Еxhibition “The Glitter of the Hellenistic Gold. The Sovereigns of Sakar Mountains, August 13th – October 17th,2025

The exhibition The Glitter of the Hellenistic Gold. The Sovereigns of Sakar Mountains was opened on Tuesday night at the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. It features unique golden archaeological finds of a rich Thracian grave discovered on the territory of Kapitan Petko Voyvoda village, Topolovgrad Municipality. Among the exhibits are an iron knife covered with gold appliques and half-precious stones, a bracelet with small cast figurines, a necklace, a ring with an iron plate, a wreath, cuirass appliques, and horse harness decorating beads. An accent within the exhibition is a massive golden frontlet, part of a horse harness, with a depiction of a snake.

The NAIM-BAS director, Assoc. Prof. Hristo Popov welcomed the archaeological teams that have been working on the discovery and the restoration of the artifacts, with an important meaning for Bulgarian Archaeology. All the exhibits will be back in the Historical Museum – Topolovgrad at the end of this autumn.

The discoveries resulted from rescue archaeological excavations of Mound 1, part of a bigger necropolis embracing seven mounds, registered at the Tumbata locality. The research was carried out in 2024 under the scientific guidance of Dr. Daniela Agre and Dr. Deyan Ditchev.

At the center of the mound, the archaeologists found a grave of a prominent Thracian warrior–aristocrat buried in splendour and with military honours. Part of the ritual was the cremation on a burial pyre and the depositing of the weaponry, the golden gifts, and the personal belongings. Right next to the aristocrat was cremated a horse, and on the cremated remains were laid out three iron bridles and horse harnesses. The burial has been dated to the Hellenistic Period.

The NAIM-BAS chairwoman, corresponding member Dr.Sc Evelina Slavcheva put an accent on the fact that the golden treasures discovered in the Bulgarian lands bear witness to the high-level mastership and the spiritual culture of the prosperous ancient societies.

According to the Vice Minister of Culture of Bulgaria, Assoc. Prof. Todor Chobanov, this is just the beginning of a whole series of important archaeological discoveries on the territory of the Sakar and Strandzha mountains. They will reach us through the ages and will become a Bulgarian visitιng card in front of the World.

The rich archaeological finds used to have an urgent need for conservation and restoration to become generally known to the broad public. The restoration process was additionally complicated by the condition of the artifacts, highly damaged by the high temperature of the cremation. The exhibits were restored by Dr. Petya Penkova, a restorer in the NAIM-BAS Laboratory for Conservation and Restoration and Georgi Iliev, a restorer in Regional Museum of History – Yambol. The funds for these activities were granted by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria, the National Program for Scientific Infrastructure INFRAMAT, and NAIM-BAS.