- Title: U.K.: EXHIBITION OF ANCIENT THRACIAN TREASURES FROM BULGARIA OPENS IN LONDON.
- Date: 7th January 1976
- Summary: 1. GV EXT British Museum. 0.03 2. ZOOM IN TO CU Map of Eastern Europe showing Smolyan area. 0.13 3. GV Bulgarian officials looking at treasures. 0.18 4. CU PAN Greave-knee plate in shape of woman's head. 0.24 5. CU Gold bowl. 0.29 6. CU Women looking at treasures. 0.30 7. CU Golden bowl ZOOM OUT TO bowl with rams head. (2 shots) 0.46 8. CU Gold plate with negroes' heads carved into side. 0.58 9. CU Women looking on. 1.00 10. MS ZOOM IN TO Marble slab depicting three nudes. 1.09 11. GV Silver helmets 1.12 12. CU Silver helmet. 1.17 Initials VS 23.15 VS 23.30 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 22nd January 1976 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LONDON, U.K.
- City:
- Country: United Kingdom
- Reuters ID: LVABDYQWMQW825YUJ340H0N62BFN
- Story Text: An exhibition of priceless works of art by the ancient people, the Thracians, has opened at the British Museum in London.
The exhibition has been lent to the Museum by the Bulgarian government.
The ancient Thracians occupied an area around the Black Sea in what is now Bulgaria, Romania and the Soviet Union.
Some of the articles included in the exhibition date back further than 6,000 BC.
The Thracian people left no written record of their history and modern man's knowledge of them is dependent mainly on archaeological discoveries.
The most important of the finds occurred two years ago when a workman operating a bulldozer near the town of Varna dug up several small gold objects.
These objects turned out to be the first of many such remains of the Thracian people in an area that appears to have been a fourth millennium necropolis.
Sixty six graves have so far been excavated and so many gold ornaments have now been discovered that the organisers of the London exhibition have had to content themselves with the objects found in only two of the graves.
Many of the gold artifacts now seem to be the oldest gold objects ever found in Europe....1000 years older than the gold found at the site of ancient Troy and contemporary with the first dynasties of Egypt.
Also included in the exhibition is a set of gold vessels dated at around 1600 BC.
From the fourth century comes a magnificent gold and silver greave....or article of leg armour in the shape of a woman's head.
There are also several silver war helmets showing the influence the Romans had on Thracian art at around AD 100.
The exhibition shows the importance the present Bulgarian government places on the work of archaeologists in discovering the history of the proud independent people who once inhabited the area.
SYNOPSIS: At the British Museum in London a special exhibition has just opened. The exhibition shows recent archaeological discoveries from the area around the Black Sea. The exhibition is on loan from the Bulgarian Government whose officials, including the Cultural Attache to Britain, attended the opening.
The exhibition has excited archaeologists throughout the world as it shows that the people who inhabited the area around the Black Sea had already formed an advanced culture nearly eight thousand years ago.
This gold bowl has unearthed by a Bulgarian framer in the nineteen twenties. He used it to feed his pigs in. It has now been established that the bowl was used by the ancient Thracians, immortalised by the fifth century Greek historian, Herodtus. These archaeological finds have proved that the Thracians did indeed exist and were not merely legendary.
A large crowd attended the first day of the exhibition which included beautifully cared objects in terracotta, bone and marble.
These silver helmets show the influence the romans had on the people of the area after about one thousand A.D.
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