Resorts Guide Bulgaria

The Panagyurishte gold treasure (Bulgarian: Панагюрско златно съкровище) is a Thracian treasure excavated in Bulgaria. It was excavated by Bulgarians in the 20th century near the town of Panagyurishte in the Pazardzhik Province. It consists of a phial, an amphora and seven rhytons with total weight of 6,164 kg of pure gold. All of the objects are richly decorated with scenes of the Thracian myths, customs and life. It is dated from the 4th-3th centuries BC. It is kept in the Plovdiv Archaeological Museum, if not in a temporary exhibition in the country or abroad.

The Varna Necropolis (Bulgarian: Варненски некропол) (also Varna Cemetery) is a burial site in the western industrial zone of Varna (approximately half a kilometer from Lake Varna and 4 km from the city center), Bulgaria, internationally considered one of the key archaeological sites in world prehistory.

Discovery and excavation
The site was accidentally discovered in October 1972 by excavator operator Raycho Marinov. Research excavation was under the direction of Mihail Lazarov (1972-1976) and Ivan Ivanov (1972-1991). About 30% of estimated necropolis area is still not excavated.

294 graves have been found in the necropolis, many containing sophisticated examples of metallurgy (gold and copper), pottery (about 600 pieces, including gold-painted ones), high-quality flint and obsidian blades, beads, and shells.

Chronology
The graves have been dated to 4600-4200 BCE (radiocarbon dating, 2004) and belong to the Eneolithic Varna culture, which is the local variant of the KGKVI.

Burial Rites
There are crouched and extended inhumations. Some graves do not contain a skeleton, but grave gifts (cenotaphs). Interestingly, the symbolic (empty) graves are the richest in gold artifacts. 3000 gold artifacts were found, with a weight of approximately 6 kilograms. Grave 43 (photo) contained more gold than has been found in the entire rest of the world for that epoch. Three symbolic graves contained masks of unburnt clay (photo).

The findings showed that the Varna culture had trade relations with distant lands (possibly including the lower Volga and the Cyclades), perhaps exporting metal goods and salt from the Provadiya rock salt mine. The copper ore used in the artifacts originated from a Sredna Gora mine near Stara Zagora, and Mediterranean Spondylus shells found in the graves may have served as primitive currency.

The culture had sophisticated religious beliefs about afterlife and developed hierarchal status differences: it offers the oldest known burial evidence of an elite male (the end of the fifth millennium BC is the time that Marija Gimbutas claims the transition to male dominance began in Europe). The high status male buried with the most remarkable amount of gold held a war adze or mace and wore a gold penis sheath. The bull-shaped gold platelets (photo) perhaps also venerated virility, instinctional force, and warfare. Gimbutas holds that the artifacts were made largely by local craftspeople.

Historical Impact
According to M. Gimbutas (1991), “The discontinuity of the Varna, Karanovo, Vin?a and Lengyel cultures in their main territories and the large scale population shifts to the north and northwest are indirect evidence of a catastrophe of such proportions that cannot be explained by possible climatic change, land exhaustion, or epidemics (for which there is no evidence in the second half of the 5th millennium B.C.). Direct evidence of the incursion of horse-riding warriors is found, not only in single burials of males under barrows, but in the emergence of a whole complex of Kurgan cultural traits.”

According to J. Chapman (2005), “Once upon a time, not so very long ago, it was widely accepted that steppe nomads from the North Pontic zone invaded the Balkans, putting an end to the Climax Copper Age society that produced the apogee of tell living, autonomous copper metallurgy and, as the grandest climax, the Varna cemetery with its stunning early goldwork. Now the boot is very much on the other foot and it is the Varna complex and its associated communities that are held responsible for stimulating the onset of prestige goods-dominated steppe mortuary practice following the expansion of farming.”

Museum exhibitions
The artifacts can be seen at the Varna Archaeological Museum and at the National Historical Museum in Sofia. In 2006, some gold objects were included in a major and broadly advertised national exhibition of antique gold treasures in both Sofia and Varna.

The gold of Varna started touring the world in 1973; it was included in “The Gold of the Thracian Horseman” national exhibition, shown at many of the world’s leading museums and exhibition venues in the 1970’s. In 1982, it was exhibited for 7 months in Japan as “The Oldest Gold in the World - The First European Civilization” with massive publicity, including two full length TV documentaries. In the 1980s and 1990s it was also shown in Canada, Germany, France, Italy, and Israel, among others, and featured in a cover story by the National Geographic Magazine.

Varshets (Bulgarian: Вършец, variously transliterated) is a spa town in Montana Province, northwestern Bulgaria. As of 2005, its population is 7,356 and the new mayor is Boryana Boncheva. It is located on the northern slopes of the western part of the Balkan mountains in the small valley of the Botunya River, at [show location on an interactive map] 43°12?N, 23°17?E, 359 meters above sea level. One of the oldest and most popular resorts in northern Bulgaria, it is famous for its curative mineral springs, mild mountain climate, beautiful scenery and a large well-kept park. The town has an excellent tourist infrastructure. There are two spa centres, a polyclinic, numerous rest houses, hotels and also many private lodgings. Varshets has an art gallery, a municipal museum and an Eastern Orthodox church dedicated to Saint George.

A 2nd century BC bronze sculpture of a Thracian boy found in the vicinity of the town is today a symbol of Varshets. The modern town is linked to Medeca, a Roman and Byzantine site first mentioned in the 6th century AD. Varshets’ existence was also evidenced in 16th century documents. The first state baths in Varshets were built in 1910 and were run by Damyan Ivanov, a balneologist who specialized in Austria-Hungary. The New Baths were built in 1930, and the Sun Garden was arranged in 1934. In 1950, Varshets was proclaimed a national resort.

The Upper Thracian Plain (Bulgarian: Горнотракийска низина, Gornotrakiyska nizina) constitutes the northern part of the historical region of Thrace. It is located in southern Bulgaria, between the Sredna Gora mountains to the north and west; the Rhodopes, Sakar and Strandzha to the south; and the Black Sea to the east. A fertile agricultural region, the Upper Thracian Plain proper has an area of 6,032 km? and an average elevation of 168 m.

The plain is part of North Thrace or Northern Thrace (Северна Тракия, Severna Trakiya) (as opposed to Western Thrace and Eastern Thrace to the south), which refers to the whole of southern (sub-Balkan) Bulgaria east of the Mesta River and Sredna Gora (thus also including hilly or mountainous terrain).

The climate is transitional continental. The highest temperature recorded in Bulgaria occurred here: it was 45.2 °C at Sadovo in 1916. The precipitation is 550 mm a year. Important rivers are the Maritsa and its tributaries, the Tundzha, the Stryama, the Topolnitsa, and the Vacha.

Important cities include Plovdiv, Burgas, Stara Zagora, Pazardzhik, Asenovgrad, Haskovo, Yambol and Sliven.