Thrace and Thracian History

On December 17, 2000 a 4th century BC Thracian tomb-mausoleum was discovered immediately to the south-eastern end of the village of Alexandrovo. Very well preserved wall-paintings of high artistic value were found inside.

The tomb has not been investigated archaeologically. It is so far established that it has a 10 m-long corridor and two rooms: one quadrangular, the other round. The entrances are short, about 1.2 m, so the visitors had to bend down to enter the construction. After standing up again inside, humble and feeling insignificant, the worshipper was stunned before an unknown world, imposing with the variety of colours, figures and scenes.

The diameter of the central chamber is 3.4 m, just equal to its height. It is more spacious than the Kazanluk tomb and even larger than the one at the near by Mezek.

Its walls are divided into 16 horizontal bands from the floor to the top of the dome, which is finished by a horizontal slab, a key-stone.

Its decoration is symbolic: a grey-whitish (silver?) double axe, a labrys, a sign of power in the Thracian society. The artist possibly intended to suggest the remains of a ruler rested in the room. The axe is inscribed in the circle of the key-stone, a symbol of the sun, the source of life and the object of the major cult in the Thracian religion.

The hunt was a privilege of the Thracian aristocracy, while boar hunting was almost a divine occupation, characteristic of the heroes - rulers, who were posthumously deified.

Bulgarian archaeologist Georgi Kitov showed a 4th century BC Thracian golden mask and a golden ring with an inscription reading 'the saver of Asia' near the village of Topolchane, east of the capital Sofia, July 15.

SOFIA -- A Bulgarian archaeologist announced Sunday that his team had found a gold mask that belonged to a Thracian king in the fourth century BC, near the eastern town of Sliven.

"The discovery of this mask proves that the Valley of the Thracian Kings stretches from the center of Bulgaria to the east of the country," archaeologist Georgi Kitov said.

The Thracians lived in southeastern Europe, the Carpathians and the Caucasus from about 4,000 BC to the 3rd century AD.

Numerous artifacts from their leaders have been found in the so-called Valley of the Thracian Kings, located between the Balkan and the Sredna Gora mountain chains.

In 2004, Kitov's team found another gold mask from the 5th century BC near Chipka, in central Bulgaria.

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SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — A 2,400-year-old golden mask that once belonged to a Thracian king was unearthed in a timber-lined tomb in southeastern Bulgaria, archaeologists said Monday.

The mask, discovered over the weekend, was found in the tomb along with a solid gold ring engraved with a Greek inscription and the portrait of a bearded man.

"These finds confirm the assumption that they are part of the lavish burial of a Thracian king," said Margarita Tacheva, a professor who was on the dig near the village of Topolchane, 180 miles east of the capital, Sofia.

Georgi Kitov, the team leader, said that they also found a silver rhyton, silver and bronze vessels, pottery and funerary gifts.

"The artifacts belonged to a Thracian ruler from the end of the 4th century B.C. who was buried here," Kitov added.