National Archaeological Museum Sofia - Bronze Head from the Golyama Kosmatka Tumulus near Shipka

This bronze head is part of a life-size statue of a full-grown man. Its expressive eyes are made of white stone (likely alabaster) and glass paste in light green, brown and black. Red glass paste is used to outline the lachrymal canals and cut-out copper render the eyelashes. The statue's negelected hair and beard, the aquiline nose, as well as the wrinkles on the forehead and around the eyes and the small wart on the left cheekbone reveal the portrait nature of the sculpture. The head - thought to be the work of a Hellenic sculptor belonging to the artistic circle of Silanion - ranks among the most remarkable sculpted pieces from the early Hellenistic age.

It was discovered in 2004 in the 'Golyama Kostmatka' burial mound in the Kazanlak valley near Shipka, Stara Zagora region. The direct connection of the bronze head with the tomb and the burial ritual, the way in which the hair and the beard are depicted and the vague resemblance to the images of Seuthes on the coins found in Seuthopolis allows for the possibility that the bronze head is part of a sculpted portrait of the Tracian ruler himself.