The First Kings of Europe: The Varna Culture

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The Varna Necropolis, Bulgaria contains the earliest gold treasure in the world, dating to 4500 BC.

These Chalcolithic graves of Old Europe contained more than 3,000 gold artefacts weighing over six kilograms. That's more than anywhere else in the fifth millennium BC, including Mesopotamia and Egypt. Instead of the glorious civilisations of the near east, the world's first goldsmiths lived on the shores of the Black Sea.

But what was the Varna Culture? How did they accumulate so much treasure? And what happened to them?

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--- Video Sources ---

Prehistoric Copper Mining in Europe - William O'Brian ➜
On the Invention of Gold Metallurgy - Verena Leusch et al (2014)
The genomic history of southeastern Europe - Mathieson et al (2018)
Varna culture: an autonomous phenomenon or a local version of the Kodzhadermen-Gumelnitsa-Karanovo VІ cultural complex - Viktoria Petrova (2016)

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--- Video Chapters ---

00:00 The Varna Culture
01:26 Video Sponsorship
02:27 Varna Necropolis burials
07:40 Cenotaph symbolic burials
11:10 Old Europe
13:22 Varna Trade Networks
14:18 Varna Chiefs
15:22 The Varna King
16:50 Varna culture DNA
18:27 the Fall of the Varna culture

[DanDavisHistory]

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[Somewhat-Evil]

These "Varna" people are from 4500 BC! To put that into perspective of how old that is; Upper and Lower Egypt was unified around 3150 BC stating the first Pharaonic dynasty. Ur was founded around 3800 BC and Gilgamesh was its king around 2900 BC. Crazier still is that Jericho was founded in 9600 BC and Gobekli Tepe dates back to 9500 BC. We know so little, almost NOTHING, about our early history. 😢😭

[stefansoder]

This era in Europe is so underestimated. This was a thousand years before Stonehenge and the standing stones all around Europe! And such an early admixture of Yamnaya - very interesting in deed!

[juriskrumgolds]

I'm Latvian living in Varna for a year already. Didn't even know this! Now I'm eager to explore sites of this culture scattered around this town. Thank you!

[MagnusItland]

Maybe the later "barbarian" steppe people were influenced by the Varna long after its passing, in a similar way that the Germanic peoples in the Dark Ages were heavily influenced by the glory of Rome, for centuries after its fall. Surely this place must have spawned legends that turned into myth that is now long forgotten.

[janetmontgomery-rj]

I was fortunate to see the Varna display at museum in Cambridge. UK... It was totally brilliant and lovely and an amazing culture

[freshmakero]

The source of their wealth is likely the salt mine at nearby Provadia, sitting at around 40km west from Varna, developed around the same time or earlier. Apparently in the past salt was very precious commodity and there it was produced on an industrial scale. Curiously, wealth accumulation eventually led to the necessity to fortify the area with a stone wall and other structures, making it the oldest known fortified town in Europe

[Esstan]

As a proud Bulgarian, I'm very happy to see someone actually making a video about this. It truly is a remarkable culture and finding. Thank you!

[miketacos]

Wow, the notion of goldsmith-kings reminds me of how blacksmiths (and other skilled workers) were often regarded as magic in pagan and medieval cultures. Must be an old idea. Fascinating video!

[boilingwateronthestove]

It's crazy how important these folks were for their time, but we have all forgotten about them until we randomly stumbled upon their remains. It makes you wonder what other stories we have no memory about.

[Milenu]

I am from Varna and I pass near the necropolis every day going to work. Of course if you don't know it's there, you would never know as it's surrounded by industrial buildings. Still many of the sites haven't been excavated and I don't know why for so many years they haven't funded it. I am happy that there is such a detailed video about the topic and I learned new things. The whole area along the lake down to the sea shore was populated. There are other remains from this period that have been found during construction works.

[larrygrimaldi]

A most remarkable thing is that these treasures were not looted over the centuries.

[jorgegonzalez-larramendi]

funny: in sanskrit "varna" - amongst other things - means "gold".

[_Ben___]

6:55 the scepter wasn't the only shaft lined with gold by the looks of it.

[NOISECAUSEDCANCER]

For those interested in the topic I would recommend prof.Hristo Smolenov's works and research on the neolithic Varna culture and its artifacts, there are some videos uploaded on his channel called The Black Sea Atlantis - Черноморската Атлантида here on youtube, there is also a link to a virtual book for anyone interested .

[CrosshairMA]

I love these "Old Europe" cultures. You always bring so many interesting facts that nobody mention. Do you plan to explore more of these kind of cultures in old europe? Are there any interesting findings close to today Slovakia? Thanks

[dankovassilev]

30 kilometers from Varna has first village6000 Years of Salt production, 170 kilometers from Varna City Perperikon 5-6000 years, and much more

[morski_ludak]

Bulgarian here, thanks for the video. Glad i found your channel

[hotstepper]

You've a great way of making history interesting, the way I believe it should be taught, not always just believing, but also questioning. Good stuff as always, Dan.

[HittiteVodku]

It seems that history of chalcolithic era should be rewritten taking Varna culture into consideration. This amount of golden artifacts presented so early in the era remains unprecedented in the history of Near East and neighbouring areas. It demands more research no doubt. Thank you Dan Davis for bringing it up. Well done.