Treasured History

Treasure hunters, archaeologists and ancient treasures. It sounds like the makings of an Indiana Jones film, but this adventure is taking place right here in Bulgaria, right now. The past two years have seen a wealth of treasures unearthed dating back to the times of the Thracians, who inhabited what is now present day Bulgaria, along with parts of Romania, Greece, Turkey, Serbia and Macedonia, as long ago as the 5th millennium BCE. Last year’s big find was the 2400 year-old Golden Mask, which had people queuing up in the street to see it. Now discoveries are being made so often as to almost have become commonplace. The latest sensation is the treasure discovered in the tomb of a Thracian ruler thought to date from the 4th century BCE. Although the finding, made near Yambol in eastern Bulgaria, has received some media coverage, there is no great hype surrounding the display at Sofia’s National History Museum. However, the treasures speak for themselves. As Svetla Tsaneva says, the gold leaf head wreath “radiates power”. It glitters, seemingly floating in its display case, as though it was made only yesterday. As the museum’s restorer, Tsaneva knows more than most just how inaccurate an assumption this would be. The corridors smell of history as she leads us to the inner sanctum where the restoration work is taking place. There is a buzz of purpose in the air as white-coated staff mill about in the laboratory. Phones are constantly ringing. Every available surface is littered with artefacts from throughout the ages. Medieval chain mail lies casually on a table; searching under some papers Tsaneva inadvertently uncovers some beautifully engraved Roman armour. The laboratory, hidden away in the underbelly of the museum, may deal in history thousands of years old, but it is very much alive. Tsaneva was responsible for the speedy restoration of the gold wreath and ring, which are the first of the treasures from the latest discovery to be put on display. She shows us pictures of them as they were when they were discovered in Zlatinitsa, in the Yambol region. The pieces look surprisingly bright and shiny even on first discovery. Salt water and alcohol were used to restore them to the sparkling, pristine condition in which they can now be seen. Tsaneva points to the photo of the ring, which depicts a scene of a horseman and a woman, “we were laughing that the horse was so small with this big figure,” she says, “but in fact the man who was buried in this tomb was over 190cm tall.” As the technology used to make the ring is more primitive than that used in the wreath, it is thought that the ring is older, possibly handed down from father to son. The figure of the woman is interpreted as being the Great Mother Goddess, she is handing the horseman a cup in a scene of initiation. The Great Mother Goddess and her son, who happens to have been immaculately conceived, are important figures in Thracian religion. “That’s why I think the Thracians took to Christianity so well; because it’s a mother and son like their own belief.” The Mother Goddess also appears on the greaves (shin armour) found in the tomb, which Tsaneva shows us, saying, “Thracian art is more severe, more primitive in one way, because they didn’t believe in gods that are ideally beautiful. The symbol was absolutely enough. They believed in the god in themselves. They didn’t idolise goddesses and gods.” It’s difficult to say how far back Thracian beliefs go; they didn’t have an alphabet, so the only written records we have got about them are what was written down by other cultures. “We have written data about the Thracians from the moment the Greeks started to travel around and write about their neighbours,” says Tsaneva. The lack of an alphabet makes identifying the skeleton- and owner of the treasures- difficult, as there are no inscriptions, although there is a theory that it could be Kerseblept, son of the Thracian King Kotis I. There has also been speculation that the wreath was awarded as an Olympic crown. Tsaneva dismisses this however, saying that every citizen of Athens had such a crown and that there were lists of Olympic champions, on which no Thracian King appears. The wreath itself consists of gold leaves with identical veins, suggesting that they have been stamped. The winged goddess Nike, depicted in the centre at the front of the wreath is not just a pretty face; she contributes a functional element to the design, as a clasp. However, it is the gold discs that loop down on either side of the wreath that are what Tsaneva describes as being truly “sensational in the scientific sense”. These were minted like coins, by being pressed with dice on both sides, but it’s how the gold leaf out of which these discs were made was fashioned that is the interesting part. “In old times they started making gold leaf by hammering gold between pieces of leather,” Tsaneva explains. “Until now it was thought that they started to ‘draw’ it at the beginning of the Common Era by rolling it between two plates. But on these discs you can see parallel lines which you get from the rollers, so they take this date four centuries back.” This exciting new discovery may have far reaching implications, requiring archaeologists to rethink some of their assumptions about this period of history, and Tsaneva expects that they will be published in international scientific journals. There are more firsts among the treasures. For instance, the leather lining found for the first time preserved inside a helmet. Tsaneva says that they had thought that helmets must have been lined with some kind of material, otherwise when a warrior was struck on the head with a metal spear it would have a cartoon effect – doiiiinnnggg!- the blow reverberating on the metal. But up until now there hadn’t been any evidence that a lining had been used. However, pulling a sealed bag from a cupboard, Tsaneva presents the solid evidence. It’s amazing to think that this piece of leather was once in contact with a living, breathing warrior’s head, sweating with the adrenalin of battle some 2500 years ago. Other items which have amazingly survived the passage of time are the pieces of leather which can still be seen preserved inside the horse tacks, settling a dispute between archaeologists as to how the tacks were fastened to the horse. The tacks, along with some silver vessels and tiny spoons, possibly used for administering ointments or for cleaning the ruler’s ears- silver is antiseptic- will be the next artefacts to go on display in October. Tsaneva and her colleagues are working hard to get them ready. Tsaneva estimates that the rest of the treasures will take another year to a year-and-a-half to restore. That’s for those items it will be possible to restore at all. Some of the treasures did not fare well at the hands of archaeologists. A number of bronze vessels lie broken sealed inside a case in controlled conditions with silica gel. All of the bronze items were whole when the tomb was discovered, but sadly they were broken upon their removal from the site. They were fully corroded with no metal core remaining, just minerals, so that when they were touched, they crumbled. The only bronze pieces that remained intact have gone to the Institution of Archaeology as it was their employees who carried out the dig, although it was the National Museum of History that financed it. Usually findings are split according to who pays for digs. The perennial problem of money persists even in a field as culturally and historically rich as this one, though the past few years have seen some improvements, even if driven by a desire for profits, rather than to discover and preserve the country’s history. “The first years of the transition were very hard,” says Tsaneva. “No one wanted to give money to help with the findings. But now we have a lot of tourists, and tourists are not coming just for the sea and the mountains, they want to learn something about the land, the people, the history, and that’s why they understood that they have to give to the National Heritage for people to come.” Even so, in a story that has become all too familiar, the money is coming from businesses and institutions, and not the Ministry of Culture. However, despite the lack of funds, incredible finds continue to be made. We are lucky enough to be given a preview of the next big sensation, which will be on display in the museum in the next couple of weeks. Like many of the finds, this one was first made by chance. Tsaneva says that story goes that it only came to the attention of the professionals “when one of our archaeologists saw a village woman wearing an unusual necklace of gold beads and asked her where she got it from. She told them that her husband had found the beads in a field and she put them on a string.” When the archaeologist went to investigate, they found that these gold beads lying around in the field were a staggering 5000 years old. Five thousand! The find, made near Karlovo in central Bulgaria (140km east of Sofia) was made last autumn and a colleague, whose enviable task it is to locate and extract the miniscule gold beads from the mud, has been excavating since the spring. Fifteen thousand tiny gold pieces have been recovered so far, and still the work continues. The beads, thought to have been used in hair and body adornments, bring new questions. Even after examining them under a microscope, Tsnavea says she does not know yet how they were made. She thinks that a view through an electron microscope should provide the answers by showing the places in which they were soldered, but as the Zlatinitsa treasure shows, one can never be sure. Tsaneva is constantly amazed at the technologies used by ancient people to craft metal. The techniques we have now, she says are not all that different from those used thousands of years ago. The basics have remained pretty much unchanged, the main difference is that now we have much more advanced technology to help us. With a Masters degree in atomic physics, Tsaneva knows what she’s talking about. She held the chair of conservation and restoration at Academy of fine and applied arts for 17 years, before coming to work at the Museum of National History about six years ago. “But here it’s much more interesting,” she confides, casually dropping a 5000 year-old gold bead into the palm of my hand. Indeed it is her hands-on approach and infectious enthusiasm that help to restore and breath life back into Bulgaria’s treasured history.