Archeologists working at the Orpheus Temple, near Bulgaria's Tatul village, have unearthed numerous richly ornamented artifacts graved with sun-related symbols - the largest finding of ritual ceramics from the times of Antiquity on Bulgarian land.
An unmatchable priest scepter has stunned the scientists, as such an artifact has not been seen in the material culture of Thracians.
The royal symbol is believed to have belonged to a mighty Thracian king buried at the site of the temple.
This summer Bulgarian archaeologists have renewed excavations at the Tatul village, where they believe that a unique temple of mythical royal descendant and artist Orpheus is located.
Continuing excavation works come to confirm preliminary suggestions by archaeologists that the sanctuary at Tatul has effloresced for more than two thousand years in ancient times. It is probably the largest temple after the sanctuary of Dionisos in Perperikon, also located in the Rhodopes Mountain.
A ritual gold plastic was discovered by a team of Bulgarian archaeologists, it was announced.
The team, headed by Nikolay Ovcharov discovered the semi-sphere gold artifact during excavation near the village of Tatul.
The 23-carat gold dates back to 15-14th century BC, archeologists revealed.
The unique founding could be a part of a ritual leather mask or a fragment of a chest decoration.
The archeologists launched Tatul expedition a week ago. According to scientific theories this is the place where the mythical musician Orpheus was buried.
Archaeologists in Southern Bulgaria, exploring what they believe to be the tomb of Orpheus, discovered fragments of a golden mask dating from the Trojan War, state TV reported.
The expedition found the gold in a 3, 500 year-old temple that has survived untouched by treasure hunters.
Archaeological team leader Nikolay Ovcharov said the mask was older than a 690-gram (24.3-ounce) Thracian gold mask that was unearthed a year ago in central Bulgaria.
The Thracians were Bronze Age peopl, who lived in the Balkans between 4000 B.C. and the seventh century A.D.
Ovcharov said the golden fragments were discovered in a perfectly preserved cultural layer from the 15 c. - 11 c. B.C. near the village of Tatul, next to the Bulgarian-Greek border.
He said the find could be linked the Ancient Greek Mycenae culture.