Thracian Jewellery and Treasure

The Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting a large area in Central and Southeastern Europe, centred in modern Bulgaria. They were bordered by the Scythians to the north, the Celts and the Illyrians to the west, the Greeks to the south, and the Black Sea to the east. The Thracians were a warrior people, known as both horsemen and lightly armed skirmishers with javelins. Thracian peltasts had a notable influence in Ancient Greece. 

The Thracians were skillful craftsmen. They made beautifully ornate golden and silver objects such as various kinds of vessels, rhytons, facial masks, pectorals, jewelry, weapons, etc. These show strong, and increasing, influence from the neighbouring cultures, especially the Greeks. 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 in Bulgaria, the cradle of the Thracian civilization. 

The Thracians were master metal-workers, Its craftsmanship reveals great skills. The Thracians are an excessive cult of the hereafter with rich gravesites that cause astonishment. In the Valley of the Thracian Kings alluding to the Egyptian city of Luxor. A wealth of gold and silver was found in the mountains and rivers of the land, although its gold was imported from Transylvania and its silver was imported from Asia Minor at an early stage. 

Archaeological research on the Thracian culture started in the 20th century, especially after World War II, mainly in southern Bulgaria. As a result of intensive excavations in the 1960s and 1970s a number of Thracian tombs and sanctuaries were discovered. Most significant among them are: the Getic burial complex and the Tomb of Sveshtari, the Valley of the Thracian Rulers and the Tomb of Kazanlak, Tatul, Seuthopolis, Perperikon, Tomb of Aleksandrovo in Bulgaria, Sarmizegetusa in Romania and others. Also a large number of elaborately crafted gold and silver treasure sets from the 5th and 4th century BC were unearthed. In the following decades, those were exhibited in museums around the world, thus calling attention to ancient Thracian culture.

Thracian art

Thracian culture is characterized by many aspects - exquisite jewelry works of art made of 24-carat gold, decorated ceramics with symbols characteristic only of Thrace. It is also characterized by megalithic stone structures, funeral rituals in which the dead are laid in a tomb with round domes together with their white horses, a chariot with a golden diadem, wine jugs, golden knee pads, a sword, dogs, etc.

By its nature, Thracian art worked primarily for the needs of the Thracian kings and the Thracian aristocracy. The Hellenes were amazed by the exquisite Thracian craftsmanship and adopted many of the ideas and even copied them as their own.

Art in Thrace, on the territory of which for a long time within the framework of state associations there were also city colonies, developed primarily and intensively in the 5th and first half of the 4th century. BC. in the conditions of the so-called according to some authors royal economy. Its main characteristics are: monopoly production with the most expensive raw materials and materials; tribute (tax) policy; regular economic and military-construction duties of the population; ordered to perform extraordinary activities of the subordinate population of any nature.

Interaction

The culture of the Thracians was formed in interaction with the cultures of many ancient peoples - Phoenicians, Phrygians, Lydians, Etruscans, Scythians, Persians, Celts, Romans, etc., but most of all with the culture of ancient Hellas. The culture of the Thracians was formed as a culture of synthesis.

with oriental arts

The art of Asia Minor from the beginning of the 1st millennium BC has influenced the development of the art of all surrounding peoples. In the arts of these peoples, recreated ideas, motifs and ornaments coming from Asia Minor are found. For example, in the pre-Scythian art of the Caucasus, many bronze ornaments were made by local craftsmen, introducing animal decoration, and along with it, animal figurines are also found. This is the so-called "Cimmerian period". We observe similar phenomena in the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, along with the Danube River valley, an area that touches Asia.

Although, for example, the axes with decorated heels, the applications to the horse harnesses and the animal figurines are made in a geometric style, they express ideas that passed to Thrace from Anatolia via the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles. These ideas were recreated by the Thracian masters in their own style, and from Thrace they spread to other regions of Southeastern Europe, as evidenced by the Cimmerian monuments discovered in these areas. Thracian art, like Scythian, was cultivated in the palaces of the kings and the aristocracy. The influence of Anatolian art in Thrace intensified towards the end of the 6th century BC, as a result of the Persian occupation of the southern Thracian regions. During this period, the Thracians began to abandon their old geometric art, adopting many of the characteristic stylistic features of Persian art. These are ideas, forms and motifs from the pre-Achaemenid period of Persian art. Or in other words, thanks to the interaction with the art of neighboring peoples, conditions are created for geometrization as a stylistic technique to be combined with another basic stylistic technique – schematization.

The intensive development of Thracian art covers the period from the end of the 6th to the beginning of the 3rd century BC, coinciding with its heyday. Already at the beginning of the 5th century BC, a complete change occurred in the subject, decorative and iconographic repertoire of Thracian art.

Thracian and Scythian art, originating from a common source – the art of Anatolia, developed primarily as decorative applied arts, especially as decoration of individual objects and vessels. The common thing that connects these arts, which developed on the shores of the Black Sea, is horse harness. They adopted the idea of decorating horse harness with animal images from Anatolian art, but developed it significantly during the period of the 5th and 4th centuries BC.

As for the direct influence of the art of the Orient in Thrace, a typical example of it are the domed tombs in architecture, in which we have bright Persian styles and features in the toreutics. The largest part of such domed tombs are found primarily on the territory of the Odrysian Kingdom, with a large number of them concentrated in the Valley of the Thracian Kings. During the most developed state formation on the territory of Thrace, namely the Odrysian Kingdom, a fundamental factor for the intensive development of Thracian art were the ideas of the Thracian kings to turn their state into a European Persia. They undertook long campaigns with the aim of conquering territories, and the kings, aristocrats and military leaders wore breastplates, decorations on their horses, and shields similar to those worn in Persia. They decorated their tables with exquisitely crafted vessels - rhytons, phials, jugs and others. During the Odrysian Kingdom, a number of monumental tombs were also erected, many of which followed Mycenaean traditions in the eastern Mediterranean.

with Greek art

The culture of the Thracians was formed as a culture of synthesis, which is also true for Thracian art. In Thrace, culture and art were formed, permeated with elements of Greek culture, mainly thanks to the influence of the Greek colonies in Chalkidiki, as well as under the direct influence of the culture and art of continental Greece - an influence penetrating into Thrace through Thessaly, along the Vardar River valley. This influence, expressed in the adoption of characteristic examples of ancient Greek applied art, penetrated Thrace and gradually became an integral part of Thracian art.

A number of archaeological discoveries testify that as early as the 4th century BC, some of the Thracian rulers invited Greek engravers, whom they commissioned to make bronze dies for minting coins. Evidence of this is the discovered coins minted during the time of the Thracian ruler Seuthes III. They commissioned sculptors to make bronze statues, such as the discovered bronze boar from the bronze group in the tomb in Mezek near Svilengrad. The Thracian rulers and part of the Thracian aristocracy commissioned painters to paint their palaces and tombs, but not only local masters, but also masters from mainland Greece and the Greek colonies in Pontic Thrace. From the colonies in Pontic Thrace in the 5th-4th centuries BC, not only Greek merchants, mercenaries and military commanders, but also craftsmen, builders and painters penetrated into the interior of all of Thrace. Based on these penetrations, the influence of Greek art on Thracian art intensified. Gradually, monumental sculpture and painting were introduced - arts that had not previously existed in Thrace.

Under the influence of the peculiarities imposed on him by the Achaemenid style and the perception of the motifs, characteristic features and the best examples of Greek art, the Thracian master of applied art tried to limit the use of highly decorative conventional means, showing a certain amount of realism, an example of which is the faithful representation of human and animal figures. Typical examples of this are the decorations of the bronze door of the tomb in Mezek and the statue of the boar, as well as the tombs of the rulers painted by painters.

There is a number of testimonies that as early as the end of the 6th century BC, toreutics, as a technique for processing precious metals or bronze through dies or stamps, as well as through chiseling, gradually became the main expressive form of Thracian art. The larger number of metal vessels produced, including those made of precious metals and bronze, met the needs of the Thracian rulers and the aristocracy. The excavations discovered from this and subsequent periods are proof that Thracian toreutics is a result of cultural and historical interactions with the peoples of the surrounding countries. Excavations in recent decades testify that during this period Thrace, in terms of toreutics and jewelry, had already overtaken a number of countries in Central Europe.

During the heyday of Thracian art, the appearance of the human figure in the images on various objects and vessels became mandatory, thereby signifying the participation of people in the full cycle of the revival of nature and the passage of man through the stages of self-improvement and overcoming value tests, which the Thracian dynasties went through in their quest for immortality.

Very common are the plots and episodes related to value tests for the hero-king, as well as manifestations of the supreme creator (the Great Goddess - Mother) and the sacred marriage with her. Thracian iconography uses various ways of presenting religious-ideological content - zoomorphic, anthropomorphic, phytomorphic, objective.

Thracian treasure

Panagyurishte Treasure

The Panagyurishte Treasure (Bulgarian: Панагюрско златно съкровище) is a Thracian treasure. The treasure consists of a phiale, an amphora, three oinochoai and four rhytons with total weight of 6.164 kg of 24-karat gold. All nine vessels are richly and skilfully decorated. It is dated from the turn of the 4th-3rd centuries BC. It is thought to have been used as a royal ceremonial set by the Thracian king Seuthes III.

The items may have been buried to hide them during 4th century BC invasions of the area by the Celts or Macedonians. The phiale carries inscriptions giving its weight in Greek drachmae and Persian darics.

Rogozen Treasure

The Rogozen Treasure (Bulgarian: Рогозенско съкровище), called the find of the century, is a Thracian treasure. It was discovered by chance in the autumn of 1985 by tractor driver Ivan Dimitrov, digging a hole for an irrigation system in his garden in the Bulgarian village of Rogozen. On January 6,1986 an archaeological team, consisting of Bogdan Nikolov, Spas Mashov and Plamen Ivanov from the County Historical Museum(Regional Historical Museum) in Vratsa discovered a second half, consisting of 100 silver and gilded silver vessels. 

It consists of 165 receptacles, including 108 phiales, 55 jugs and 3 goblets. The objects are silver with golden gilt on some of them with total weight of more than 20 kilograms (44 lb). The treasure is an invaluable source of information for the life of the Thracians, due to the variety of motifs in the richly decorated objects. It is dated back to the 5th–4th centuries B.C.

Valchitran Treasure

The Valchitran Treasure or Vulchitrun Treasure (Bulgarian: Вълчитрънско златно съкровище) is an early Thracian treasure. It was discovered on 28 December 1924 by two brothers who were working in their vineyard near the village of Valchitran, 22 km southeast of Pleven, Bulgaria.

The hoard consists of 13 receptacles, different in form and size, and weighs in total 12.5 kg: two round platters, five round domed pieces, two with central handles, three cups with handles, a jug with handle, three leaf shaped vessels with handles, a bowl with two handles (4.5 kg of gold)

The gold metal has a natural mixture of 9.7% silver. The scientists dated the treasure back to 1300 BC, at the time of the Thracians. It is now one of the most valuable possessions of the National Archaeological Museum in Sofia.

Borovo Treasure

The Borovo Treasure, also known as the Borovo Silver Treasure, is a Thracian hoard of five matching silver-gilt items discovered in late 1974 while ploughing a field in Borovo, Bulgaria.The discovery was made while ploughing a field approximately 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) from the village of Borovo, Ruse, in Bulgaria. Unfortunately, the plow severely damaged objects, but after extensive restoration work, the damage is nearly invisible.

The inscription on the sphinx rhyta indicates that the treasure may have been a gift to a local Getic ruler from the king Cotys I (382-359 BC), who reigned in the Odrysian Kingdom from 383 to 359 BC. It is for this reason that the treasure is considered to be from the early to mid fourth century BC.

The treasure is kept in the history museum at Ruse. The treasure consists of a table set of five silver-gilt items: Three rhyta, each a different size, and with a different base. The largest has a figure of a sphinx and bears the inscription: "[Belongs to] Cotys from [the town of] Beos.", as well as the name of the craftsman, Etbeos. The second has a figure of a horse, and the third, the smallest, has a bull. Each are half figures. A large, two-handled bowl: This item is decorated with a relief of a deer being attacked by a griffin. A rhyta jug with images gods at a feast, scenes showing the mythological cycles, with images of Dionysus and Heracles, satyrs, griffons, and sphinxes.

Lukovit Treasure

The Lukovit Treasure (Bulgarian: Луковитско съкровище) is a silver Thracian treasure. It was discovered in 1953 near the town of Lukovit, Lovech Province, northwestern Bulgaria. It consists of two groups of objects: plates, applications for horse bridles and vessels, 9 phiales, 3 ewers and a bowl.

The objects are made of silver, some of them gilded in order to reinforce the artistic images and to put emphasis on the ornaments. Phiales and the bowl are richly adorned with ornaments, depicting floral shapes, human heads and other artistic elements. On the applications various animals are portrayed – lion, gryphon, dog, stag and others.

There are also depictions of equestrians, typical of Thracian art. On two of the plates there is a lion jumping on a deer, kneeling under the weight of the beast. Another plate depicts two horsemen chasing lions, which are already overtaken and fallen under the hoofs of the horses. These scenes in the Thracian art bear a certain social meaning. They are connected to glorifying the royal power. The rulers and their companies did spread by all possible means the legends for their exceptional divine origin and even by the trimming of the horse bridles made the common subjects to have faith and to obey.

The Lukovit Treasure is dated from 4th century BC and was made by different craftsmen. It was most probably buried in the ground during Alexander the Great's invasion of the north-western Thracian lands.

Sourced from Wikipedia