next »

[Please Support Us!]

Please Support Us!

November Goal: $40.00
Due Date: Nov 30
Gross Amount: $25.00
PayPal Fees: $1.58
Net Balance: $23.42
Below Goal: $16.58
©

59% 

November Donations

7th Anonymous $20.00

5th Anonymous $5.00

TRAILBLAZERS
for students

ArchaeoFind
Archaeology News
Articles
Browse Attachments
Calendar
Downloads
Forum
Gallery
Links
Member Map
Our News Feeds
Submit Article
Tag Cloud
Video Channel

Odyssey Marine in the media
Trailblazers
Play Phaos
Chat
Trailblazers: Virtual Tours

[Bart]

Bulgaria's Perperikon - Metallurgical Centre 13 Centuries BC


 23 February 2007, Friday.

 Bulgarian archaeologists announce on Thursday they have made an incredible discovery in the Perperikon area, an ancient living region of Thracians.

   The archaeologists said last summer they discovered the missing link in Thracian's history. They have found evidence for the transition from the late Bronze epoch to the early Iron epoch.

   At the end of the Bronze epoch, as a result of cataclysms a global system is destroyed. Scientists call the system "East Mediterranean Civilization". After its end, there came the so called "dark ages" - a period, who until recent was a mystery for archaeologists.

   According to Associate Professor of ancient history Krassimir Leshtakov, during the "dark ages" Thracian tribes have lived peacefully, thus creating a highly developed civilization. Finally, the world can see the "fruits" of this civilization at Perperikon.

   The living area has been around 12 square kilometres, which is much more than the one of Troy for example,

   Archaeologists found many objects, such as mould for casting axes, bellows used in smelting industry, arrows, melting pots and pivots. All these objects prove that Perperikon has been a metallurgical centre 13 centuries BC.

   Specialists even talk about temple economy, which existed also in Crete and the Middle East. Thracians had games, typical of Egypt and Mesopotamia, which involved fortune telling and astronomy.

   The earliest traces of human civilisation discovered so far at Perperikon were dated to the late Neolithic Period, 6th-5th millennium BC.

   The ancient Thracian city of Perperikon is located in the Eastern Rhodopes, 15 km northeast of the present-day town of Kardzhali, on a 470 m high rocky hill. The city is called "The Sacred" because of te famous sanctuary and oracular shrine dedicated to Dionysus of the Bessi was situated there.

   A legend tells that Alexander the Great himself had sacrificed upon the altar of Dionysus.

http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=77114

[Solomon]

The Varna Eneolithic Gold Treasure

Fascinating story here, Bart.

Mediterranean Bronze Age: a brilliant period of human history. How it advanced into the Iron Age has been debated strongly throughout my lifetime and every so often a revelation offers a new insight.


The tombs of the rulers

Perperikon
The ancient Thracian city of Perperikon is located in the Eastern Rhodopes, 15 km northeast of the present-day town of Kardzhali, Bulgaria, on a 470 m high rocky hill, which is thought to have been a sacred place. The village of Gorna Krepost ("Upper Castle") is located at the foot of the hill and the gold-bearing Perpereshka River flows near it. Perperikon is the largest megalith ensemble in the Balkans.

It is thought that the famous sanctuary and oracular shrine dedicated to Dionysus of the Bessi was situated there.

History
Human activity in the area dates back to 5000 BCE. The first traces of civilization on the hill date from the Bronze Age, while the ceramics found on the place date from the Early Iron Age, as well as the impressive round altar, almost 2 m in diameter, hewn out of the rocks.

At the time of the Roman Empire, a giant multi-story palace was erected according to archeological evidence, and an imposing with its size fortress was built around the hill, with walls as thick as 2.8 m. Temples and quarters of residential buildings were also constructed in the fortress.

The megalith complex had been laid in ruins and re-erected many times in history.

Bessi
The Bessi were an independent Thracian tribe who lived in a territory ranging from Moesia to Mount Rhodope in southern Thrace, but are often mentioned as dwelling about Haemus, the mountain range that separates Moesia from Thrace. Herodotus described them as a sort of priestly-caste among the Satrae, the Bessi being interpreters of the prophetic utterances given by a priestess in an oracular shrine of Dionysus located on a mountain-top, which is thought to be Perperikon.

In Strabo, however, the Bessi are described as the fiercest of the independent Thracian tribes, dwelling on and around the Haemus range, and possessing the greater part of the area around that mountain chain.

Towards the end of the 4th century ad, Nicetas the Bishop of Dacia brought the gospel to "those mountain wolves", the Bessi. Reportedly his mission was successful, and the worship of Dionysus and other Thracian gods was eventually replaced by Christianity.


The Temple Buried near the Village of Starosel
The Thracian states emerged early, but they can be traced only after 5th - 4th century BC. The structures created before the names of the royal-priestly ruling dynasties: Bessi, Triballoi, Getae and Edonoi. According to Herodotus, the Thracians were the most numerous people in the world after the Indians, but they never managed to unite in one state. During the 5th - 4th century BC, the kingdom of the Odrysae stretching in the lands between the Black Sea, the Danube and the Rhodope Mountains became most powerful. The ruins of its capital Seuthopolis are near the present-day town of Kazanluk.

Solomon

[Solomon]

Ancient Bulgaria
Thracian treasures have long evoked the admiration of the entire world, and they have been displayed in a number of exhibitions all over the world. Some of them are extremely important and they provide unique information about ancient art.

All over Thracian treasures are generally from 4th and early 3rd century BCE.

The Panagyurishte treasure is undoubtedly the most popular gold treasure discovered so far. It is of pure gold with a total weight of 6.164 kg, and it consists of a royal set to be used during feasts. Its nine vessels are with original shape and ornamentation. They are rhytons resembling animal figures and heads of goddesses. The jugs, the amphorae and the phialae are decorated with the sculpted scenes from The Iliad, African faces and other images.

[Solomon]

THE UNTOLD RICHES OF A THRACIAN NOBLE
The story of the third treasure is most unusual. In the autumn of 1985 a tractor-driver of the village of Rogozen, Vratza region, was digging a canal in his vegetable garden in the yard of his house, almost in the center of the village. Quite unexpectedly, a gold vessel popped up on the surface. The surprised man and his wife rummaged through the earth and found 65 such vessels. They took them home, taking them to be church attributes. They didn't forget to inform the mayor of the village and he informed the Museum of History in Vratza.

Archeologists came and started excavations. Unexpectedly again they found a hole full of about 100 vessels. Thus the overall number of find amounted to 165, something unobserved to this day.


Naturally the question arose - what period did they belong to, who was their owner, what was their function, why were they buried into the ground, and what was their historical value?

It turned out that it was a silver treasure weighing 20 kg. Judging from their appearance the vessels were vials (the Greek name of shallower or deeper decorated cups), 54 decanters and 3 ordinary cups. All vessels were produced by using a matrix (mould), with additional engravings or application of gold leaves on some of them.

It became clear that the find could be attributed to the ancient Thracian period (end of 5th and middle of 4th c. BC or about 2500 years ago). It was also clear that it belonged to some local Thracian noble. This was the period in which the Thracians managed to build their own state uniting the numerous Thracian tribes and bore the name of the State of the Odrizi after the name of the most powerful among them -the Odrizi.


Scholars decided that the vessels were parts of different sets. They had been collected for a long time and represented a family treasure, handed down from generation to generation. They must have been buried into the ground at the time of disaster or danger hoping that after its end their owners would collect them again. No doubt such a danger appeared during the time of the marches of the Macedonian kings Philip II and Alexander III the Great (382-323 BCE).

[Administration]

Varna treasures

[Bart]

Fascinating artwork, amazing craftsmanship! It would be just as interesting to see some of the interpretations of the art scenes added here over time.

- Bart

[Administration]

The Panagyurishte treasure consists of nine utensils with rich decoration. It is made of solid gold and weights 6.164 kg.

One frosty morning on the 8th of December 1949 three brothers ? Pavel, Petko and Michail Deikovi worked together at the region of ?Merul? tile factory near Panagyurishte. It?s about ten o?clock in the morning, when processing a new layer of clay they came across unusual glossy objects. With all of its magnificence a fabulous set of vessel glittered in front of the workers.

When finally unearthed, it was found to consist of a phial and eight rhytons, one shaped like an amphora and the others like heads of women or animals. Dated to the turn of the fourth and third century BCE, the find was sensational, not only for its weight in gold ? over 6.146 kg of pure gold, but also for the originality of its forms. It is now a world famous Thracian treasure and one of the most valuable possessions of the National Historical Museum, Bulgaria.

[Administration]

The Amphora rhyton.

[Solomon]

One of the many gold treasures found.

[Bart]

  The Rogozen treasure, called the find of the century, was also discovered by chance. In this case the finder was a tractor driver, who in the autumn of 1985 was digging a trench in his garden when he discovered a collection of sixty-five silver receptacles. On January 6, 1986, in a second trench near the first one, a hundred more receptacles were found by the archaeologists of the local museum. The treasure consists of hundred and eight phials, fifty-four jugs and three goblets. All the objects are silver and some with a golden gilt. Their total weight is twenty kilograms.



   The ornamentation, embossed in relief, is different in every case. This variety of motifs and decorative elements makes the Rogozen Treasure an invaluable source of information for the fifth and fourth centuries, BC.Several of these pieces seem to had been imported, but most were made in Thracia.

[Bart]

Vulchitrun Treasure



   The treasure was discovered by accident on 18 December 1924 by two brothers who were deep-ploughing their field four kilometers from the village of Vulchitran, Pleven district. The ploughmen stumbled across 13 gold objects at a depth of about 40-cm. It consists of 13 vessels - a large, deep vessel with two handles, one big and three small cups with one handle each, two big and five smaller discs. All items are made of solid gold, the total weight is 12.425 kg. The vessels were used in cult ceremonies. This treasure is the most remarkable example of the art of the Later Bronze Age in Thracia (XIII-XII c. BC).