Bulgaria’s Sveshtari golden treasure goes on display November 14
Bulgaria’s National Archaeology Museum will display on November 14 the trove of golden artefacts found near the village of Sveshtari in the north of the country.
The treasure is the largest find of the last decade and includes golden horse harness decorations, bracelets, buttons, a ring and a tiara, weighing a total 1.8kg. It was found in one of the large Thracian tombs in Sboryanovo reserve on November 7 by a team led by Diana Gergova.
The treasure will become part of the National Archaeology Museum’s collection, but it was not immediately clear if it would become part of the museum’s permanent exhibition. The treasure would be included in the travelling exhibition that will open in 2014 in the Louvre museum in Paris.
Preliminary estimates put the age of the items at between late fourth and early third centuries BCE, at the time when the Thracian tribe of Getae became one of the dominant political forces on the Balkan peninsula.
“These are amazing findings from the apogee of the rule of the Getae,” Gergova said at the time the treasure was unveiled. It appears to have been part of burial rites, but was not inside the tomb itself. Gergova plans to return to the tomb next year and has already secured state funding for the digs, following the finding of the golden treasure.
(One of the items from the Sveshtari treasure. Photo: Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
