World's Oldest Gold Treasures
Hoards of Prehistoric Precious Metalwork Found in Bulgaria
Oct 25, 2009
Some fabulous gold treasures, unearthed in Bulgaria over the past decades, and subsequent scientific researches give clear evidence that the early inhabitants in the Balkans had invented and developed metallurgy independently of the Near East metalworkers. The discoveries also prove that modern Bulgaria “was home to the word’s first gold workers, around 6,700 years ago”, as David Keys, the archaeology correspondent for The Independent, wrote in August 2005.
Varna’s “City of the Dead” Began to Speak
The world-famous Varna Necropolis Treasure was discovered at Varna, a big city on the Black Sea coast, by chance, in 1972. So far, archaeologists have explored 294 tombs and excavated over 3000 pieces of magnificent gold jewelry and ritual objects weighing about 6.5 kg (14 lb), a lot of clay vessels and tools such as axes, knives, chisels, etc. made of stone, flint and copper.
The unearthed objects in the necropolis (literally meaning, “a city of the dead”) were gifts to those who were buried there. However, archaeologists struck some symbolic burials: there were no mortal remains in the graves but only vast amount of precious jewelry and clay masks at the place of the missing skeletons. Symbolic burial practices were a common ancient tradition to pay homage to people who had died away from home (especially warriors who were killed in a battle).
Radiocarbon dating placed all the Varna-site finds, including the gold artifacts, between 4600 and 4200 BC, and such discoveries (Copper Age worked gold) “were unknown from so early a period”, states in his on-the-site study Dr Colin Renfrew, a prominent English professor of archaeology. He explored the Varna treasure in 1978 and wrote that “the find was as important in its way as the discovery by Heinrich Schliemann a hundred years ago of the great treasure at ancient Troy.”
Is the Boomerang an Australian Aborigines’ Patent
That is not an easy question and so far nobody has given a convincing explanation of nature, function and uses of a gold object in the form of a boomerang found in tomb#43, which is the richest of all the graves in the Varna necropolis. Inside the tomb the archaeologists found the remains of a 40 – 50-year-old man, about 170 sm. tall. He had large bracelets made of solid gold on each hand as well as three strings of gold beads around his neck; his clothes and diadem were heavily decorated with gold plates, beads and jewels – that together amount to 1.5 kg (3.3 lb) in weight.
The man held a scepter in his right hand and was likely at the top of hierarchy of that unknown society; apparently he was a king or a priest. There was one more astonishing item, besides the gold boomerang and the royal regalia, found in the necropolis. That is a clay vessel drawn in gold – a masterwork of a highly sophisticated technique which could test the skills even of nowadays artisans. A swastika sign, one of the most ancient cosmogony symbols, was also engraved on the vessel. Scholars still cannot identify that rich and highly developed civilization which flourished more than 6000 years ago, at the time of Sumer and Egypt, so they called it Varna Culture.
Bronze Age Gold Treasure Bridges the Gap
The vast haul of the Dabene gold treasure, excavated in the period 2004 – 2007, includes over 20 000 items, such as beads, necklace rings, earrings, hairpins and amulets, made of 18 – 23-carat gold. The smallest items are 1.5 mm in diameter – remarkable masterpieces of gold-working, if bear in mind the Bronze Age techniques compared to the modern technologies.
Although the treasure was found in the Valley of the Thracian Kings, it had never belonged to any of the Odrysian rulers. The fabulous hoard, discovered near the town of Karlovo, is dated back to the end of the 3rd millennium BC, the Bronze Age. So, it provides the missing link between the Copper Age Varna Culture and the impressive Thracian civilization, which seemed remote and separated, with no relation between. The recent discoveries obviously bridge the gap, and the scientific research goes on in the hopes of adding to historians’ limited knowledge of the so called proto-Thracians’ culture.
Sources:
Varna and the Social Context of Early Metallurgy, by Colin Renfrew, Antiquity, 52/1978
Ancient Hoard of Royal Gold Found in Balkans, by David Keys, The Independent, August 21, 2005
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