Bulgarian archaeologists unearth what they believe is the oldest gold ornament in Europe

http://www.tanmarket.com - Bulgarian archaeologists unearth what they believe is the oldest gold ornament in Europe. PAZARDZHIK, BULGARIA (AUGUST 8, 2016) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)

1. EXTERIOR OF HISTORICAL MUSEUM IN PAZARDZHIK

2. SIGN READING (Bulgarian): "MUSEUM OF HISTORY"

3. VARIOUS OF HISTORICAL ARTEFACTS IN MUSEUM

4. MUSEUM WORKER SHOWING EXCAVATED GOLD BEAD TO REPORTER

5. CLOSE OF GOLDEN BEAD ON HAND

6. PHOTOGRAPHER TAKING PICTURES OF GOLD PIECE

7. MORE OF GOLDEN BEAD

YUNATSITE, BULGARIA (AUGUST 8, 2016) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL)

8. ARCHAEOLOGISTS WORKING AT EXCAVATION SITE

9. VARIOUS OF ARCHAEOLOGISTS AT WORK

10. ASSOCIATED PROFESSOR AT THE BULGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, YAVOR BOYADZHIEV, TALKING TO REPORTER

11. (SOUNDBITE) (Bulgarian) ASSOCIATED PROFESSOR AT AT THE BULGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, YAVOR BOYADZHIEV, SAYING:

"I have no doubt that it is older than the gold found in Varna's necropolis. I can guarantee that as I worked at Varna's necropolis site."

12. HOLES IN GROUND FROM WOODEN POLES OF ANCIENT HOUSE, WHERE GOLDEN BEAD WAS FOUND.

13. (SOUNDBITE) (Bulgarian) ASSOCIATED PROFESSOR AT THE BULGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, YAVOR BOYADZHIEV, SAYING:

"What is unique about this bead is its age. Otherwise, it is not different from similar findings in its shape and structure."

14. WIDE OF EXCAVATION SITE, WHERE GOLD HAS BEEN FOUND

15. (SOUNDBITE) (Bulgarian) ASSOCIATED PROFESSOR AT AT THE BULGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, YAVOR BOYADZHIEV, SAYING:

"We are talking about the year 5700 BC, or 5800 BC, which is about 1,500 years before the first urban civilization in southern Mesopotamia, Sumer and associated cultures."

16. PHOTOGRAPHER LOOKING AT ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

17. (SOUNDBITE) (Bulgarian) ASSOCIATED PROFESSOR AT AT THE BULGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, YAVOR BOYADZHIEV, SAYING:

"We are 90 percent sure that this gold is produced locally. These people belonged to a highly cultured society and they had sophisticated workshops for all kinds of goods and things."

18. DEEP EXCAVATION HOLE AT SITE

19. WIDE OF EXCAVATION SITE

STORY: It is a tiny, 15-centigramme gold bead that can easily be lost between one's fingers. But to Bulgarian archaeologists it is larger than life - they believe it is Europe's oldest processed gold ornament.

A team of archaeologists found it during excavation works at a pre-historic settlement near the village of Yunatsite in southern Bulgaria and dated it back to 4,500-4,600 years BC.

That makes the finding some 200 years older than the gold jewellery that were found at the Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Necropolis in the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Varna in 1972, the oldest golden artefacts ever discovered so far according to Bulgarian archaeologists.

"I have no doubt that it is older than the gold found in Varna's necropolis," says Yavor Boyadzhiev, Associated Professor at at the Bulgarian Academy of Science, adding that a laboratory analysis is now pending to determine the purity of the precious artefact.

Even though it's a tiny piece, Boyadzhiev calls the gold ornament a very important discovery for history as it is supposed to have been processed at the very first urban settlement in Europe.

The bead, Boyadzhiev believes, belonged to an ancient society, which moved to the settlement, some 8 km from the modern town of Pazardzhik, from Anatolia in today's Turkey around 6,000 BC.

"We are talking about the year 5700 BC, or 5800 BC, which is about 1,500 years before the first urban civilization in southern Mesopotamia, Sumer and associated cultures," Boyadzhiev said about the age of the settlement.

"We are 90 percent sure that this gold is produced locally. These people belonged to a highly cultured society and they had sophisticated workshops for all kinds of goods and things," he added.

The team has so far unearthed remains of a prehistoric town with a total area between 100,000 and 120,000 square metres, which had a 2.8-metre high fortress wall. People, who had lived there worshipped birds, the archaeologists believe as they have found more than 150 ceramic figures depicting birds over the years.

Boyadzhiev said that, according to researchers who have worked in Mesopotamia, settlements whose area totals over 0.7-0.8 hectares are regarded as towns.

He said the bead - 4 mm in diameter, which was dug up in a small residential house two weeks ago, dates back from the period, in which metals like copper and gold started to be used for a first time.

These lands were invaded by hostile tribes, coming from the north-east, who destroyed the settlement around 4,100 years BC and caused its extinction.

Bulgaria, a Balkan state of 7.2 million, hosts numerous Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age settlement mounds as well as significant remains of Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine urban centres.

The bead will be exposed in the historical museum in Pazardzhik, a museum worker said after showing Reuters the ornament before it was sent for analysis.

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