About the discovery

In the autumn of 1972, while laying an underground electric cable in the western industrial zone of Varna, the excavator operator Raycho Marinov came across a group of metal articles and flint tools. He collected the finds and handed them over to the museum in the town of Dalgopol. The local authorities in Varna were informed about the find and at the end of October the articles were collected by associates of Varna Museum.

#VarnaGoldCivilization

Varna - the Guardian City of the Oldest Gold

The history of Varna's gold treasure is not shrouded in mystery and legend; it was not sought after by anyone, no one even suspected its existence. The reason for this is its immense remoteness in time.  The time line has stopped for the gold and the people buried with it more than 6,000 years ago. For all those years it has laid untouched beside the bones of its owners near the harbour area in the Varna Lake region.

The Varna Chalcolithic Necropolis

Did you know that the oldest processed gold in the world was found in Varna? Gold ornaments produced as early as 4600- 4200 BC, were found in the Varna necropolis in 1972. The Varna necropolis soon turned into a sensational scientific find, the significance of which surpasses largely the limits of the ancient history of contemporary Bulgaria. As a result of the researches, 294 tombs have been found by now. The golden objects alone, found in the examined tombs, are more than 3 000, and have a total weight of more than 6 kilograms, and their diversity is significant – more than 38 different types. The official year-round exhibition is in Varna Archaeological Museum, where besides the treasure, one can go back in time to the the Hellenistic, Roman and Late Antique epoch....