Tuesday, 14th February 2006 (3976 views)

The discovery of a collection of gold artefacts in Bulgaria has been highlighted as one of the most significant scientific stories of 2005.

Discover magazine included the archaeological find in a review of the year's top stories, which appeared in the January issue.

The find is of particular importance because it shows unexpected technical expertise among the ancient Thracian goldsmiths.

Archaeologists found more than 15,000 items of Thracian gold in a single cache, including rings, drinking cups and wreaths, at a site 80 miles east of the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

Also discovered was a 23.5-carat gold burial mask that weighs almost one and a half pounds, and that dates back 2,400 years.

Valeria Fol is a professor of ancient history at the Institute of Thracology at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She says the site where the mask was found is intriguing because the person buried had been cut with an axe.

"The golden mask was put in the place of the head, which is missing," she said.

The Thracians lived in Bulgaria and the surrounding area from around 4,000 BC to 800 AD, and are said to have been allies of the Trojans.

 

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