1991 SILVER EAGLE PROOF

The exhibition “Treasures of the Odrysse warriors” opened on June 29th 2010. Over 200 unique objects represent the wealth of the ruling nobility of the Odrysse (Thracian) state (6th – 1st century BC), consisting of aristocrats, high ranking warriors, the ruler’s close entourage and relatives, as well as his private guards.

The visitor can see authentic treasures such as gold and silver vessels, splendid applications decorated with filigree and enamel, luxury table vessels, golden breast plates, silver knee-pads, helmets, spears and everything used by the Odrysse aristocrats and warriors during their terrestrial life or intended for the after life.
Rhyton, silver-gilt, National Archaelogical Institute and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences

The exhibition presents some of the personal possessions and weapons of the Thracian King Seuthes III, also the magnificent lamellar armor of a Thracian Prince, made of more than 1600 separate pieces and assembled by the restorers of the Regional Museum in Yambol and the National Museum of History, as well as the entire representative equipment accompanying the deceased Odrysse Prince in his burial site, discovered between the villages of Zlatinitza and Malomirovo. On display is also a breast plate from the village of Kaloyanovo, golden phialas from the villages of Topolnitche and Daskal Atanassovo, a gold necklace from Kabile, a silver phalera from Stara Zagora and others.

The displayed artifacts will raise awareness among NMH visitors of our predecessors’ legacy who created the great Odrysse kingdom - the mightiest state formation in Europe in the 5th to the middle of the 4th century BC.

The exhibition displays objects from fascinating archaeological discoveries made in the last few years and now preserved in the National Museum of History, the National Museum of Archaeology in Sofia, the Regional Museum of Archaeology in Plovdiv, the Regional Museums of History in Stara Zagora, Yambol, Sliven, Kazanlak, as well as the Museums of History in Kazanlak and Nova Zagora.

The exhibition “Treasures of the Odrysse warriors” presented at the National Museum of History will continue till the end of October 2010.

5th-6th Century C.E.

Bronze, calotte-shaped, segmented helmet with riveted silver plates. Central. & Eastern Europe, 5th-6th Century A.D.

The pierced forehead band and the two straps of embossed bronze plate pinned with flat bronze rivets. The vertical segments are ridged.There are remnants of the former iron mail neck curtain. Silver segments of very thin high quality silver sheeting are fastened to the bands with large knobbed rivets. Only rusted remnants of the iron reinforcements for the silver have been preserved in the interior (originally the iron plates extended beyond the bronze forehead band and were bent back over the outside.) There are remnants of zigzag decoration on two silver plates (left front and right rear). A longish nasal of massive and equally high quality silver. There was a wave shape decorative iron plate above the nasal, detectable from traces of oxidation. No indication of cheekpieces or of interior lining.
Helmets from the fringes of the Roman Empire, the so-called Barbaricum, are extremely rare, as only the highest level of barbarian nobility possessed them. This light and expensive version corresponds to the helmet of a high dignitary, not a battle helmet.
This type of helmet appeared mostly between the 5th and late 6th centuries A.D. widely distributed between the Rhine and the western fringes of the Eurasian steppe region.