Bulgaria’s National Institute and Museum of Archaeology to Showcase Top Finds from 2017 in Major Annual Exhibition

January 29, 2018 · by Ivan Dikov · in Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome / Roman Empire, Ancient Thrace, Antiquity, Bulgarian Empire, Byzantine Empire, Exhibitions, Middle Ages, Museums & Institutes, Ottoman Empire, Prehistory, Underwater Archaeology

One of the official posters for the 2017 annual Bulgarian Archaeology exhibition features the nephrite amulet buckle made in China and discovered in Bulgaria’s Black Sea Kaliakra Cape Fortress. Photo: National Institute and Museum of Archaeology

Bulgaria’s National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia is set to open in February its 11^th annual “Bulgarian Archaeology” exhibition which is to showcase some of the most exciting items discovered during the 2017 archaeological season.

The 2017 Bulgarian Archaeology exhibition will be opened from February 17 until April 1, 2018, in the National Museum of Archaeology building near the Bulgarian Presidency in downtown Sofia.

In addition to the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology, a body of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, a total of 17 other museums of archaeology and history from across Bulgaria will be co-organizers of the exhibition and will contribute artifacts for its displays.

These are the National Museum of History in Sofia, the Plovdiv Museum of Archaeology, the Blagoevgrad Regional Museum of History, the Veliko Tarnovo Regional Museum of History, the Vidin Regional Museum of History, the Pazardzhik Regional Museum of History, the Museum of Sofia History (Sofia Regional Museum of History), the Shumen Regional Museum of History, the Maritsa East Museum of Archaeology in Radnevo, the Old Nessebar Museum, the Sredets Museum of History, the Belogradchik Museum of History, the Dimitrovgrad Museum of History, the Dryanovo Museum of History, the Petrich Museum of History, the Svilengrad Museum of History, and the Sevlievo Museum of History.

The archaeological artifacts to be on display in the 2017 Bulgarian Archaeology exhibition will include gold decorations, bronze figurines, sophisticated glass vessels, marble statues, ceramic anthropomorphic figurines and vessels, among many others.

The items cover all time periods: Prehistory, Antiquity, Middle Ages, the earliest dating back to the Paleolithic, over 40,000 BC.

The 2017 Bulgarian Archaeology exhibition is going to feature some 340 archaeological artifacts in total discovered in 22 archaeological sites over the 2017 season.

The discoveries from dozens of other archaeological sites from across Bulgaria are to be presented at the exhibition with posters.

One of the official posters for the 2017 Bulgarian Archaeology exhibition released by the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology features one of the most intriguing discoveries of 2017: a 14^th century nephrite amulet buckle made in China and probably brought to Bulgaria by the Mongols (Tatars) which was discovered in the Kaliakra Fortress on the Kaliakra Cape on the Black Sea coast.

Other artifacts to be showcased in the exhibition include:

Artifacts from the Early Iron Age and Late Roman settlement with a bi-ritual necropolis found in rescue digs near Moshtanets in Southwest Bulgaria;

The marble statue of Egyptian goddess Isis and a satyr’s head discovered at the Roman villa with nymphaeum in Kasnakovo, Southern Bulgaria;

Artifacts from the excavations of the Ancient Roman city of Serdica in downtown Sofia, which include bronze figurines of Dyonisus, Eros, and Cupid;

A Roman Era gold necklace discovered in the ancient city of Heraclea Sintica near Petrich in Southwest Bulgaria;

Encrusted pottery from a Bronze Age necropolis found in Bulgaria’s Danube town of Baley;

Anthropomorphic figurines found in the huge Late Neolithic settlement near Damyanitsa in Southwest Bulgaria.

The 6,500-year-old gold amulet, which easily ranks among the world’s oldest gold artifacts, which has been found in Yunatsite Settlement Mound in Southern Bulgaria;

A well-preserved 5th century BC pottery krater from the Ancient Greek colony of Apollonia Pontica in Bulgaria’s Black Sea town of Sozopol depicting Oedipus and the Sphinx from the Greek mythology;

Paleolithic artifacts from the Bacho Kiro Cave near Dryanovo in Central Bulgaria;

The latests finds from the Nebet Tepe Fortress in the southern Bulgarian city of Plovdiv;

Artifacts from the Provadiya – Solnitsata (“The Salt Pit”) prehistoric settlement in Northeast Bulgaria known as Europe’s oldest town.

Among the tens of archaeological research projects to be presented with posters will be the findings of the Black Sea M.A.P. underwater archaeology initiative which has discovered dozens of very well preserved ancient ships in the Bulgarian section of the Black Sea.

Another site to be presented with a poster is the Roman villa estate and ceramics factory where ancient mirror frames have been discovered.

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