The Ancient Civilizations of Bulgaria. Thracian Gold: Exhibition Basel 2007

On March 14, 2007 in the Basel Museum of Ancient Art in Switzerland, the President of the Republic of Bulgaria Mr. Georgi Parvanov opened The Ancient Civilizations of Bulgaria. Thracian Gold Exhibition, in the presence of the Bulgarian Minister of Culture Prof. Stefan Danailov, the President of Canton Basel-City Dr. Eva Herzog, many officials, Bulgarian and foreign journalists. The 360 exhibited objects are loaned from 34 Bulgarian museums and represent various stages of the civilization in Bulgaria: the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Thracian and Roman periods. They evidence that the European civilization was born on the Bulgarian territories.

The Ancient Civilizations of Bulgaria. Thracian Gold Exhibition was organized by the Bulgarian Ministry of Culture but the scientific and museological activities were performed by professionals working at the National Institute of Archaeology and Museum of the Bulgarian Academy of Science. The scientific advisor of the exhibition was Prof. Vassil Nikolov.

The exhibition demonstrates a new concept to represent the later prehistory, the Thracian and Roman periods as an integral body that provided ground for the development of an impressive ancient culture.

The earliest European civilization began its development in Ancient Thrace as it was argued in the public lecture given by Prof. Vassil Nikolov at the Basel Museum of Ancient Art representing the most important results of the archaeological excavation season 2006 in Bulgaria.

The new format of the exhibition was accepted as a cultural message of Bulgaria to Central Europe and provoked a great interest among the Swiss scholars, journalists and lovers of Antiquity. The impressive presence of the remains of prehistoric past, fifth to third century hoards from Thrace and pieces of Greek and Roman jewelry represent the Bulgarian territories as “a cradle of the European civilization” (Basler Zeitung).