Varna Golden Treasure, Black Sea Coast, Varna, Bulgaria
The Varna Gold Treasure is considered the world's oldest gold treasure or the world's oldest processed gold dating back to the Chalcolithic (Paleolithic, Copper Age) - 4,550-4,320 BC.
The gold treasure was discovered by chance in 1972 in graves, which became known as the Varna Copper Cemetery in the Black Sea city of Bulgaria.
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| Varna Golden Treasure |
Using radiocarbon dating, in 2006, the date of the Varna Treasure, known as the oldest and largest gold treasure in the world, was dated to 4560-4,450 BC.
The Varna Gold Treasure is one of the prehistoric gold treasures found, all from the Late Copper Age, the treasure was discovered in Bulgaria, which claims to be the "oldest gold in the world", that is, the oldest treasure of gold or processed gold.
Other prehistoric gold treasures from the same time period are the Hotnitsa Gold Treasure, the Durankulak Gold Treasure, the Sakar Gold Treasure as well as gold items such as beads and jewelry found at Provadiya - the Solnitsata (“salt pit”) settlement mound.
Because it is the largest gold treasure, the Varna Gold Treasure is often worthy of the title of "the world's oldest gold treasure".
All these treasures are the product of the first civilization in Europe, known as "Ancient Europe."
The Varna Golden Treasure was discovered by chance in 1972 in the so-called Varna Copper Cemetery during the construction of a canning factory, by a digger worker, Rayko Marinov, then 22 years old. The worker found several artifacts, collecting them in a shoe box. And he took her to his house. Two days later he told local archaeologists.
Marinov received a reward of 500 Bulgarian lev (BGN) (about $300 in today's money), a large sum at the time, which the intelligence services of the Bulgarian communist regime tracked for a while to ensure that he did not keep any artifacts for himself in order to sell them.
In 2015, the Varna Gold Treasure was displayed at the European Union Parliament in Brussels, and Marinov was invited as a special guest 43 years after he discovered the world's oldest gold treasure by accident in his youth.
A total of 294 Chalcolithic graves were discovered in the cemetery that was excavated by Bulgarian archaeologists, but about 30% of the estimated area of the cemetery has not yet been excavated.
Finds from the cemetery indicate that the Varna culture had trade relations with the Black Sea and Mediterranean regions.
Among the graves, numerous golden artefacts have emerged indicating that as early as the Chalcolithic, the Balkan Peninsula (south-eastern Europe) had some form of state and royal institution.
Gold artifacts from the Varna Copper Cemetery were found in graves with skeletons (mostly male)
The Varna Golden Treasure includes more than 3,000 gold artifacts classified into 28 different types with a total gross weight of 6.5 kg.
More than 5 kilograms of all the gold artifacts were found in three graves, in addition to grave No. 43, which contains the skeleton of a man who may have been a ruler or a royal priest. The weight of the gold pieces reached about 1.5 kilograms.
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| Varna Golden Treasure in Bulgaria |
Nearby but outside the Varna Copper Cemetery, archaeologists have discovered three other graves from an earlier period. These three graves have not been dated to the Late Chalcolithic but rather to the Middle Chalcolithic, i.e. closer to 5000 BC. In one of the graves there was a bracelet made of gold cylinders on a string. The bracelet in question could be the oldest man-made gold artifact in the world.
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| Treasure Varna Bulgaria |
In another grave of the Varna Copper Cemetery, Grave No. 36, archaeologists found more than 850 gold objects - crown, earrings, necklace, pectoral, bracelets, belt, golden hammer, scepter, chalice. A model of a sickle, two gold plates representing animals, 30 models of horned animal heads.