Ancient Thrace’s Largest Gold Treasure, Valchitran Treasure, to Be Shown in Bulgaira’s Black Sea City Burgas for the First Time

May 8, 2019 · by Ivan Dikov · in Ancient Thrace, Antiquity, Bulgarian Empire, Cultural Tourism, Exhibitions, Middle Ages

The Valchitran Gold Treasure is the largest treasure from Ancient Thrace in terms of weight. Photo: Wikipedia

The largest gold treasure from Ancient Thrace, the Valchitran Gold Treasure, which dates back to the end of the Late Bronze Age, is to be showcased for the first time in Bulgaria’s Black Sea city of Burgas.

The Valchitran Gold Treasure consists of a total of 13 items with a gold content of over 88% (with the rest being silver and copper), weighing a combined total of nearly 12.5 kg.

In terms of weight, it is the largest known Ancient Thracian gold treasure, and one of the largest treasures of gold archaeological artifacts in the world.

One of the vessels of the Valchitran Gold Treasure weighs 4.5 kg. The treasure consists of 13 vessels, including seven vessels in the shape of lids, four cups (one large, three smaller ones), a vessel consisting of three leaf-shaped interconnected vessels, and the largest vessel, a krater similar to a kantharos (a large cup with a pair of handles).

The Valchitran Gold Treasure is dated to the 16^th-12^th century BC, i.e. the end of the Bronze Age, the time of Ancient Mycenae, and Ancient Troy as discribed by ancient poet Homer in the Iliad.

The Valchitran Gold Treasure is believed to have been used for rituals by Ancient Thracian priest-kings.

It was discovered by accident during the cultivation of a wine yard near the town of Valchitran, Pleven District, in Northwest Bulgaria, back in 1925.

The exhibition of the “Thracian Gold Treasure from Valchitran” is to be opened in the Treasury Hall of the Regional Museum of History in the Black Sea city of Burgas on May 18, 2019, as part of the European Night of Museums.

It will be available for viewing by visitors of Bulgaria’s Southern Black Sea coast throughout the summer.

The Valchitran Gold Treasure will be showcased in Burgas with a replica owned by the Regional Museum of History in the northern city of Pleven.

The original of the largest gold treasure from Ancient Thrace is kept at the Treasury Hall of the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia.

However, the original of the Valchitran Gold Treasure will also be showcased in a different exhibition, at the Plovdiv Museum of Archaeology in the city of Plovdiv in Central South Bulgaria.

The Valchitran Gold Treasure will be presented in Burgas with an official replica, while the original will be showcased at a different exhibition in Plovdiv. Photo: Burgas Regional Museum of History

In addition to the largest gold treasure from Ancient Thrace dating back to the 2^nd millennium BC, for the May 2019 edition of the European Night of Museums, the Burgas Regional Museum of History is also going to present another amazing archaeological treasure from Bulgaria’s history.

Namely, the Pereshchepina Treasure consisting of 50 kg of gold and silver items. The early medieval Pereshchepina Treasure was discovered in 1912 in today’s Ukraine, and is believed to have belonged to Ancient Bulgar ruler Khan Kubrat (r. ca. 632 – ca. 665 AD), the founder of the so called Old Great Bulgaria and, respectively, of the First Bulgarian Empire (632/680 – 1018 AD).

The Pereshchepina Treasure consists of more than 800 pieces, including 16 gold and 19 silver vessels, and is part of the collection of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, today’s Russia, the capital of the Russian Empire at the time when the treasure was discovered by accident.

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