Varna's richest graves without skeletons: gold diadem, bull figures, clay heads

October 24, 2026BulgariaGeneralShare

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Key facts

• Grave 36 held an exceptional set of valuables but no human skeleton: two golden animals usually identified as bulls, bracelets, gold implements, a composite gold scepter, and a miniature diadem about 4.3 cm (1.7 in) in diameter.
• Grave 36 also contained thousands of shell beads and 30 gold appliques representing stylized horned animal heads; bull symbolism of this kind is also documented from Mesopotamia and Egypt.
• The deposit included a gold astragalus, a model of an animal knuckle bone, catalogued at only 1.9 cm (0.79 in) long; knucklebones served as gaming and divination pieces in later cultures.
• Excavator Ivan Ivanov proposed the deposit could be a symbolic burial for a child, another researcher argued for a ceremonial retirement of a ruler, and a third suggested a symbolic grave for the community's final ruler, his wife and a child as the community prepared to leave - all interpretive proposals, not established facts.
• Other symbolic graves contained modelled clay heads decorated with gold appliques positioned on the eyes, mouth, ears and forehead; these are pure clay, not plastered skulls as at Catalhoyuk, and recent research suggests the face-shaped plates may be compressed remains of larger modelled heads.
• Maria Gimbuts interpreted the earlier Varna deposits through a goddess-religion framework, arguing gold was placed on clay figures rather than on living individuals, suggesting a later shift toward individuals covered in gold.
• The 1991 dataset of 301 graves comprised 93 male, 67 female, 47 symbolic and 94 other/disturbed burials; 61 contained gold (10 male, 13 female, 34 symbolic, 4 disturbed).
• Of the six richest gold graves only Grave 43 held a male skeleton, and there are as many female as male symbolic graves, which the presenter says weakens the claim that male rulers replaced a female goddess-worshipping order.
• A study cited in the 2010 work 'The Lost World of Old Europe' reports that 26.47% of extended burials were female and 46.15% of contracted burials were male, contrary to the usual male-extended, female-contracted pattern.

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