Pendant found in Bulgaria is among oldest known gold jewelry

Archaeologists excavating the Bronze Age site of Solnitsata near the northeastern Bulgarian town of Provadiya have discovered what may be some of the oldest known worked gold in Europe. It’s a small pendant made of two ounces of what archaeologists estimate is 24-carat gold although it hasn’t been assayed yet. It was found in a necropolis dating to around 4,300 B.C., but lead archaeologist Professor Vasil Nikolov believes the piece could be 200-300 years older.

The earliest known gold hoard in the world was unearthed about 23 miles east of this settlement in a prehistoric necropolis in the Black Sea resort town of Varna in 1973. Radiocarbon testing dates the Varna tombs to around 4560-4450 B.C., so the Solnitsata piece is at least contemporary with the Varna gold and may be older. Unlike the Varna riches, however, this wee pendant was not found in a grave.

“What’s interesting regarding the gold jewel that we have found now is that it was discovered not inside one of the graves but between them, which might testify to some kind of a more special ritual. In any case, this jewel is another specimen of the art of jewelry making that was developed at the time,” the lead archaeologist elaborates.

He notes that the term “jewel” might not be the most precise one for the gold item found near Bulgaria’s Provadiya because it was not worn as a decoration but as a status symbol.

The Solnitsata settlement was immensely prosperous thanks to the salt trade. Salt processing at the site began in the Late Neolithic (about 5500 B.C.) when brine from salt water springs was boiled in small, thin-walled ceramic vases and baked into blocks in large domed kilns. The production of salt increased markedly in the Middle Chalcolithic (4700-4500 B.C.) through the Late Chalcolithic (4500-4200 B.C.) when the method of extraction shifted to boiling brine in large ceramic vases placed inside deep, open-air pits up to 10 meters (33 feet) wide. This allowed salt to be produced on an industrial scale and salt blocks were traded locally and throughout the Balkans on pack animals or possibly sleds. There was no wheel yet, so no carts were involved.

The settlement, which archaeologists estimate had a population of 350 people at its peak, was fortified with wood palisades and earthworks in the Late Neolithic and then strengthened during the Chalcolithic with stone walls whose bases were as much as 13 feet thick. By then the Solnitsata salt complex was producing an eye-watering 4,000 to 5,000 kilos (8,800 to 11,000 pounds) of dry salt at a time (the Neolithic kilns produced about 25 kilos or 55 pounds of salt in one load). At a time when salt was highly valued as the only means of food preservation, the small Solnitsata settlement might as well have been a mint. That’s why they needed such thick walls, to Fort Knoxify the place.

Given that their neighbors in Varna were mining copper and gold at the time, you might expect the salt-based wealth of Solnitsata to result in burials with similar valuables, but the little pendant is the first gold excavated at the site and it wasn’t a grave good.

It’s one of several exciting finds at the site. The exploration of the masonry fortifications is of particular interest as Solnitsata’s defensive wall is the oldest stone fortress in the world. Professor Nikolov explains:

“The [fortress] wall that we are unearthing right now shows that the fortress had a shape of a circle with a diameter of about 90 meters. It is interesting that back then the people had valuable knowledge about military affairs. In order to ensure a better defense, the wall was not made round but its sections follow straight lines. That’s because the round shape would have been harder to defend.”

9 thoughts on “Pendant found in Bulgaria is among oldest known gold jewelry

  1. Is that the only time in history that the Balkans were at the technological forefront? Did Macedonia have any technological edge at the time of Alexander the G?

  2. I am curious why artifacts are always given a ritual meaning when discovered; what is this based on? I always wonder if it isn’t as simple as someone dropped it. I really am curious, I assume there is knowledge here that I am unfamiliar with? Great story, thanks!

  3. Being an old cynic I suspect ‘ritual object’ is shorthand for ‘it looks interesting but we haven’t a clue what it is,’

  4. After 300 years some folks built a necropolis -as a ritual- around a small golden pendant ? How did the experts come to the conclusion that the pendant is older in the first place ? Was there possibly a grave above ? What e.g. about grave-robbing rodents, or maybe birds that fancy shiny small objects ? And, where is -just in case- the older grave ?

  5. Regarding danana’s comment about artifacts always being given a ritual meaning, I have often wondered what a future archeologist would think of the remains of my childhood sandbox. The sand was never actually removed, so someplace in the ground are toy cars, animals and solders. Obviously, it was an altar where ritual objects were sacrificed in hope of gaining the real things.

  6. The photo shows a wall being built, with concrete or lime mortar no less, rather than uncovered! Both eyes on future tourist dollars?

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