Discovery of the treasure

In 1949, three Bulgarian brothers—Pavel, Petko, and Michail Deikov—were employed at a tile factory in Panagyurishte. While digging for clay, they stumbled upon an astonishing discovery: a group of nine gold vessels, buried in the ground and untouched since antiquity.

What is a treasure?

The group is designated as a “treasure,” which is an archaeological term different from our modern use of the word. Treasures are deposits of valuable objects that were evidently gathered together and hidden by their owners at times of political turmoil and never reclaimed.

The Panagyurishte Treasure is believed to have been made around 300 BCE, a time when Thrace was facing invasions from neighboring powers, namely the Macedonians and the Celts. The political turbulence of the period may have led to the objects being buried for safekeeping.

The treasure consists of nine vessels of different types, each used for elite banqueting and wine drinking. The vessels were cast and then worked with tools to create scenes in relief – some show recognizable figures and stories from Greek mythology, while others are more ambiguous.

Most of the objects are variations of the rhyton, a popular type of vessel in ancient Persia that was adapted by the Greeks and the Thracians. During banquets, wine was poured into the top of the vessel and revelers would imbibe as the liquid streamed out from a small hole near the base.

The decorative elements and the iconography are Greek in style, including the centaurs that form the handles.

This Greek influence (and probably Greek workmanship) helps us understand the complex scenes. For instance, the seven men running across rocky ground perhaps represent a group of heroes from Greek mythology known as the Seven Against Thebes.

One lunges forward by raising his sword to strike down a door.

Below, an older man reclines comfortably. He holds a double flute and a high-handled cup, which identify him as Silenos, a companion of Dionysos, the god of wine. He gestures towards one of the two spouts of this rhyton, as if to refill his cup.

Another rhyton also closely resembles Persian vessels with a goat’s body serving as the taper for the drinking horn. Wine would have flowed from the spout between his two front legs. The Greek deities Apollo, Artemis, Hera, and Nike decorate the horn.

The artisan depicted the gods in high relief through careful chisel and hammer work. Here, the goddess Hera lifts her veil as she sits on a throne. Her name is inscribed in Greek above her left hand, and Apollo’s name is visible to her right, beside his characteristic bow.

The next three vessels take the shape of animal heads and have handles, which traditional Persian drinking horns do not.

This ram’s head has wide, deep eyes that would have been accentuated by inlaid colored stones.

The artist carefully incised circles on the metal surface to create the ram’s soft curls. Other details, like the ears and horns of the animal, were made separately and attached by soldering.