site.btaResearchers Identify Pigments Used in Wall Decoration in Teketo Thracian Tomb

Researchers have identified pigments that were used in the decoration of walls in the Thracian tomb at the village of Teketo in southeastern Bulgaria, said the Regional History Museum in Haskovo Friday. Having analyzed samples from the  wall upper coat in the laboratories of the Institutes of Physical Chemistry and of Organic Chemistry with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, they identified seven colours.

The archaeologists have also prepared a 3D reconstruction of the original design of the tomb before the damage it has suffered since Antiquity. 

They are yet to do anthropological studies of the bones found in the tomb but they already know that the person buried there was an adult male. Six bone fragments have been sent for tests in Germany for precise dating.

The necropolis at Teketo was found in April by a team of archaeologists led by Dr Georgi Nehrizov from the National Archaeology Institute with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The archaeologists ran a fund-raiser to fund their work at Teketo which they expected to be a major discovery. When they unearthed the whole tomb, they found out that treasure hunters had already been there fore them and that most of the colourful tomb decoration had been destroyed.