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from his tomb]] The Thracians (; ; ) were an Indo-European speaking people who inhabited large parts of Southeast Europe in ancient history.. "The Thracians were an Indo-European people who occupied the area that today is shared between Thrace, Romania, and north-western Turkey. They shared the same language and culture. There may have been as many as a million Thracians, divided among up to 40 tribes.". "One of the best documented Indo-European civilizations that inhabited Romania, Bulgaria is the Thracians..." Thracians resided mainly in Southeast Europe in modern-day Bulgaria, Romania, North Macedonia, northern Greece and European Turkey, but also in north-western Anatolia in Turkey.
The exact origin of the Thracians is uncertain, but it is believed that Thracians like other Indo-European speaking groups in Europe descended from a mixture of Proto-Indo-Europeans and Early European Farmers.
Around the 5th millennium BC, the inhabitants of the eastern region of the Balkans became organized in different groups of indigenous people that were later named by the Ancient Greece under the single ethnonym of "Thracians". Nature (2019) Ancient human mitochondrial genomes from Bronze Age Bulgaria: new insights into the genetic history of ThraciansPopov, D. The Greek intellectuals and the Thracian world. Iztok - Zapad 2, 13–203 (2013).Fol, A. The Thracian orfeism. Sofia, 145–244 (1986).Fol, A. The History of Bulgarian lands in antiquity. Tangra TanNakRa, 11–300 (2008).
The Thracian culture emerged during the early Bronze Age, which began about 3500 BC.Chichikova, M. The Thracian city - Terra Antiqua Balcanica. GSU IF C, 85–93 (1985).Danov, H. G. Thracian a source of knowledge. Veliko Tarnovo, 50–58 (1998).Raicheva, L. Thracians and Orpheism. IK Ogledalo, 5–59 (2014). From it also developed the Getae, the Dacians and other regional groups of tribes. Historical and archaeological records indicate that the Thracian culture flourished in the 3rd and 2nd millennium BC.Fol, A., Georgiev, V. & Danov, H. The History of Bulgaria. Primarily - communal and slavery. Thracians. BAS, Sofia 1, 110–274 (1979).Mihailov, G. The Thracians. New Bulgarian University 2, 1–491 (2015). Writing in the 6th century BC, Xenophanes described Thracians as "blue-eyed and red-haired".Fragment B16 within "the well-known fragments" B14-B16, "Xenophanes", Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Accessed: February 20, 2023).
According to ancient Greek and Roman people historians, the Thracians were uncivilized and remained largely disunited, until the establishment of their first permanent state the Odrysian kingdom in the very beginning of 5th century BC, founded by king Teres I, exploiting the collapse of the Persian presence in Europe due to the failed invasion of Greece in 480–79. (2025). 9788779344310, Aarhus University Press. ISBN 9788779344310 Teres and his son Sitalces pursued a policy of expansion, making the kingdom one of the most powerful of its time. Throughout much of its early history it remained an ally of Classical Athens and even joined the Peloponnesian War on its side. By 400 BC the state showed first signs of fatigue, although Cotys I initiated a brief renaissance that lasted until his murder in 360 BC. Around 340 BC, the Odrysian kingdom lost independence to Macedon and became incorporated into the empire, but it regained independence following Alexander the Great's death. A much smaller Odrysian state was revived in around 330 BC by Seuthes III, who founded a new capital named Seuthopolis.
In the mid-2nd century BC, the Thracians faced gradual conquest by the Romans, under whom they faced internal strife. They composed major parts of rebellions against the Romans along with the Macedonians up until the Third Macedonian War. The Odrysian kingdom was attacked by the Roman Republic in the late 1st century BC, when the Odrysian heartlands eventually became known as the Sapaean kingdom, a client state of the Roman Republic, which was finally abolished and converted into a Thracia in 45-46 AD.
Thracians were described as "Warlike races" and "" by the Greeks and Romans since they were neither Romans nor Greeks, but in spite of this they were favored as excellent mercenaries. While the Thracians were perceived as unsophisticated by the Romans and Greeks, their culture was reportedly noted for its sophisticated poetry and music. Since the 19th century-early 20th century, Bulgaria and Romania have used archaeology to learn more about Thracian culture and way of life.
Thracians followed a Polytheism with Monotheism elements. One of their customs was , common among both men and women. (2025). 9781107244269, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107244269 The Thracians culturally interacted with the peoples surrounding them – Greeks, Persians, Scythians and Celts (1989). 9780860546900, B.A.R.. ISBN 9780860546900." Archaeological Reports, no. 39, 1992, pp. 82–112. JSTOR Thracians spoke the now-Extinct language Thracian language and shared a common culture. The last reported use of a Thracian language was by in the 6th century AD. The scientific study of the Thracians is known as Thracology.
Ancient Greek and Roman historians agreed that the ancient Thracians were superior fighters; only their constant political fragmentation prevented them from overrunning the lands around the northeastern Mediterranean. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "Thrace". Encyclopedia Britannica, 15 Mar. 2024 Although these historians characterized the Thracians as "primitive" partly because they lived in simple, open villages, the Thracians in fact had a fairly advanced culture that was especially noted for its poetry and music. Their soldiers were valued as mercenaries, particularly by the Macedonians and Romans.
According to Ethnica, a geographical dictionary by Stephanus of Byzantium, Thrace—the land of the Thracians—was known as Perki (Περκη) and Aria (Αρια) before being named Thrace by the Greeks, Stephanus Of Byzantium - Ethnica, Theta 316.9 presumably due to the affiliation of the Thracians with the god Ares and Perki is the reflexive name of the god Ares as *Perkʷūnos.Fol et al. 1998, p. 32-71 in Thrace and Macedonia]]Thucydides mentions about a period in the past, from his point of view, when Thracians had inhabited the region of Phocis, also known as the location of Delphi. He dates it to the lifetime of Tereus – mythological Thracian king and son of the god Ares.
Due to the lack of historical records that predate Classical Greece it's presumed that the Thracians did not form a lasting political organization until the Odrysian was founded in the 5th century BC. In the 1st century BC, during Burebista's rule, emerged the powerful state of Dacia.
Currently, there are about 200 identified Thracian tribes. (1993). 9789732803943, Humanitas. ISBN 9789732803943 Thracian peoples from Moesia achieved significant importance during Roman rule. Some peoples from Moesia practiced vegetarianism, feeding themselves on honey, milk, and cheese.Jones, Lindsay (2005). Encyclopedia of religion(13 ed.). Macmillan Reference USA. . Archived from the original on April 5, 2023. during the reign of Burebista (82/61 BC – 45/44 BC)]]
According to ancient Roman sources, the Dii (1998). 9780198150473, Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780198150473 were responsible for the worst atrocities in the Peloponnesian War, killing every living thing, including children and dogs in Tanagra and Mycalessos. The Dii would impale Roman heads on their spears and such as in the Kallinikos skirmish at 171 BC. Strabo treated the Thracians as barbarians, and held that they spoke the same language as the Getae. Some Roman authors noted that even after the introduction of Latin they still kept their "barbarous" ways. Herodotus writes that "the Thracians sell their children and let their maidens commerce with whatever men they please".Herodotus (trans. G.C. Macaulay). The History of Herodotus (Volume II). "Of the other Thracians the custom is to sell their children to be carried away out of the country; and over their maidens they do not keep watch, but allow them to have commerce with whatever men they please, but over their wives they keep very great watch."
The accuracy and impartiality of these descriptions have been called into question in modern times, given the seeming embellishments in Herodotus's histories, for one.. Communication Quarterly, 24(1), 24–31. Evans, J. A. S. "Father of History or Father of Lies; The Reputation of Herodotus." The Classical Journal, vol. 64, no. 1, 1968, pp. 11–17. JSTOR Archaeologists have attempted to piece together a fuller understanding of Thracian culture through the study of their artifacts.
Bacchylides described Theseus as wearing a hat with red hair, which classicists believe was Thracian in origin.Ode 18, Dithyramb 4, verse 51, quoted in Bacchylides: a selection By Bacchylides, Herwig Maehler, Cambridge University Press, 2004, p. 191. Other ancient writers who described the hair of the Thracians as red include Hecataeus of Miletus,Hecataeus mentions a Thracian tribe called the Xanthoi (Nenci 1954: fragment 191 ) apparently named for their fair (red) hair (Helm 1988: 145), quoted in Indo-European origins: the anthropological evidence Institute for the Study of Man, John v. day, 2001 p. 39. Galen,De Temp. II. 5 Clement of Alexandria,Clem. Alex. Strom. Vii.4 and Julius Firmicus Maternus. Matheseos Libri Octo, II. 1, quoted in Ancient Astrology Theory and Practice, Jean Rhys Bram 2005, pp. 14, 29.
Nevertheless, academic studies have concluded that people often had different physical features from those described by primary sources. Ancient authors described as red-haired several groups of people. They claimed that all Slavs had red hair, and likewise described the Scythians as red haired. According to Beth Cohen, Thracians had "the same dark hair and the same facial features as the Ancient Greeks." (2025). 9789004117129, BRILL. ISBN 9789004117129 However, Aris N. Poulianos states that Thracians, like modern Bulgarians, belonged mainly to the Aegean anthropological type.Poulianos, Aris N., 1961, The Origin of the Greeks, Ph.D. thesis, University of Moscow, supervised by F.G.Debets
"...And Hippothous led the tribes of the Pelasgians, that rage with the spear, even them that dwelt in deep-soiled Larissa; these were led by Hippothous and Pylaeus, scion of Ares, sons twain of Pelasgian Lethus, son of Teutamus. But the Thracians Acamas led and Peirous, the warrior, even all them that the strong stream of the Hellespont encloseth." Homer, Illiad II 480 Homer. The Iliad with an English Translation by A.T. Murray, Ph.D. in two volumes. Cambridge, MA., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924: at 2.581
At some point in the 7th century BC, a portion of the Thracian Treri tribe migrated across the Bosporus and invaded Anatolia. In 637 BC, the Treres under their king Kobos ( ; ), in alliance with the Cimmerians and the Lycians, attacked the kingdom of Lydia during the seventh year of the reign of the Lydian king Ardys. They defeated the Lydians and captured the capital city of Lydia, Sardis, except for its citadel, and Ardys might have been killed in this attack. Ardys's son and successor, Sadyattes, might possibly also have been killed in another Cimmerian attack on Lydia. Soon after 635 BC, with Assyrian approval the Scythians under Madyes entered Anatolia. In alliance with Sadyattes's son, the Lydian king Alyattes,Askold Ivantchik (1993). 9783727808760, Editions Universitaires (Switzerland); Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht (Germany). ISBN 9783727808760 Madyes expelled the Treres from Asia Minor and defeated the Cimmerians so that they no longer constituted a threat again, following which the Scythians extended their domination to Central Anatolia until they were themselves expelled by the Medes from Western Asia in the 600s BC.
Following Darius I's orders to create a new satrapy for the Achaemenid Empire in the Balkans, Megabazus forced the Greek cities who had refused to submit to the Achaemenid Empire, starting with Perinthus, after which led military campaigns throughout Thrace to impose Achaemenid rule over every city and tribe in the area. With the help of Thracian guides, Megabazus was able to conquer Paeonia up to but not including the area of Lake Prasias, and he gave the lands of the Paeonians inhabiting these regions up to the Lake Prasias to Thracians loyal to the Achaemenid Empire. The last endeavours of Megabazus included his the conquest of the area between the Strymon and Vardar rivers, and at the end of his campaign, the king of Macedonia, Amyntas I, accepted to become a vassal of the Achaemenid Empire. Within the satrapy itself, the Achaemenid king Darius granted to the tyrant Histiaeus of Miletus the district of Myrcinus on the Strymon's east bank until Megabazus persuaded him to recall Histiaeus after he returned to Asia Minor, after which the Thracian tribe of the Edoni retook control of Myrcinus. The new satrapy, once created, was named Skudra (), derived from Scythian the name , which was the self-designation of the Scythians who inhabited the northern parts of the satrapy.Oswald Szemerényi (1980). 9783700103677, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. . ISBN 9783700103677 Once Megabazus had returned to Asia Minor, he was succeeded in by a governor whose name is unknown, and Darius appointed the general Otanes to oversee the administrative division of the Hellespont, which extended on both sides of the sea and included the Bosporus, the Propontis, and the Dardanelles proper and its approaches. Otanes then proceeded to capture Byzantium, Chalcedon, Antandrus, Lamponeia, Imbros, and Lemnos for the Achaemenid Empire. tomb relief.|350x350px]]The area included within the satrapy of included both the Aegean coast of Thrace, as well as its Pontic coast till the Danube. In the interior, the Western border of the satrapy consisted of the Vardar river and the Belasica-Pirin-Rila mountain ranges till the site of modern-day Kostenets. The importance of this satrapy rested in that it contained the Maritsa river, where a route in the river valley connected the permanent Persian settlement of Doriscus with the Aegean coast, as well as with the port-cities of Sozopol, Mesembria and Odessos on the Black Sea, and with the central Thracian plain, which gave this region an important strategic value. Persian sources describe the province as being populated by three groups: the Saka Paradraya ("Saka beyond the sea", the Persian term for all Scythians peoples to the north of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea Seas ); the themselves (most likely the Thracian tribes), and Yauna Takabara. The latter term, which translates as "Ionians with shield-like hats", is believed to refer to Macedonians. The three ethnicities (Saka, Macedonian, Thracian) enrolled in the Achaemenid army, as shown in the Imperial tomb reliefs of Naqsh-e Rostam, and participated in the Second Persian invasion of Greece on the Achaemenid side.9780521228046, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521228046
When Achaemenid control over its European possessions collapsed once the Ionian Revolt started, the Thracians did not help the Greek rebels, and they instead saw Achaemenid rule as more favourable because the latter had treated the Thracians with favour and even given them more land, and also because they realised that Achaemenid rule was a bulwark against Greek expansion and Scythian attacks. During the revolt, Aristagoras of Miletus captured Myrcinus from the Edones and died trying to attack another Thracian city. Once the Ionian Revolt had been fully quelled, the Achaemenid general Mardonius crossed the Hellespont with a large fleet and army, re-subjugated Thrace without any effort and made Macedonia full part of the satrapy of . Mardonius was however attacked at night by the Bryges in the area of Lake Doiran and modern-day Valandovo, but he was able to defeat and submit them as well. Herodotus's list of tribes who provided the Achaemenid army with soldiers included Thracians from both the coast and from the central Thracian plain, attesting that Mardonius's campaign had reconquered all the Thracian areas which were under Achaemenid rule before the Ionian Revolt.
When the Greeks defeated a second invasion attempt by the Persian Empire in 479 BC, they started attacking the satrapy of , which was resisted by both the Thracians and the Persian forces. The Thracians kept on sending supplies to the governor of Eion when the Greeks besieged it. When the city fell to the Greeks in 475 BC, Cimon gave its land to Athens for colonisation. Although Athens was now in control of the Aegean Sea and the Hellespont following the defeat of the Persian invasion, the Persians were still able to control the southern coast of Thrace from a base in central Thrace and with the support of the Thracians. Thanks to the Thracians co-operating with the Persians by sending supplies and military reinforcements down the Hebrus river route, Achaemenid authority in central Thrace lasted until around 465 BC, and the governor Mascames managed to resist many Greek attacks in Doriscus until then.
Around this time, Teres I, the king of the Odrysae tribe, in whose territory the Hebrus flowed, was starting to organise the rise of his kingdom into a powerful state. With the end of Achaemenid power in the Balkans, the Thracian Odrysian kingdom, the Kingdom of Macedonia, and the Delian League filled the ensuing power vacuum and formed their own spheres of influence in the area.
By the 5th century BC, the Thracian population was large enough that Herodotus called them the second-most numerous people in the part of the world known by him (after the ), and potentially the most powerful, if not for their lack of unity. Herodotus. Histories, Book V. The Thracians in classical times were broken up into a large number of groups and tribes, though a number of powerful Thracian states were organized, the most important being the Odrysian kingdom of Thrace, and also the short lived Dacian kingdom of Burebista. The peltast is a type of soldier of this period that originated in Thrace.
At this time, a subculture of celibacy ascetics called the "ctistae" lived in Thrace, where they served as philosophers, priests and prophets. They were held in a place of honor by the Thracians, with their lives being dedicated to the gods. Strabo, Geography VII.3.3
After the Persians withdrew from Europe and before the expansion of the Kingdom of Macedon, Thrace was divided into three regions (east, central, and west). A notable ruler of the East Thracians was Cersobleptes, who attempted to expand his authority over many of the Thracian tribes. He was eventually defeated by the Macedonians.
The Thracians were typically not city-builders and their only polis was Seuthopolis.Mogens Herman Hansen. An Inventory of Archaic and Classical Poleis: An Investigation Conducted by The Copenhagen Polis Centre for the Danish National Research Foundation. Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 888. "It was meant to be a polis but there was no reason to think that it was anything other than a native settlement."
The conquest of the southern part of Thrace by Philip II of Macedon in the 4th century BC made the Odrysian kingdom extinct for several years. After the kingdom was reestablished, it was a vassal state of Macedon for several decades under generals such as Lysimachus of the Diadochi. In 336 BC, Alexander the Great began recruiting Thracian cavalry and Peltast in his army, who accompanied him on his continuous conquest to expand the borders of the Macedonian Empire. Ashley, The Macedonian Empire: The Era of Warfare Under Philip II and Alexander the Great The strength of the thracian cavalry quickly grew from 150 men, to 1000 men by the time Alexander advanced into Egypt, and numbered 1600 when he reached the persian city of Susa. The thracian infantry was under the command of the Odrysian prince Sitalces II who led them in the siege of Telmessos and in the battles of Issus and Gaugamela.
In 279 BC, Gauls advanced into Macedonia, southern Greece and Thrace. They were soon forced out of Macedonia and southern Greece, but they Tylis until the end of the 3rd century BC. From Thrace, three Celtic tribes advanced into Anatolia and established the kingdom of Galatia.
As evident from the archaeological findings of pits and treasures, spanning from the 3rd century BC to the 1st century BC in northwestern Bulgaria and northeastern Serbia, communities lived next to the Thracian ones.
Initially, Thracians and Macedonians revolted against Roman rule. For example, the revolt of Andriscus, in 149 BC, drew the bulk of its support from Thrace. Incursions by local tribes into Macedonia continued for many years, though a few tribes, such as the Deneletae and the Bessi, willingly allied with Rome.
After the Third Macedonian War, Thrace acknowledged Roman authority. The client state of Thracia comprised several tribes.
The next century and a half saw the slow development of Thracia into a permanent Roman client state. The Sapaei tribe came to the forefront initially under the rule of Rhascuporis. He was known to have granted assistance to both Pompey and Julius Caesar, and later supported the Roman Republic armies against Mark Antony and Augustus in the final days of the Republic.
The heirs of Rhascuporis became as deeply enmeshed in political scandal and murder as were their Roman masters. A series of royal assassinations altered the ruling landscape for several years in the early Roman imperial period. Various factions took control with the support of the Roman Emperor. The turmoil would eventually end with one final assassination.
After Rhoemetalces III of the Thracian Kingdom of Sapes was murdered in AD 46 by his wife, Thracia was incorporated as an official Roman province to be governed by Promagistrate, and later Praetorian prefects. The central governing authority of Rome was in Perinthus, but regions within the province were under the command of military subordinates to the governor. The lack of large urban centers made Thracia a difficult place to manage, but eventually the province flourished under Roman rule. However, Romanization was not attempted in the province of Thracia. The Balkan Sprachbund does not support Hellenization.
Roman authority in Thracia rested mainly with the legions stationed in Moesia. The rural nature of Thracia's populations, and distance from Roman authority, certainly inspired local troops to support Moesia's legions. Over the next few centuries, the province was periodically and increasingly attacked by migrating Germanic tribes. The reign of Justinian saw the construction of over 100 Roman Legion fortresses to supplement the defense.
Oddly the last mention of Thracians, in the 6th century, coincides with the first mention of Slavs, when the Slavic tribes inhabited large territories of Central and Eastern Europe. Origin of The Slavs p.2 After the 6th century Thracians that weren't already assimilated in the Byzantine Empire, were incorporated in the slavic speaking Bulgarian Empire.Angelov et al 1981, p. 261 Bulgarian Thrace
Slavs had mingled with the Thracian population, prior to the formation of the Bulgarian state. Under the leadership of Asparuh, in 680 AD the Thracians, Bulgars and Slavs readily united to establish the First Bulgarian Empire.Angelov et al 1981, p. 264Fine 1991, p. 128 These three ethnic groups mingled to produce the Bulgarians people. Garrett Hellenthal et al The Byzantine Empire, retained control over Thrace until the 7th century when the northern half of the entire region was claimed by the First Bulgarian Empire and the remainder was reorganized in the Thracian theme.
Greek Thrace
Turkish Thrace
The Thracians are considered the first to worship the god of wine called Dionysus in Greek or Zagreus in Thracian.Patricia Turner and Charles Russell Coulter. Dictionary of Ancient Deities. Oxford University Press, 2001, p. 152. Later this cult reached Ancient Greece.
The history of Thracian warfare spans from c. 10th century BC up to the 1st century AD in the region defined by Ancient Ancient Greeks and Latin historians as Thrace. It concerns the armed conflicts of the Thracian tribes and their kingdoms in the Balkans and in the Dacian territories. Emperor Traianus, also known as Trajan, conquered Dacia after two wars in the 2nd century AD. The wars ended with the occupation of the fortress of Sarmisegetusa and the death of the king Decebalus. Besides conflicts between Thracians and neighboring nations and tribes, numerous wars were recorded among Thracian tribes too.
A Bulgarian study from 2013 claims genetic similarity between Thracians (8-6 century BC), medieval Bulgarians (8–10 century AD), and modern Bulgarians, highlighting highest resemblance between them and Romanians, Northern Italians and Northern Greeks.Karachanak et al., 2012. Karachanak, S., V. Carossa, D. Nesheva, A. Olivieri, M. Pala, B. Hooshiar Kashani, V. Grugni, et al. "Bulgarians vs the Other European Populations: A Mitochondrial DNA Perspective." International Journal of Legal Medicine 126 (2012): 497.
Examinations of Iron Age and ancient Thracian remains in Bulgaria were found to mainly carry the Y-DNA haplogroup E-V13. The genetic history of the Southern Arc : A bridge between West Asia and Europe - Lazaridis et al The tested samples were further specifically listed as: E-BY3880 x 3, E-L618 x 2, E-M78 x 2, R-Z93, E-CTS1273, E-BY14160.
Six of the samples were predicted for having brown eyes while two for having blue eyes, while majority of the samples were predicted for an intermediate skin color and hair color prediction ranged from majority brown on detailed, to light and dark. The genetic history of the Southern Arc: A bridge between West Asia and Europe. Science 377, eabm4247. (PDF / SUPPLEMENT ) - ChalcolithicBronzeAge Supplement
==Gallery==
(1999). 9789004111905, Brill.
/ref> The works of Homer, Herodotus and other historians of Ancient Greece also refer to the Thrace' love for winemaking and consumption, also related to religion as early as 6000 years ago.
Marriage
The male Thracians were polygamous. Menander puts it: " All Thracians, especially us and the Getae, are not much abstaining, because no one takes less than ten, eleven, twelve wives, some even more. If one dies and has only four or five wives he is called ill-fated, unhappy and unmarried." According to Herodotus virginity among women was not valued, and unmarried Thracian women could have sex with any man they wished to.
There were men perceived as holy Thracians, who lived without women and were called "ktisti". In myth, Orpheus rebuked the sexual advances of the Maenad women after the death of Eurydice, and was killed for not engaging in the activities promoted by the followers of Dionysus.
Warfare
The Thracians were a warrior people, known as both horsemen and lightly armed skirmishers with javelins. Thracian had a notable influence in Ancient Greece.
Genetics
A genetic study published in Scientific Reports in 2019 examined the mtDNA of 25 Thracian remains in Bulgaria from the 3rd and 2nd millennia BC. They were found to harbor a mixture of ancestry from Western Steppe Herders (WSHs) and Early European Farmers (EEFs), supporting the idea that Southeast Europe was the link between Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.
Notable people
This is a list of historically important personalities being entirely or partly of Thracian and Dacian ancestry:
Thracology
Archaeology
The branch of science that studies the ancient Thracians and Thrace is called Thracology. Archaeological research on the Thracian culture started in the 20th century, especially after World War II, mainly in southern Bulgaria. As a result of intensive excavations in the 1960s and 1970s a number of Thracian tombs and sanctuaries were discovered. Most significant among them are: the Getic burial complex and the Tomb of Sveshtari, the Valley of the Thracian Rulers and the Tomb of Kazanlak, Tatul, Seuthopolis, Perperikon, Tomb of Aleksandrovo in Bulgaria, Sarmizegetusa in Romania and others.
Also a large number of elaborately crafted gold and silver treasure sets from the 5th and 4th century BC were unearthed. In the following decades, those were exhibited in museums around the world, thus calling attention to ancient Thracian culture. Since the year 2000, Bulgarian archaeologist Georgi Kitov has made discoveries in Central Bulgaria, in an area now known as "The Valley of the Thracian Kings". The residence of the Odrysian kingdom was found in Starosel in the Sredna Gora mountains. A 1922 Bulgarian study claimed that there were at least 6,269 in Bulgaria.
Multidisciplinary Studies
The dominant stance of history and archaeology as the two main disciplines dealing with the Thracians as a subject of research has been succeeded by a clear shift towards new multidisciplinary and more inclusive scientific perspectives. An example of this new trend was the large-scale multidisciplinary project "Thracians – Genesis and Development of the Ethnos, Cultural Identities, Civilization Relations and Heritage of the Antiquity", launched in 2016 in Bulgaria. The project was the first comprehensive study of the Thracian heritage including 72 scholars from 18 institutes of the Bulgarian Academy of Science, as well as researchers from Canada, Italy, Germany, Japan and Switzerland. The project studied 13 scientific themes among which: formation of the Thracian ethnos, outlining of its ethno-cultural territory, continuity of the gene pool and related DNA studies, architectural, botanical, microbiological, astronomical, acoustic and linguistic aspects, mining and ceramics technologies, food and drink customs, that resulted in an extensively illustrated book including 33 scientific articles.Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAS). Bulgarian Academy of Science (BAS); General Academic News/ Thursday, 15 February 2018.
See also
Sources
(2025). 9780199381135 ISBN 9780199381135
(1982). 9781139054287 ISBN 9781139054287
(1982). 9781139054287 ISBN 9781139054287
(1998). 9781882507061, Harry N. Abrams, in association with the Trust for Museum Exhibitions, in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Bulgaria. . ISBN 9781882507061
(2025). 9789004290365 ISBN 9789004290365
Ralph F. Hoddinott (1981). 050002099X, Thames & Hudson. 050002099X
Further reading
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