Iron Age

Thracian-Greek Encounters

In 2005, archaeologists in Bulgaria uncovered the gravesite of a Thracian man believed to have been a member of a powerful family. His body had been placed on wooden planks, covered with a woven hemp shroud, and buried in a shaft dug into a hill. The remains were accompanied by a golden wreath adorned with an image of the Greek goddess Nike, and the site included a wealth of other grave goods including horse trappings, elaborate vessels, jewelry, and a gilt-silver greave. The grave is representative not only of the sophisticated metalsmithing achieved in this period, but also of the ideologies and practices of elite Thracian warriors.

“Thracian” was a name given by the Greeks to the Indo-European–speaking people who lived north of the Aegean Sea, one of many different cultural groups at the edge of the Greek world. The Thracians themselves left only scattered inscriptions and no textual record of their culture or conquests; they are known to us today primarily through finds from archaeological excavations and ancient Greek writings. Greek authors characterized the Thracians as a large but highly fragmented group of fearsome warriors and riders. Herodotus, a Greek historian writing in the fifth century BCE, describes them as barbaric, claiming that for them “to live by war and plunder is of all things the most glorious.” The existence of a distinct Thracian warrior culture is borne out by the archaeological evidence, but Herodotus’s work also reflects a biased view of other cultures.

Two jugs. One broad cup with a shallow body and two handles. One large globular pot with two horizontal handles. Two deep cups, each with two horizontal loop handles and painted with figures.
A wreath with multiple leaves and and female figure at center. Twenty-nine disks with rosette decorations.
A string of cylindrical beads. Twelve ornaments in various abstract and stylized animal forms.
A horse-head vessel with a handle and a neck decorated with a hunting scene.
A pitcher, a bucket, and a shallow pan with a ring on one side.
A columnar form with a human face and decorations to suggest hair and jewelry as well depicting a centaur holding a small animal and a bird standing on a rabbit.
Four saucers.
A flat disk with a woman wearing a gown and a man on horseback.

Burial assemblage with ceramic vessels, wreath with rosette appliqués, horse-head appliqués with string of beads, rhyton, bronze vessels, greave, silver pans, and signet-ring, 375–325 BCE, silver gilt, silver, bronze, and ceramic, Zlatinitsa-Malomirovo, Bulgaria, Skifos vessel: H. 11 cm, Diam. 12 cm (rim), Diam. 6 cm (base); Skifos vessel: H. 10.8 cm, Diam. 12.4 cm (rim), Diam. 6.8 cm (base); Wreath with rosette appliqués (29): Diam. 19 cm (of wreath), L. 4.6 cm (max. of leaves), Diam. 2.1 cm (of appliqués); Horse head appliqués (12): L. 4.2–7.4 cm, W. 2.5–7.2 cm; String of beads: L. 0.8-1.2 cm (of beads); Rhyton: H. 17 cm, Diam. 9.9 cm (rim); Situla: H. 21.2 cm, Diam. 19.9 cm (rim), Diam. 11.8 cm (base); Jug: H. 24.4 cm, Diam. 14.4 cm (max.), Base diameter: 11.1 cm; Tray: H. 5.3 cm, Diam. 35.9 cm; Greave: L. 44.5 cm, W. 10.7 cm (max.); Phialae (4): H. 4.5–5 cm, Diam. 10.6–13.7 cm (rim); Signet-ring: Diam. 2 cm (ring), Diam. 2.5 cm (bezel), National Museum of History, Sofia, Bulgaria: 51359­–51362, 51366, 51369, 50454–50455, 51344–51346, 51350–51355, 50456, 61763, 52189, 52190, 50457, 50869–50872, 50453. Photo © Field Museum, photographer Ádám Vágó

These artifacts are all from the Zlatinitsa-Malomirovo burial mound of an eighteen- to twenty-year-old Thracian man. Because the body had been placed on wooden planks, covered with a hemp shroud, and interred with this spectacular suite of grave goods, archaeologists believe the man belonged to a powerful family. The placement of these lavish artifacts on the body, as well as the details on the objects themselves, further emphasize the man’s heroized status: the gold wreath with an appliqué representing the goddess Nike along with a leather diadem decorated with gold rosettes adorned his head, and the gold signet ring—showing a horseman receiving formal honors—was found on the little finger of his left hand. In addition to these sumptuous royal-style adornments, the body was also accompanied by a silver greave, a piece of armor worn to protect the shin. Decorated with a woman’s face, this artifact served a ceremonial rather than utilitarian function.

Finds from the Zlatinitsa-Malomirovo burial mound offer insight into not only the status of the deceased, but also into Thracian culture more generally. The inclusion of horse trappings in the suite of grave goods points to the significance of this animal in Thracian culture, while numerous lavish ceramic and metal vessels such as these reveal the centrality of feasting, wine drinking, and symposium-style rituals.

Image of a tumulus in a grassy field
Image of an excavated burial showing a collapsed pile of debris alongside bronze vessels, a partially intact cranium, and a greave modeled after the human form
Image of an animal-shaped rhyton in a burial site partially covered by dirt and debris.
Image of a ring on partially exposed skeletal remain of a human hand

The fact that these artifacts include Greek imagery and recall Greek customs is not a coincidence. The Greeks and Thracians lived close to one another and frequently traded and interacted. This intercultural exchange is the source of many of the written accounts of the Thracians in ancient Greek literature (although those biased narratives often characterize the Thracians as “barbaric”), as the Thracians themselves left no textual records outside of a few inscriptions. Yet the richness of the archaeological record, including this find, suggests that powerful, well-resourced Thracian communities flourished in particular areas of the Balkans before, during, and even after the time that Alexander the Great (356–323 BCE) conquered much of the region (336–323 BCE).

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