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Heraion Teikhos, ancient Thracian city in modern day Turkey. Source: Tekirdağ Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism

2,800-Year-Old Thracian “Pharmaceutical” Center Unearthed at Heraion Teikhos, Turkey

In 2021, a team of researchers unearthed a 2,800-year-old temple at the ancient Thracian city of Heraion Teikhos, in Turkey. Now, a water system has been identified leading to a space within the...
Left: front view of the Helmet of Coțofenești Right: Side view of the mythological creatures on the helmet.      Source: Left: National Museum of Romanian History, GFDL Right: © Radu Oltean / Wikimedia Commons

Demystifying the Famous, Fierce, Golden Helmet of Coțofenești

In 1929, a small child discovered an intricate golden helmet in the Poiana Coțofenești village of Romania. Archaeologists determined that it was a stray find from a group of Thracian tribes that...
Detail of Ornament from Panagyurishte Gold Treasure, Archaeological Museum, Plovdiv, Bulgaria      Source: CC BY-SA 2.0

How The Thracian Panagyurishte Treasure Changed Bulgaria’s History

The Panagyurishte Treasure is a set of gold vessels from Panagyurishte, a town in the southern Bulgarian province of Pazardzhik. The treasure was discovered by accident during the 20 th century. The...
Entrance to the Ancient Thracian tomb Heroon in Pomorie, Bulgaria. Source: Ekaterina Senyutina / Adobe Stock

The Valley of the Thracian Rulers: Hidden Beauty of the Barbarians

In ancient times, before Bulgaria’s Turkic and Slavic history , on the territory of this country lived a unique and almost mythical people . They were called the Thracians, and their history spanned...
Horned figure on the Gundestrup Cauldron

The Gundestrup Cauldron: Largest and Most Exquisite Iron Age Silver Work in Europe

The Gundestrup Cauldron is an ancient silver vessel that was discovered in a peat bog in Denmark. This cauldron is notable for being the largest known piece of European Iron Age silver work. Thus,...
The tower where the looting tunnel was discovered. It is actually much bigger than this and more needs to be uncovered.        Source: Plovdiv Museum of Archaeology

Burying A Thracian Tower-Tomb In A Huge Mound Didn’t Deter Ottoman Grave Robbers!

Bulgaria is a land that is blessed with a great many important historic and archaeological sites. However, in recent years much of the heritage of the country has been systematically stolen by...
The helmet of a gladiator

Gladiator Helmets: Fit for Purpose, Not Just Protection

The gladiator is most likely the first image one calls to mind when thinking about entertainment in ancient Rome. As most would already know, gladiators fought either each other or wild animals, in...
A skeleton with an arrow in or at the chest has been discovered in a burial from the 11th-12th century AD during rescue excavations at the Antiquity Odeon in Bulgaria’s Plovdiv

Medieval Tomb Including a Skeleton and an Arrow Unearthed in Plovdiv

A team of archaeologists working at the Odeon site in Bulgaria’s second largest city Plovdiv, have announced the discovery of a mediaeval tomb that includes human remains and an arrow. Tomb Includes...
“The Painted Ones” hand-colored version of Theodor de Bry’s engraving of a Pict woman who is either painted or tattooed.

Power, Perils and Rites of Passage – The History of the Female Tattoo

Emily Poelina-Hunter / The Conversation Almost a quarter of Australian women now have tattoos - a trend some attribute to the influence of feminism. What I find interesting is that the mainstreaming...
Archaeologists Unearth Thracian Princess Grave Rich with Jewelry and Mythic Meaning

Archaeologists Unearth Thracian Princess Grave Rich with Jewelry and Mythic Meaning

The remains of an ancient Thracian noblewoman that was ritually dismembered has been unearthed along with bronze and silver jewelry buried with her in a rock tomb in the Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria...
Incredible Plans to Revive Submerged Ancient Thracian Capital

Incredible Plans to Revive Submerged Ancient Thracian Capital

An ambitious project has been trying to capture funds to resurface the ancient Thracian capital of Seuthopolis. Currently the site is underwater in modern day Bulgaria, however hopes are that it will...
Aerial view of excavations at the fortress in Ahtopol, Bulgaria.

Bulgarian City Named for Love has a Long History of Being Attacked and Bombarded

Archaeologists have excavated an ancient fortress on a small peninsula in Bulgaria occupied since at least the Neolithic and have found the Roman-occupied town was destroyed by barbarian tribes in...
The clay vessel that contained balsam and had written on a fragment of Solon’s poem “Prayer to the Muses.”

Thracian tomb of a princess, child, and a spiritual man saved from looters at last minute

Treasure hunters have plundered many of Bulgaria’s thousands of archaeological sites, but the tomb of an ancient Thracian family containing the remains of a princess, a child and what researchers...
The commanding stone walls and doorways of the Thracian tomb of Kazanlak in Bulgaria. Such Thracian tombs are found across Bulgaria, such as the King’s Mound and marble sarcophagus as unearthed by archaeologists at Boyanovo recently. Representational image only.

Archaeologists unearth marble sarcophagus from ancient Thracian burial mound

Archaeologists from the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia in Bulgaria have discovered a massive ancient marble sarcophagus in the south east of the country. It once belonged to an...
Famous painting depicts the goddess Aphrodite-Venus, having emerged from the sea as a fully grown woman, arriving at the sea-shore.

Temple in ancient city of Odessus reveals Greek Goddess Aphrodite was worshipped by Thracians

A new look into a Thracian temple buried beneath Roman baths is challenging what researchers once thought about the worship of deities in the ancient city of Odessus, now the Bulgarian Black Sea city...
The Enigma of the Thracians and the Orpheus Myth

The Enigma of the Thracians and the Orpheus Myth – Part 2

The Orphic Mysteries ( Part 1 ) The Thracians worshiped Ares, the god of war, Sabazios, the sky father god, and had faith in the Sun, son of the goddess Bendis, the incarnation of perfection and...
Thracian Tomb - Orpheus Myth

The Enigma of the Thracians and the Orpheus Myth

The passage of the millennia has brought us traces of ancient civilizations that shone enough to make their cultural glimpses last through the ages. Humanity itself has featured in the art, culture,...
Chariot in Serbia

4,000-year-old Thracian chariot unearthed in Serbia

Archaeologists in Serbia have unearthed the remains of a beautifully decorated chariot , which is thought to be as old as 4,000 years. It is believed to have belonged to a member of the Thracian...
2,500-year-old chariot

Complete remains of 2,500-year-old chariot and two horses found in Bulgaria

Archaeologists have uncovered the incredible remains of a complete Thracian carriage and two horses that appear to have been buried upright. The horses and carriage were found in a Thracian tomb...