
World's Oldest Gold Object May Have Just Been Unearthed in Bulgaria - ranit
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/oldest-gold-object-unearthed-bulgaria-180960093/?no-ist
======
nonbel
I even turned off request policy and noscript in attempt to see the object on
that page. I was disappointed.

You can find it by clicking through to the Reuters link, or here it is
directly:
[http://s4.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20160810&t=2&...](http://s4.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20160810&t=2&i=1149080662&w=&fh=&fw=&ll=780&pl=468&sq=&r=LYNXNPEC790LY)

~~~
madaxe_again
_I was disappointed_

I was riveted. Something doesn't need to be big or intricate to be hugely
important.

~~~
DanBC
nonbel expected to see an image of the object on the page of the submitted
article. (Which was the smithsonian link.)

nonbel didn't see the image, and thought that maybe it was being blocked by
their ad-blocker / etc software. nonbel turned all that off, and was
disappointed that there was still no image of the object.

------
hristov
It seems that the ancient Thrace might be among the oldest civilization known
to humanity and the current view that the cradle of modern civilization is in
modern day Iraq may not be entirely correct. It should be noted that in
addition to gold work and ancient art, the oldest writing in the world has
also been found in this area and it is also from Thracian origin.

I hope these finds result in further study of the ancient Thracian
civilization.

When the ancient Greeks came to Europe from Egypt, they found the Thrace
already there. They considered the Thrace to be barbarians, as one always
finds a foreigner to be a barbarian. The Greeks tried to destroy and
infiltrate Thracian culture by adopting their Gods and myths and modifying
them to fit within the Greek mythology. This is completely normal and happened
a lot in those times.

But modern scientists and archaeologists do not have to follow this.

It is absolutely wrong to believe that all civilization came from mesopotamia
to ancient egypt and then went through ancient greece and rome. These are just
the guys that won a lot of the wars.

If we look around we can find that there are a lot of interesting cultures and
civilizations that have had an effect on the modern world and modern Europe
aside from the accepted classics.

~~~
sbmassey
Any links on the oldest writing in the world being found in Thrace claim? It
seems pretty unlikely as, to my knowledge, the Thracians of classical Greek
times were completely illiterate.

~~~
ranit
There is a claim that Gradeshnitsa tablets are deciphered, but it is highly
disputed as being scientific. See the references in this short wikipedia
article.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradeshnitsa_tablets](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradeshnitsa_tablets)

------
martythemaniak
There's a lot of cool, really old stuff in Bulgaria and Thrace in particular.
If you take a look at a terrain map, you'll see it's the easiest way to get
into Europe from the Middle East, so there have been many migrations over the
millennia, and a lot of sites and objects left behind.

For example, there is a small museum in Stara Zagora that has a really well-
preserved Neolithic house remains from the 6th millenium BC. The two people
minding the museum also seemed somewhat surprised anyone went there and I was
the only visitor for about an hour or so that day.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Dwellings_Museum](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neolithic_Dwellings_Museum)

------
sandworm101
How was the gold "processed"?

The OP asks How they were able to master the smelting of copper and gold in
that short span of time?" But as I understand things you don't need to smelt
gold. Find a sufficiency large nugget, which were no uncommon before we
started picking them up, and you can bash the thing into shape without
external heat. Bashing also probably purifies it in much the same way as iron.
Perhaps all it took was someone noticing how this particular rock was soft
enough to form into a shiny bead.

~~~
FuckOffNeemo
My assumption would be something close to the smelter shown on Primitive
Technologies YouTube channel. Find the smelter video here:

[https://youtu.be/VVV4xeWBIxE](https://youtu.be/VVV4xeWBIxE)

This channel is fascinating. The history nerd within me finds satisfaction in
every video he has recorded.

------
fractallyte
If you're ever in Varna, go to the museum!

It's usually mostly empty (who likes stuffy museums, right?), but the building
is grand, and the exhibits are fascinating. And when you get to the ancient
gold objects, it's difficult to imagine how astonishing the fine detail is:
the degree of craftsman(woman?)ship, on such a tiny scale.

Gold is amazing material, but the artists who worked it were even _more_
amazing.

Also be sure to visit the Roman ruins - an extensive area, pretty well
maintained and informative; lots of little interesting corners. Sad to see
that some stray dogs have made their burrows here... It's a shame that, for
all their artistic and cultural triumphs, people are quite crappy, too.

(BTW, also check out the puppet theater - the best one outside the Czech
Republic! Awesome!)

------
nl
Have that found no gold artefacts at Göbekli Tepe[1], which is by some
distance the oldest temple[2] (or whatever it is)?

I had an impression that there had been, but I can't find anything except the
famous carvings.

I find Göbekli Tepe absolutely fascinating - it's _so_ much older than any
equivalent sites that have been found. It's 6000 years older than Stonehenge,
7000 years older than the Sumerian civilisation, and before the invention of
pottery. Maybe some of the oldest dwellings at Jericho[3] are comparable, but
there is nothing like the constructions of Göbekli Tepe that old at Jericho.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6bekli_Tepe)

[2] [http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-
world...](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-
temple-83613665/?no-ist)

[3] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho#Pre-
Pottery_Neolithic....](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jericho#Pre-
Pottery_Neolithic.2C_c._9600_BCE)

------
eCa
It is not surprising that the dig site is near (about 30 km) Plovdiv[1], one
of the oldest continuously inhabited places in the world. It was a settlement
6000 years ago.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plovdiv](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plovdiv)

------
shitgoose
that's good they weren't trying to ban cash back then.

