New Items in the Collections of the National Museum of Archaeology 2006 Exhibition

December 19, 2006: The exhibition New Items in the Collections of the National Museum of Archaeology 2006 opened in the Temporary Exhibitions Hall. It was organized under the patronage of Academician Ivan Yuhnovski, President of the BAS.

It is for the first time in the last 50 years that such a great number of finds of high museum value enter the collections of the National Museum of Archaeology being a result of only one archaeological season. This achievement comes as a result of IAM’s policy in the last two years to enlarge the collections and the exhibitions of the Museum.

In front of the officials, representatives of BAS and the Bulgarian museums and guests, the Director of IAM Prof. Dr. Sc. Vassil Nikolov defined archaeological season 2006 as extremely successful. He thanked the academic archaeologists for the good job during the year as well as the investors and sponsors for the financial support. A great deal of the archaeological excavations and surveys have been related to the work at national infrastructural sites.

The finds exhibited date from 1, 600 000 BC to 16th century AD. The visitors were able to see flint tools, ceramic vessels of various shapes and decoration, anthropomorphic figurines, ritual objects, fragments of briquetage, golden coins and jewelry, etc. The finds come from the Paleolithic site in Kozarnika Cave, near Belogradchik, the late Neolithic pit sanctuary near Lyubimets, the prehistoric salt production center near Provadiya, the Thracian fortified settlement near Valche pole, the Thracian pit sanctuaries near Malko Tranovo, Kapitan Andreevo and Svilengrad, the Thracian tumulus near Sinemorets, the early medieval settlement near Kapitan Andreevo, and the bi-ritual cemetery near Balchik.

The new finds, which entered the museum collections together with the ones exhibited in the museum, attest for a rich and ancient culture. Some of the finds are strikingly beautiful and artistic, exquisitely shaped and decorated; they add to our knowledge about one of the earliest civilizations of the world.