The exhibition "The Sveshtari Treasure. The Gold of Thracians Who Lived South of Danube," fruit of the collaboration of the National Institute of Archeology with the Museum of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences in Sofia, will open on Thursday, starting at 5,00 pm, at the National Museum of Romania's History (MNIR), told Agerpres.
According to a press release of the MNIR sent to AGERPRES on Monday, through the exhibition, one of the treasures that contributed to the building of the image of the fabulous wealth of the Thracian archaeological heritage, the Treasure of Sveshtari is being exhibited for the first time in a museum in Romania.
The event is also a first in that it will be hosted by the most prestigious permanent exhibition of the Bucharest museum, the Historical Treasury exhibition, an exclusive space for precious metals where no other temporary exhibitions have been organized until now.
"Presented together with other collections dated in the 4th-3rd centuries BC, with artifacts from the Cucuteni-Baiceni treasure or from the funerary inventories from Peretu and Agighiol, the ornaments from Sveshtari will enjoy a very good contextual setting, which also helps revealing some of these treasures common features," states MNIR.
Most probably deposited in the second quarter of the 3rd century BC, the hoard consists only of gold artifacts, ornaments specific to women's wear and harness accessories for a riding horse, all wrapped, it seems, in brocade, a richly ornamented textile material from which several gold threads have been preserved.
The set of ornaments from the Sveshtari chest consists of a very elaborate diadem, decorated with felines and centaurs, two pairs of bracelets, a ring with representing Eros and over 550 pearls, rings or pendants, elements probably assembled initially in several necklaces or sewn on a rich garment woven with gold threads.
Among the accessories of the richly decorated gold harness, various forms of ornaments were deposited: a forehead with a horse protome, two discs with the portrait of the goddess Athena, another disc with a female figure, probably a maenad, two smaller rosettes, four elements with vegetal decoration, two quadrilobate pieces, a ring, 44 plaques showing a female bust and another 121 smaller plaques, which are hemispherical. Along with all these artifacts, many gold threads were also discovered.
Made of a highly refined gold, assembled from a multitude of small elements or cast with talent using the lost wax method, the ornaments from the Treasure of Sveshtari were worked by experienced craftsmen who mastered very well all the technological approaches that characterized the goldsmithing of the Hellenistic period, it is also shown in the press release.
The exhibition will be open until June 25, 2023, and can be visited from Wednesday to Sunday, at the Historical Treasury of the National Museum of Romania's History.