site.btaUPDATED Artefacts from Thracian King's Seuthes III Tomb to Be Exhibited in Getty Museum

More than 30 movable cultural objects from the rich burial of Thracian ruler Seuthes III from the tomb in the Golyama Kosmatka mound near Kazanlak will be presented by the local Iskra History Museum within the "Ancient Thrace and the Classical World. Treasures from Bulgaria, Romania and Greece" at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles, USA, Meglena Purvin, archaeologist and Chief Curator at the Antiquities Department of the cultural institute told BTA. 

The tomb in Golyama Kosmatka mound was studied in 2004 by a team led by Assoc. Prof. Georgi Kitov and is among the most impressive monuments of Thracian funerary architecture.

The most remarkable artefacts from the tomb in the Golyamata Kosmatka mound will be exhibited at the Getty Museum. 

The bronze head - portrait of Seuthes III, which is part of the collection of the National Archaeological Institute with Museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, will be displayed for the second time after the exhibition entitled "The Epopee of Thracian Kings: Archaeological Finds in Bulgaria", held in the Louvre, France, in 2015, together with the exhibits stored in the museum in Kazanlak, Purvin explained. 

That means visitors to the exhibit at the Los Angeles museum will be able to see the full set of artefacts from the tomb in one place, she added. 

The golden oak wreath, which is the only oak wreath found on the territory of Bulgaria, will be on display. Also on display will be a golden wine goblet (kylix), a silver jug and phiale, a bronze askos and bronze patera, as well as an amphora for transporting wine, which are typical vessels from the banquet set of the Thracians.

Exhibits from the full set of the ruler's armament will include the Chalcidian-type bronze helmet and the exquisite bronze greaves with the image of Athena Palada, which are unparalleled to date. The exhibits also include a sword with a parade scabbard decorated with gold inlays, as well as gold appliques that adorned the parade composite armour, probably made as a special commission for the ruler. Among the masterpieces of Thracian toreutics that visitors to the John Paul Getty Museum will have the opportunity to see is the complete set of gold appliques from the horse trappings. In the exhibition, the Iskra Museum is also presenting some of Seuthes' personal belongings, including a pair of strigils and alabastrons (containers for storing incense oils), a silver pyxis (clamshell container) and a game set of glass pools and bronze dice, Parvin added.

The tomb at Golyama Kosmatka Mound proves a rare opportunity to be linked to a specific historical personality.

The tomb in the Golyamata Kosmatka was discovered and studied in the autumn of 2004 by a team led by Assoc. Prof. Georgi Kitov. It consists of a monumental facade, followed by a cantilevered rectangular chamber, a circular chamber covered with a dome and a rectangular monolithic sarcophagus-like chamber. A dromos (corridor) was later added to these, in front of which a second monumental façade was built. In the last chamber a symbolic burial (cenotaph) was made with a rich inventory. The data collected from some of the objects, provided the rare opportunity to link the tomb to a specific historical person. Three of the finds - the two silver vessels (the phiale and the jug) and the helmet, bear the inscription ΣΕΥΘΟΥ (of Seuthes). Four Bronze coins struck with the face of this Thracian ruler were found on the floor at the beginning of the corridor, and the bronze head found in front of the tomb bears striking similarities in detail to the images from the same coins. 

Seuthes III was an Odrysian ruler, contemporary of Philip II, Alexander the Great and the Diadochi. He is assumed to have died between 300 and 295 BC. The circumstances surrounding the place and date of his death remain unknown, complicating the chronology of his symbolic burial in the Golyamata Kosmatka mound. It was probably carried out either at the death of Seuthes, or at least two decades afterwards at the end of the first quarter - beginning of the second quarter of the 3rd century BC, Parvin further pointed out.

Iskra History Museum in Kazanlak keeps more than 80,000 artefacts

In addition to the those that will be displayed in Los Angeles, the Iskra Museum also preserves a number of artefacts characterizing the material and spiritual culture of the region from the early Neolithic to the present day, the Director of the cultural institution, Dr. Momchil Marinov, told BTA. The museum was founded in 1901 by Petar Topuzov and Ivan Enchev- Vidyu as a museum of ancient arts with the principle of "Whatever antiquities and arts exist, or are found in the town and the surrounding area, should be collected and preserved". 

Today, the museum's collections and expositions contain more than 80,000 exhibits, divided into nine departments, the director said. The museum manages several accessible sites - the permanent exposition in the main building, the Rose Museum, the Ethnographic Complex "Kulata", the Kazanlak Tomb, which is one of the Bulgarian monuments under the auspices of UNESCO, and another five accessible to the public  tombs in Valley of the Thracian Kings.

The permanent exposition of the museum is arranged on several levels, presenting the most attractive exhibits of high academic and artistic value from the nine departments. Highlights include the collection of prehistoric bone sickles, finds from the Thracian city of Seutopolis and Thracian tombs, medieval weaponry, and exhibits related to the struggles for an independent Bulgarian church and the New Bulgarian education of the National Revival period.

In addition to the permanent exposition, temporary exhibitions are organized in the multimedia hall of the museum with exhibits from the collections that are not on display or those visiting from other museums in the country, said Dr. Marinov.

The museum also organizes a number of events. A case in point and a great contribution to the development of Thracology as a science is the annual scientific forum "Problems and Studies of Thracian Culture", which is part of the Festive Days in the Valley of the Thracian Kings, held in Kazanlak. the ten volumes published under the same title are the result of the promotion of scientific research. 

The exhibition Ancient Thrace and the Classical World: Treasures from Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles will open on November 3 and run until March 3, 2025. The objects from Bulgaria represent over 90% of all exhibits included in the exhibition, as the core of the ancient Thracian lands overlap with the territory of present-day Bulgaria. Artefacts from Greece and Romania are also included for the first time in such an exposition.