The Panagyurishte treasure is a set of gold vases from Panagyurishte, a town in Pazardzhik province, southern Bulgaria. The treasure was discovered by accident in the 20th century. The Panagyurishte treasure dates from the late 4th to early 3rd century BC, and thus belongs to the Thracian civilization. In addition to the amount of gold used to create the vessels, the artifacts are notable for their exquisite workmanship.
Currently, there are three official, perfect copies of the treasure, one for the National History Museum in Sofia, another for the Archaeological Museum in Plovdiv and a third for the History Museum history in Panagyurishte. Original copies, due to their pricelessness and rarity, are often kept safely in bank vaults. However, these works were loaned to museums around the world many times in the decades after their discovery.
Panagyurishte Treasure, National History Museum in Sofia. (Nenko Lazarov / CC BY 2.5 )
The discovery of the ‘Gipsy Instrument’ or something else…
The discovery of the Panagyurishte Treasure occurred in 1949. On December 8 of that year, three brothers Pavel, Petko and Mihail Deikov were digging clay in the yard of a ceramic factory in Panagyurishte. At a depth of about 2 m (6.6 feet), the brothers encountered several yellow objects that they had retrieved from the clay.
There is disagreement about the sequence of events that followed. Incidentally, there was some doubt about the accuracy of the measurement, as it was argued that it was impossible that “such a thick layer of clay could have accumulated from ancient times to the present day.”
According to one version of the story, the brothers, after examining the objects, came to the conclusion that the objects were nothing more than a pile of brass musical instruments hidden by the gypsies. Therefore, they do not pay much attention to objects and put them aside without any further thought. However, news of the discovery spread throughout the small town, and the factory yard was soon crowded with townspeople curious to catch a glimpse of the strange ‘gypsy brass instruments’ This.
The Deikov brothers held the Panagyurishte Treasure in 1949. (Simiprof / CC BY-SA 4.0 )
Some observers even tried to ‘play’ the instruments by blowing into their openings. However, when no sound was produced, they simply declared that these instruments were practically useless. One of the people who came to see the artifact was Petar Gorbanov, an archaeologist who was working in the town’s reading club at the time. Unlike the rest of the townspeople, Gorbanov, who had studied at the University of Vienna, did not believe that the objects were ‘Gypsy brass instruments’.
Another version of the story claims that from the beginning the brothers knew that the objects they unearthed were made of gold. In addition, they were of the opinion that the artifacts should be sent to museums. In this version of events, the townspeople do not visit the factory to see the objects. Instead, they were observed by factory workers, one of whom even attempted to steal one of the vases but was stopped by the brothers.
The objects were then washed in the river and brought home by the brothers. After showing the artifact to his wife and children, the three brothers brought the artifact to the district council. It was here that Gorbanov, according to this version of the story, saw the artifact for the first time. Regardless, the items were thoroughly cleaned and placed in display cases for display. In the evening, the artifacts were taken to the bank for safekeeping.
Bulgaria’s Thracian past is presented to the world
The next day, cables were connected to Sofia and Plovdiv to announce the sensational discovery. The first letter was received only a few days later by the director of the Sofia Archaeological Museum and Institute. On the other hand, the director of the Plovdiv Archaeological Museum went to Panagyurishte immediately after receiving the telegram, collected the treasure and brought it back to his museum. As a result, Plovdiv, not Sofia (Bulgaria’s capital), became the permanent home of the Panagyurishte Treasure.
The Panagyurishte treasure remained at the Plovdiv Archaeological Museum for the next decade, where it was displayed in a transparent secure display case in the museum’s central hall. During the 1960s, Panagyurishte Treasures undertook its first world tour. Rome was the first city outside Bulgaria to receive the treasure, where it was displayed as part of a national exhibition.
Afterwards, the treasure was displayed in Paris, Munich, Leningrad (today known as Saint Petersburg), Budapest, Warsaw and Montreal. At the end of the decade, the Panagyurishte Treasure returned to Plovdiv and remained there for the next three years.
In 1972, the treasure was chosen as the central work of an exhibition titled ‘Thracian Art’, which debuted in Sofia on the occasion of the First International Theological Congress. In the decades that followed, the exhibition was organized by many museums around the world. For example, from 1994 to 2000, the exhibition visited seven cities in Japan and many cities in the United States. Additionally, it goes to Finland, Sweden, Italy and Belgium. As a result of this exhibition, a lesser-known aspect of Bulgaria, that is, its Thracian past, was introduced to the world.
