The Dabene Treasure ( bg, Дъбенското съкровище) was unearthed in 2004 near the village of Dabene in the municipality of

Karlovo Karlovo ( bg, Карлово ) is a historically important town in central Bulgaria located in a fertile valley along the river Stryama at the southern foot of the Balkan Mountains. It is administratively part of Plovdiv Province and has a ...

Plovdiv Province Plovdiv Province ( bg, Област Пловдив: ''Oblast Plovdiv'', former name Plovdiv okrug) is a province in central southern Bulgaria. It comprises 18 municipalities (общини, ''obshtini'', sing. общинa, ''obshtina'') on a ter ...

, central

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

. The excavations were led by the archaeologist Martin Hristov. Other elements of the treasure were discovered in 2006. The excavations in the area began after two archaeologists from the National Historical Museum met a local woman with an exquisite golden necklace found by her husband while ploughing with his tractor. The couple was unaware of the origins of the jewel and cooperated with the archaeologists. The whole treasure consists of 20,000 gold jewelerry items from 18 to 23 carats. The most important of them was a dagger made of

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

and

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

with an unusual edge. The treasure was dated to the end of the 3rd millennium B.C.(http://ancient-treasure.info/ancient-civilizations-treasures/dabene-civilization.html) The scientists suggest that the

valley where Dabene is located used to be a major crafts center which exported golden jewelry all over Europe. That conclusion was made because the golden elements were not discovered in a burial mound and there are no remains of bones or ceramics and therefore the elements were not burial gifts. The treasure was unearthed in perfect condition and was exhibited in the National Historical Museum without restoration on 9 August 2009.

References

External links

*Ovcharov, Nikolay
Treasure of Dabene Takes the World by Storm
at '' Standart'', 10 December 2005
Unique golden dagger unearthed in Bulgaria
''

Southeast European Times Southeast European Times was a United States European Command-sponsored news website dedicated to coverage of Southeast Europe that ended publication in March 2015. The countries covered included Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Gree ...

'', 9 August 2006
Gold treasure from Dabene. Ancient Civilization from 3rd millennium BC
at ancient-treasure.info 2004 archaeological discoveries Treasure troves in Bulgaria History of Plovdiv Province Gold objects Jewellery Ancient art in metal {{Europe-archaeology-stub