Gold wreaths from Thrace

The gold wreaths from Thrace are jewellery wreaths found in inner Thrace, which is within present day Bulgaria. The gold wreaths were found in the mounds and tombs of aristocrats at various locations in Thrace that have been dated to a period from the latter half of the fourth century and early part third century BC.

There have been only five or six such archaeological finds of Thracian gold wreaths in Bulgaria. Of those, two are in the National Museum of History in Sofia. The earliest gold laurel wreath of Thrace in the museum, also called the "Zlatinitsa-Malomirovo Treasure," was found at an old burial mound (tumulus) in Zlatinitsa, Elhovo Municipality, in Southeast Bulgaria.

The second wreath in the museum collection was donated in 2015, after it was found at an auction in the United States. Experts are unsure of its place of origin and its age because the scientific data normally recorded during a discovery does not exist. Initially, this wreath was dated to the first century BC, but later assessments by other archaeologists and experts on the culture date it to 1200 BC – 1300 BC. Similarities among wreaths found in Ancient Troy and the newly obtained wreath fueled a hypothesis that it might date to the time of the Trojan War or even to Troy.

The gold wreaths of inner Thrace were found along with other artifacts in tombs, tumuli or mounds at: Malomirovo-Zlatinitsa; Rozovets; tumuli at Mogilkite and Nenovetsi settlements; Vratsa, tomb ІІ of the Mogilanska Mogila tumulus; Strelcha; Shipka; Golyamata (Big) Kosatka tumulus; Kabyle; Ploská (Flat) tumulus; Resilovo; and Sozopol.

The history of the Thracians is traced to an ethno-cultural group of Indo-European tribes that lived in Southeast Europe. The culture existed from the middle of the second millennium BC to approximately the sixth century AD, encompassing an area including parts of present-day Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Greece, Turkey, Macedonia and Serbia. Some of these tribes joined to form a kingdom known as the Odrysian Kingdom, which covered the present territory of Bulgaria, Northern Greece, Southeastern Romania and Northwestern Turkey. The dominant tribe of this group was the Odrysians, also called Odrysea or Odrusai, that derived its name from the mythological names of Odryses or Odrisis, (715 – 650 AD). King Teres founded the dynasty during the fifth century BC. His kingdom was the dominant state among the Thracian tribes until it was conquered in 46 AD by the Romans. In 360 BC the Odrysian king who ruled in Thrace was Cersobleptes, son of Cotys I.

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