Striking Stake Burial with Gold Finds of Thracian – Roman Noble Warrior Discovered in Southeast Bulgaria

Archaeologists have just made a striking discovery – the burial of an Ancient Thracian aristocrat who was also a Roman warrior – and it is packed full of armaments and gold and precious stone finds, in a rare, previously untouched burial mound at the town of Kapitan Petko Voyvoda, Topolovgrad Municipality, in Southeast Bulgaria.

The archaeological team who made the discovery of the Thraco-Roman noble’s burial near Topolovgrad is led by Prof. Daniela Agre, a well-known expert in Thracian archaeology.

All of Ancient Thrace south of the Danube, including the powerfully Odrysian Kingdom (5^th century BC – 1^st century AD) was conquered by the Roman Empire in 46 AD, with the Thracian aristocracy and population becoming well integrated in Roman public life.

The man in the newly found was apparently both a senior Thracian aristocrat and a Roman warrior, and his ashes were laid to rest with multiple gold artifacts and adornments, the Bulgarian National Television informs in a report.

The report did not reveal the specific dating of the burial but it was apparently attributed to Thrace’s Roman period – 1^st – 4^th century AD, when the respective region was part of the Roman Empire’s Thracia province.

The archaeological team has described their discovery of the Thraco-Roman grave as “absolute luck for science” due to the fact that all neighboring ancient burial mounds had been destroyed by vicious treasure hunters.

The treasure hunters, however, for whatever reason, didn’t manage to penetrate the tumulus of the newly discovered Thracian and Roman noble’s grave.

(Treasure hunting obliterating archaeological and historical monuments in Bulgaria on a gigantic scale is a plight of mind-blowing proportions, as explained in Ivan Dikov’s book “Plunder Paradise” – editor’s note.)

The burial of the Thracian – Roman aristocrat from some 2,000 years ago near Bulgaria’s Topolovgrad has been discovered during the rescue archaeological digs for the construction of solar power plant.

The Ancient Thracian nobleman was buried after his body was burned at a stake.

The archaeologists have concluded that he was on Roman military service based on the artifacts found in the grave.

The Thraco-Roman warrior was buried together with his horse whose ammunition is also extremely rich in adornments.

The archaeologists have found inside the Roman-Era grave a gold bracelet, a gold tiara, a gold ring, and a hunting knife whose sheath is decorated with precious stones.

The ammunition of the Thracian – Roman warrior’s horse is also decorated with gold appliques.

The other artifacts unearthed in the ancient grave include a sword and a sheath, several types of knives and spears, and a chainmail armor.

“The grave contains the full military accoutrements of this warrior. Here [we] have [found] a very interesting knitted chainmail, which was of a very rare type during the Roman Era,” lead archaeologist Daniela Agre explains.

“[There is also] a gorgeous hunting knife with a sheath decorated with precious stones, with motifs that we’ve never seen before in the Ancient Thrace from that period. [There is also] a gold necklace, which, too, has had no analogies in our country,” she elaborates.

The newly discovered Thracian – Roman gold adornments and other artifacts will be put on display within several days in the History Museum in the nearby town of Elhovo in Southeast Bulgaria.

They will be showcased in a space secure room. In the meantime, the newly excavated Thracian – Roman burial mound near the towns of Kapitan Petko Voyvoda and Topolovgrad will be guarded by the local police.

According to Topolovgrad Municipality, it boasts 96 cultural, historical, and archaeological monuments, including 16 which are classified as being of “national significance.”

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Background Infonotes:

The Ancient Thracians were an ethno-cultural group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting much of Southeast Europe from about the middle of the second millennium BC to about the 6^th century AD on the territory of modern-day Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Greece, Turkey, Macedonia, Serbia.

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The Odrysian Kingdom was a union of Thracian tribes dominated by the tribe of the Odrysians (also known as Odrysea or Odrusai bearing the name of a mythical ruler, Odryses or Odrisis, (ca. 715 – ca. 650 AD), was the most powerful state of the Ancient Thracians. It existed from the unification of many Thracian tribes by a single ruler, King Teres, in the 5th century BC till its conquest by the Romans in 46 AD on the territory of most of modern-day Bulgaria, Northern Greece, Southeastern Romania, and Northwestern Turkey.