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Founded in 681, Bulgaria is one of the oldest European states. However, in spite of its 13-century-old tradition, it is an “infant” compared to the history of civilization in the present-day Bulgarian lands. These areas had been populated as early as the Palaeolithic period. Here, in the neighbourhood of the town of Montana, a 6800-year-old inscription has been discovered (cf. the ancient Egyptian script dates back to about the end of the 4th millennium A.D.). This is a stone tablet on which 24 signs (still undeciphered) are written in four lines. And near the Black Sea port of Varna the oldest (Copper Age) gold treasure in Europe was found in 1972. Among the articles, whose overall weight is 1516 g, there are some regal symbols, which means that even in most ancient times there existed some, though unknown, form of statehood. The ethnic identity of the people who had created these masterpieces is also obscure.
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