Artifacts from the third millennium BC joined the collection of the National Museum of History after a successful operation of the State Agency for National Security against an organized criminal group. We are talking here about some 15,000 objects, made of gold, mainly beads of different shape. Those are considered to be fragments of three necklaces. “They are about 1,500 years older than the Trojan War,” Director of NMH Bozhidar Dimitrov said on the treasure.

“Its scientific value is very high, filling in gaps in Bulgarian history”, Professor Dimitrov further explains. “Just like the Varna Treasure /with the oldest processed gold in the world – 5^th millennium BC/ and the Vulchitran Treasure /2^nd millennium BC/, this one shows a high level of civilization across the Bulgarian lands. At that time it couldn’t be found on the Continent, but that was something quite normal, since we used to link Europe with Asia. Human civilization was developed for a first time in this part of Asia – Mesopotamia, Greece etc. It stepped into Bulgarian lands and was transferred to Europe over the next millennia.”

The treasure is believed to have been dug in the locality around Karlovo, Central Bulgaria. Archaeologist Martin Hristov discovered there similar gold artifacts some time ago. Two necklaces from that expedition have been displayed now along with the newly found objects. Where else in Bulgaria have archaeologists discovered such miniature and precisely wrought gold beads?

“Over 160 of these have been found in the area of Rupite,” Martin Hristov says for Radio Bulgaria. “Objects of that kind have been dug in the area of Kraishteto near the town of Kyustendil. Those appeared during a washing of the river silt of the Struma River for industrial alluvial gold mining back in the 1990s. Several objects of that kind have been discovered there. Schliemann found similar artifacts in Troy over the second half of the 19^th century.”

Furthermore – the Poliochne settlement on the Greek Lemnos island /3^rd millennium BC/, North Turkey – Asia Minor… What can we think of the culture and skills of the people, who created the jewelry, which can be now seen at the NMH?

“First we have to start with the fact that the Bronze Age was a time for experiments in the work with metal,” Martin Hristov points out. “The first alloy, made by men, appeared then – a fusion of copper and arsenic and then of copper and tin for bronze to be produced… However, those people experimented, of course, with gold, silver etc. So, obviously their technological skills were precise enough to create objects of that kind.”

One more curious detail: contemporary jewelers say that a part of the miniature objects couldn’t have been created without the help of a magnifying glass. However, no magnifying glasses existed back then… This is only one of the mysteries that the ancient treasure carries within…

English version: Zhivko Stanchev