Gold mask from Shipka
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The gold mask of Shipka found Bulgarian archaeologists in 2004 in the 2,400 years old grave of a Thracian King in Shipka , 200km east of Sofia .
Earlier mask finds of this kind were only covered with a gold foil, the mask from Schipka is made of more than 500 g of pure gold . In addition, a double ax , a sword, huge amphorae, presumably for wine, a gold ring with the image of a rower and several vessels made of bronze and silver have been recovered from the grave . Only the remains of an adult male were found along with the mask, which was positioned where the skull would have been believed to have been buried elsewhere. According to ancient Greek authors, the mask is said to have been worn during royal ceremonies.
The work of art is comparable to the famous gold mask of Agamemnon from Mycenae, weighing only 60 g . There are numerous burial mounds around Shipka , which is why the archaeologists of the area named the “Bulgarian Valley of the Kings” ( Valley of the Thracian Kings ) based on the Valley of the Kings near Luxor in Egypt .
The " Goljama Kosmatka " ( Bulgarian Голяма Косматка ) called tomb was covered with six stone slabs, each of which weighed at least two tons. The excavator Georgi Kitow suspects that it is the tomb of King Seuthes III. acts, who in the 4th century BC Ruled.
The mask is kept in the Archaeological Museum in Sofia .
literature
- Georgi Kitow: Thracian Tumular Burial with a Gold Mask near the City of Shipka, Central Bulgaria. In: Archaeologia Bulgarica 9, 3, 2005, 23-27.