FAST FACTS
Name: Zlata Varna
what is it: A collection of golden artifacts
Where is it from: Varna, Bulgaria
When it was made: Around 4600 BC
In the fall of 1972, workers in the coastal Bulgarian city of Varna stumbled upon an ancient cemetery full of treasures. The burial site contained more than 3,000 gold artifacts that date from 4600 to 4300 BC, making them the oldest gold artifacts in the world.
The man in grave 43, who may have been a metalsmith, was buried with a variety of gold artifacts, including beaded gold necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and pendants; the small gold discs that were once attached to his clothes; an ax with a gold-wrapped handle; as well as a gold penis sheath.
In total, archaeologists found more than 13.2 pounds (6 kilograms) of gold in the Varna cemetery. Dating back up to 6,600 years, this hoard boasts the oldest evidence of people working gold anywhere in the world. (To the little one golden bead discovered in 2016 on Say Yunatsiteanother site in southern Bulgaria, may be a century older, but this date has not been confirmed.)
MORE AMAZING ARTIFACTS
Archaeologists are still unsure why gold processing was invented in the Balkans more than six millennia ago during the Copper Age (roughly 4500 to 3000 BC), although it may be related to a number of innovations in mining, metallurgy and long-distance trade that occurred during this era, according to the Varna Museum of Archaeology, which houses the gold collection.
“The cemetery in Varna illustrates the early stage of the emergence of a class-segregated society, a prototype of a social and political structure,” said representatives of the Museum of Archeology he wrote. “As attributes determining the social status of their owners, gold objects were sacred and symbolic rather than indicators of wealth.”
A handful of people buried in the Varna cemetery with extraordinary amounts of gold, such as the man in Grave 43, were likely leaders of the society, according to the museum, making Varna possibly one of the oldest civilizations in the world.
For more stunning archaeological discoveries, check out ours Amazing artifacts archives.
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