site.btaNational Archaeological Museum Displays Bulgarian Treasures in Vienna

National Archaeological Museum  Displays Bulgarian Treasures in Vienna

Sofia, February 28 (BTA) - An exhibition "The First Gold. Ada Tepe: Europe's Oldest Gold Mine" will open at Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Muzeum on March 6. It is organized by the National Archaeological Institute with Museum (NAIM) with the Bulgarian Academy.

NAIM Deputy Director and exhibition curator Hristo Popov said: "This is the first exhibition of its kind outside Bulgaria. It showcases the development of culture and civilization on the lands of present-day Bulgaria during the Bronze Age. Ada Tepe is Europe's only known goldmine dating from the Bronze Age."

The exhibition presents the development of metalworking during the Bronze Age and more specifically the crafting of gold an bronze objects and their place in the social and religious life of the people that inhabited Bulgarian lands. Among the 333 artefacts are gold jewellery and vessels, bronze tools and weaponry, bronze blocks and molds and a small number of silver jewellery.

The highlight of the exhibition will be finds from the Ada Tepe gold mine: stone tools for gold mining and processing, ceramic vessels, and objects from the everyday life of the ancient miners. The most impressive find to be displayed in Vienna is the unique Vulchitran treasure, which comprises gold objects weighing around 12,5 kilograms. On display will be gold jewellery from the early and middle Bronze Age including the Svishtov Treasure, and finds from the tombs at Dubene, Izvorovo, Troyanovo and Ovchartsi.

The exhibition will be on until June 25. It will be displayed at Sofia's National Archaeological Museum in the autumn with slight alterations putting an emphasis on the Bronze Age.

The exhibition is part of a project entitled "Bronze Age Gold Road of the Balkans- Ada Tepe Mining: Producers and Consumers", implemented by NAIM and the Institute for Oriental and European Archaeology with the Austrian Academy of Sciences. For the past two years Bulgarian and Austrian archaeologists and i experts have analyzed finds uncovered during longstanding excavations at the Ada Tepe mine near Krumovgrad.