Exhibition “Memory of Ages”
The exhibition includes original monuments from the museum's fund - some of them of international importance. Exhibits from the Neolithic and Eneolithic Age are on display on the first floor - vessels, cult figures, stone tools, bronze tools and weapons.
The rest of the exhibition on the first floor is dedicated to the Thracians - the oldest population, known to have inhabited Bulgarian territories. Over 20 burial mounds have been studied in the region of Sliven and unique objects are presented in the Historical Museum of Sliven, showing the high level in the workmanship of the Thracian masters.
Thracian pottery vessels – jugs, made of grey Thracian ceramics, and yellow-brown clay, are displayed. An interested object is the rhyton with head of a horse and body of a cock unfamiliar for the Thracian region from 4th century BC.
Two of the window displays show exhibits from the “Kaloyanovo tomb” – burial gifts and personal belongings of the buried Thracian aristocrat, luxury red-figure ceramic vessels, and a gold breastplate. The tomb in the village of Kaloyanovo was the earliest excavated burial mound (in 1963) on the territory of Sliven.
Exhibits from a burial mound near the village of Topolchane are placed in this hall, most probably from a funeral of a king or a local ruler. This conclusion was made because of the exceptionally rich inventory - one of the richest burials of the period ever found.
Gold-plated silver rhytons, silver helmet and Thracian ceramic vessels are exhibited. The second golden mask found in the Thracian region is presented here, as well as golden phiales and a golden signet-ring. There are halls on this floor showing exhibits from the Roman Age, and “Tuida” hall. One of the most considerable archeological monuments is presented in “Tuida” hall - Greek inscription over pedestal of a statue group, which reads:”To omni-listener Zeus Okonenski , Yulia Marcia , and her husband Аurelius Theopompos, a municipal councillor , put this monument gratefully in the market place Tuida”. Mosaic floor from a baptistery in the “Tuida” fortress is shown in the middle of the hall.
Unique collection of guns from the age of Revival can be seen on the third floor. At the end of XVIIIth c. and in the beginning of XIXth c. Sliven won recognition as a leading arms-producing centre in the Bulgarian lands. The rifle with barrel groovings produced in Sliven (Shishane ”Islimie”) was highly valued and costed a lot on the Oriental Markets, where it competed even the Western European factory production.
The exhibition shows firearms and cold weapons, equipment, combat accessories, tools, half-finished weapons.
Puctures
