5000 YO Golden Treasure on Display in Sofia's National History Museum

Photo: BGNES

A treasure of 15 000 golden elements was put on display on Monday in Sofia's National History Museum (NHM).

The pieces, which are presumably parts of three different necklaces, are dated at around 3000 BCE and were recently confiscated by the Agency for National Security (DANS) during an operation against attempted trafficking of cultural artifacts.

According to the NHM director Bozhidar Dimitrov, the necklaces were most likely made by a technologically advanced ancient civilization inhabiting the area of modern day central Bulgaria, and are nearly impossible to be replicated by the contemporary jewelers.

“Such things don't have a price tag, because this is not a supermarket,” Dimitrov said. “Those golden artifacts are 1500 years older than the Trojan War and 2500 years older than all Thracian treasures that we know of.”

According to him, at the market the sheer number of the golden elements could have fetched up several million euro. novinite.com via  archaeology.org