site.btaValuable Bulgarian Archaeological Artefacts Go on Display at Canadian Museum of History

Valuable Bulgarian archaeological artefacts are on display in the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa as part of a major exhibition titled "First Royals of Europe". The opening event was held April 4 and the Museum’s hall was filled to capacity with hundreds of guests, among them Bulgarian Ambassador Plamen Georgiev, said the Bulgarian Embassy in Ottawa Tuesday. 

Ottawa is one of the stops for the travelling exhibition. It was first displayed, in September 2022, at New York’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World under the title of Ritual and Memory: The Ancient Balkans and Beyond. Then it travelled to the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago in March 2023. The tour of North America will end at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Quebec, in 2025. 

Drawing from the collections of 25 museums and archaeological institutes in 11 countries in the Balkan Peninsula, the 700 sq m exhibition explores how a small number of individuals established tremendous power and influence over others. Starting their journey 8,000 years ago during the Neolithic Period and ending 2,500 years ago in the world of Iron Age kings, visitors will encounter archaeological finds that have never been shown in North America. Weapons, jewelry, and tools tell the story of how individuals gained power and influence by amassing wealth and controlling trade, technology, rituals, and warfare, say the organizers.

The exhibition includes more than 200 artifacts and artifact groupings, full-size replications and touchable models, mechanical and digital interactives and large media elements and video.

The Bulgarian exhibits

Bulgaria is sending a large part of the Malomirovo-Zlatinitsa treasure, including a gold crown, a gold ring, a kneebrace and a rhyton, the National History Museum (NHM) in Sofia told BTA as the exhibition was about to open for the first time in 2022. This makes up for nearly the entire grave goods discovered in the grave of one who was probably a Thracian aristocrat. (See below photos of some of the exhibits).

The Borovo treasure, displayed at NHM but belonging to the Ruse Museum, is also part of the exhibition.

Another interesting artefact, also from Ruse, is a bronze billet – a Late Bronze Age semi-finished cast used by tool makers with the form of an ox skin. 

This is a major project for NHM as prior to it exhibits had not left Bulgaria to take part in such an undertaking for quite some time. 

The First Kings of Europe project is the first large-scale example of cooperation of this kind between North America and Southeast Europe, with three Bulgarian museums playing a central part, NHM said. Project participants on the Bulgarian side also include the Varna Regional History Museum and the Ruse Regional History Museum.

The Bulgarian participation was financially supported by the America for Bulgaria Foundation.

Some 750,000 visitors are expected to see the exhibition during its tour.