Life sized mask, possibly belonging to King Teres I (c. 460–445 BC), unearthed in a mound at the Valley of the Thracian kings, Kazanlak region, Central Bulgaria. The mask is made of 23.5 carat gold and weighs 672 g (21.6 ozt)). The sensational discovery was made by Prof. Georgi Kitov and his team in August 2004. According to him, “There have been other gold masks discovered, but all of them are made of foil-thin gold. Gold masks with this shape and weight are absolutely unknown.”
The Odrysian state was the first Thracian kingdom that acquired power in the region, by the unification[4] of many Thracian tribes under a single ruler, King Teres[5] probably in the 460's after the Persian defeat in Greece.[6] Teres, who united the 40 or more Thracian tribes under one banner, was well known for his military abilities and spent much of his life on the battlefield. He died during a military campaign in 445 BC. Historians argue it was against the Triballi, a Thracian tribe occupying a large amount of land to the north of Thrace.[citation needed] He was succeeded by his second son, Sitalces, who seemed to have taken on his father's fighting prowess and used all the tribes to wage war with Macedon.
^The Thracians 700 BC-AD 46 (Men-at-Arms) by Christopher Webber and Angus McBride, 2001, ISBN1-84176-329-2, page 5
^The Oxford Classical Dictionary by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth,ISBN0-19-860641-9,"page 1515,"The Thracians were subdued by the Persians by 516"
^Readings in Greek History: Sources and Interpretations by D. Brendan Nagle and Stanley M. Burstein,ISBN0-19-517825-4,2006,page 230: "... , however, one of the Thracian tribes, the Odrysians, succeeded in unifying the Thracians and creating a powerful state ..."
^The Oxford Classical Dictionary by Simon Hornblower and Antony Spawforth,ISBN0-19-860641-9,page 1515,"Shortly afterwards the first King of the Odrysae, Teres attempted to carve an empire out of the territory occupied by the Thracian tribes (Thuc. 2.29 and his sovereignty extended as far as the Euxine and the Hellespont)"
