Georgi Kitov [obit, Bulgarian archaeologist, excavator of Thracian tombs]

Telegraph ^ | Monday, September 22, 2008 | Obituaries

[SunkenCiv]

Georgi Kitov, who died on September 14 aged 65, led a Bulgarian archaeological team which unearthed a hoard of treasures from ancient Thrace, said to be as important as those of Agamemnon or Tutankhamun.

The Thracians were Indo-European tribes which settled the Balkans in the third millennium BC and built a civilisation that, at its height 2,400 years ago, controlled what is now Bulgaria as well as parts of Romania, Macedonia, Turkey and Greece before finally being incorporated into the Roman Empire. Little is known of their culture because they had no written language.

Greek and Roman writers tended to depict the Thracians as barbarians while acknowledging their skills as expert metal-workers and as warriors – Spartacus, the gladiator slave who led a rebellion against the Romans, was a Thracian.

[SunkenCiv]

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[BykrBayb]

I wonder when his grave will be desecrated by archeologists.

[eleni121]

God rest his soul;s.

On another note the word barbarian as it’s misused in the article - had a totally different meaning than it has today..certainly it did for the Greeks who coined the term.

[Fred Nerks]

...They unearthed a life-sized mask made of solid gold, positioned next to a dismembered and chopped-up skeleton. Quite possibly the portrait of a Thracian king, Teres I (475-445 BC) it proved to be just the first item in a vast haul of treasure.

Other items included a gold ring engraved with the figure of an athlete, a near-complete set of armour, as well as bronze arrowheads, spearheads, swords, breastplates and 130 pieces of magnificent jewellery.

The discovery was one of the most sensational finds of the last half-century.

The mask, Kitov felt, was more remarkable even than that of Agamemnon: "The Mask of Agamemnon was made of gold foil and weighs only 60 grams, while this mask weighs 690 grams and is of solid gold."

It is thought that it may have been used in a ritual described in ancient Greek texts: the Thracian ruler would drink wine from a gold mask at public occasions and then place it over his face.

[PGalt]

Fascinating. Thanks for posting. R.I.P. Georgi Kitov. Condolences to his family and friends.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks! I think there was a topic about that, or some other discovery of his (or more generally, about his bulldozer method) not long ago, so his death came as a bit of a jolt.