity prevented them from being the most powerful of all nations."

Interesting,sounds like us Slavs...