The Thracians

Thracians

The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...

 were skillful craftsmen. They made beautifully ornate golden and silver objects such as various kinds of vessels, rhyton

Rhyton

A rhyton is a container from which fluids were intended to be drunk, or else poured in some ceremony such as libation. Rhytons were very common in ancient Persia, where they were called takuk...

s, facial masks, pectorals, jewelry, weapons, etc. They used to bury rich hoards of precious objects both to hide them in times of enemy invasions and unrest as well as for ritual purposes. To date, more than 80 Thracian treasures have been excavated or, more often than not, accidentally found in Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

.

List of some of the more important Thracian treasures:

• Panagyurishte Treasure
  Panagyurishte treasure
  The Panagyurishte Treasure is a Thracian treasure excavated on December 8, 1949 by three brothers, Pavel, Petko and Michail Deikov who worked together at the region of “Merul” tile factory near the town of Panagyurishte, Bulgaria. It consists of a phiale, an amphora and seven rhytons with total...
  
  
• Rogozen Treasure
  Rogozen treasure
  The Rogozen Treasure , called the find of the century, was discovered by chance in 1985 by a tractor driver digging a well in his garden in the Bulgarian village of Rogozen. It consists of 165 receptacles, including 108 phiales, 55 jugs and 3 goblets. The objects are silver with golden gilt on some...
  
  
• Valchitran Treasure
• Borovo Treasure
  Borovo Treasure
  The Borovo Treasure, also known as the Borovo Silver Treasure, is part of the Thracian treasure. It is a set of five silver-gilt items discovered in late 1974 while ploughing a field in Borovo, Bulgaria....
  
  
• Lukovit Treasure
  Lukovit treasure
  The Lukovit Treasure is a silver Thracian treasure found in 1953 near the town of Lukovit, Lovech Province, north-western Bulgaria. It consists of two groups of objects: plates, applications for horse bridles and vessels, 9 phiales, 3 ewers and a bowl....
  
  
• Vratsa Treasure
• Letnitsa Treasure
• Golden Mask
  Golden Mask
  The Golden Mask is a Russian theatre festival and the National Theatre Award established in 1994 by the Theatre Union of Russia. The award is given to productions in all genres of theatre art: drama, opera, ballet, operetta and musical, and puppet theatre. It presents the most significant...
  
  

See also

• Scythian art
  Scythian art
  Scythian art is art, primarily decorative objects, such as jewelry, produced by the nomadic tribes in the area known classically as Scythia, which was centred on the Pontic-Caspian steppe and ranged from modern Kazakhstan to the Baltic coast of modern Poland and to Georgia...
  
  
• Persian-Sassanid art patterns
  Persian-Sassanid art patterns
  - Patterns :Characteristic patterns of the Persian-Sassanide art exhibits similarity to the art of the Bulgars, Khazars, Sak-Scythian, and have recurred at different locations in Central Asia...
  
  
• Thraco-Cimmerian
  Thraco-Cimmerian
  Thraco-Cimmerian is a historiographical and archaeological term, composed of the names of the Thracians and the Cimmerians. It refers to 8th to 7th century BC cultures that are linked in Eastern Central Europe and in the area north of the Black Sea....
  
  
• Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós
  Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós
  The Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós or Treasure of Sânnicolau Mare is an important hoard of twenty-three early medieval gold vessels, in total weighing 9.945 kg, found in 1799 near the town then known as Nagy Szent Miklós or Groß-Sankt-Niklaus in northern Banat The Treasure of Nagyszentmiklós or...
  
  
• Zoomorphic style

External links

• Panagyurishte Treasure
• The Treasures of the Ancient Thracians
• http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0612/feature4/
• http://www.archaeology.org/0503/abstracts/kitov.html
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3999145.stm
• http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=53342