The Thrace Foundation Publishers was founded in 2004 and it is focused on issue of scientific literature, relevant to the protection of the Bulgarian cultural and historical heritage and its promotion.

The Thrace Foundation Publishers has realized the following editions:

Marazov I., G. Kabakchieva, G. Lazov, T. Shalganova. 2005. Vassil Bojkov Collection. Catalogue. Sofia (in Bulgarian and English).

Marazov I., G. Kabakchieva. 2007. The Splendor of Bulgaria. Vassil Bojkov Collection. Exhibition catalogue. Sofia (in Bulgarian and English).

Marazov I., G. Kabakchieva, T. Shalganova. 2009. The saved Treasures of Ancient Thrace. Exhibition catalogue. Sofia (in Bulgarian, Russian and English).

Marazov I. 2011. Thrace and the Ancient World. Vassil Bojkov Collection. Exhibition catalogue. Sofia (in Bulgarian and English).

Sideris A. 2015. Theseus in Thrace. The silver lining on the clouds of the Athenian-Thracian relations in the 5^th century BC. Sofia.

Sideris A. 2016. Metal Vases and Utensils in the Vassil Bojkov Collection. Vol. 1. Sofia.

The first volume of the catalogue of Metal Vases and Utensils in the Vassil Bojkov Collection is articulated in five chapters. The first one spans the 8^th to the mid 4^th centuries BC and comprises Phrygian, Phoenician and other pre-Achaemenid vessels from the Middle and Near East and Anatolia. It includes as well several Achaemenid creations, many of which represent the Lydian toreutic school, while distinctive traits on others betray the intensity of the Achaemenid contacts with the Greek cities of the Propontis and the Aegean coast of Asia Minor.

The second chapter deals with the Greek toreutic output of the Archaic period, with artefacts ranging from the second quarter of the 6^th to the first quarter of the 5^th centuries BC. It represents all the major centres: Laconia, Corinth, Ionia, Western Greece and Magna Graecia.

The third chapter contains creations of the same centres, to which now Athens, Argos, Campania and Etruria are added. It encompasses the period between the end of the Persian Wars and the end of the Peloponnesian War. The Athenian and Athenian-related silverware of this period forms a distinctive group, the technical perfection, the aesthetic value and the outstanding significance of which place the Vassil Bojkov Collection in the leading position among the museum collections of Classical toreutics worldwide.

The fourth chapter deals with the entire 4^th century BC: it comprises almost exclusively Greek works issued from already well-established centres, like Corinth and Athens, now joined by those of South Italy and Macedonia. During this century, Macedonia, Thrace and Scythia reach unprecedented heights in the use, grave deposition and, presumably, production of metal vases, especially those of precious metals: a phenomenon undoubtedly related to both the expansion of the Greek cultural model, and the sudden influx of huge amounts of wealth, originating from the acquisition of the Achaemenid royal treasuries. Some vase-types, such as situlae, oinochoae and cups, display no breaks in their evolution at the end of the Classical period. Therefore their development is followed until the turn of the 4^th century, when a more conspicuous change occurs in the trends and fashions of the material culture, as a result of profound shifts of power and of the economic epicentres taking place outside the Greek peninsula.

The last chapter collects material from the 3^rd to the early 1^st centuries BC, mostly cups, from areas once considered as the periphery of the Greek world, but now becoming the emerging centres of the Hellenistic ecumene.

Each entry of the catalogue has a brief main heading, sequentially numbered, and a more descriptive secondary passage, always mentioning the material of which the artefact is made, as well as its inventory number in the collection. The body of the text of each entry is divided into three sections: the technical description – printed in slightly smaller characters – followed by the physical description of the artefact and the discussion. The 146 artefacts presented in this volume are illustrated by 388 pictures and 110 drawings, and their entries are supported by 111 pictures of comparable artefacts in other collections and museums.

Some 500 place names – of the find spots, the production centres, and the regions mentioned in the text – are shown on the three accompanying maps. The catalogue concludes with three indexes (personal names, place names, general index), followed by a list of the 21 inscriptions and graffiti, a list of figures of the comparanda, and a concordance list, intended to facilitate the identification of the entries in the current volume with those in the previous publications of the Thrace Foundation.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TO ALL INSTITUTIONS AND PERSONS WHO PROVIDED PHOTOGRAPHS

Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
American Numismatic Society, USA
Antikensammlung der Staatlichen Museen, Berlin, Germany
Archaeological Museum of Igoumenitsa, Greece
Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, Greece
Archaeological Museum of Vergina, Greece
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK
British Museum, London, UK
Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA
Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, Russia
Historical Museum, Shumen, Bulgaria
Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, USA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA
Musée du Louvre, Paris, France
Museo Arqueológico Nacional, Madrid, Spain
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA
National Historical Museum, Sofia, Bulgaria
Princeton University Art Museum, USA
Regional Historical Museum, Vratsa, Bulgaria
Staatliche Antikensammlungen – Glyptothek, Munich, Germany
The Ure Museum of Greek Archaeology – University of Reading, UK
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, USA
Diana Dimitrova
Stella Drougou
Annareta Touloumtzidou
Michael Treister

General coordination / Yoana Cholakova

Texts and concept / Athanasios Sideris

General editorial supervision / Ruja Popova

English language editing / Don Evely

Art Director & Graphic design / Bilyana Savova

Conservation and restoration of the VBC artefacts / Prof. Dr. Vesselina Inkova

Drawings of the VBC artefacts / Vania Malakchieva

Photographs of the VBC artefacts / Marin Karavelov

Maps / Davis Dinkov, Cartographic studio DavGEO

Prepress / Vladimir Stamenkov

Production consultant / Yoan Georgiev, Bulged

His research interests encompass the economy and ecology of the Greek world, the toreutic artifacts and especially the metal vases, the Achaemenid art, the Phokian & Boeotian history and archaeology, the Graeco-Thracian & Greco-Scythian contacts, and the reception of Classics in the modern world. Dr. Sideris has in the past studied and prepared for publication toreutic artifacts from, among others, the George Ortiz Collection in Geneva, the Benaki Museum in Athens, the Shelby White Collection in New York, and the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.
He has a long teaching experience in under- and post-graduate level, including institutions such as Charles University (Prague), Ionian University (Corfu), University of Economics (Prague), Masaryk University (Brno), Polytechnico di Torino, Foundation of the Hellenic World, and Free University (Athens). He currently teaches in the postgraduate program of the University of the Aegean and he is an Affiliated professor in Charles University (under final approval).
Since 1998 he has participated in more than fifty national and EU funded projects related to the digitization of cultural resources, especially in the field of Virtual Reality and the online encyclopedias, and he was the scientific director for twenty two of them. He is a current member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Computational Methods in Heritage Science, and he has served in the past in the board of the journal Imeros, Annual of the FHW on Culture and Digital Technologies. He participates regularly in international conferences and congresses and publishes books and papers in the fields of both, archaeology and digitized cultural heritage. A detailed CV of dr. Athanasios Sideris and the full list of his publications may be found in the address: https://thracefoundation.academia.edu/AthanasiosSideris.

Monographs and edited volumes

• Sideris A., Metal Vases and Utensils in the Vassil Bojkov Collection. Volume 1, Thrace Foundation, Sofia 2016.
• Sideris A., Theseus in Thrace. The Silver Lining on the Clouds of the Athenian – Thracian Relations in the 5^th Century BC, Thrace Foundation, Sofia 2015.
• Sideris A., History and Archaeology, Municipality of Distomo – Arachova – Antikyra; Athens 2014, bilingual edition En & Gr.
• Sideris A. (ed.), History and Culture (in Greek: Βοιωτία.. Ιστορία και Πολιτισμός Νομαρχιακή Αυτοδιοίκηση Βοιωτίας & Ίδρυμα Μείζονος Ελληνισμού), Athens 2010
• Sideris A. (ed.), History and Architecture (in Greek: Έφεσος. Ιστορία και Αρχιτεκτονική, FHW), Athens 2009.
• Sideris A. (co-ed.) in collaboration with Y. Tzedopoulos Y. and K. Ferla, Proceedings of the Conference: Athletics, Society and Identity, Athens 26-29 May 2004, Hellenic Cosmos, Imeros 5.1 (FHW, Athens 2005)
• Sideris A. (co-ed.) incollaboration with Y. Katsiampoura, Y. Tzedopoulos Y. and K. Ferla, Strolling through Athens (City of Athens, Athens 2004) also in French, German, Spanish and Greek.
• Sideris A. (co-ed.) in collaboration with Boudouri E., Henri-Paul Boissonas – Asia Minor 1921 (in Greek, Henri-Paul Boissonas – Μικρά Ασία 1921, Benaki Museum – FHW), Athens 2002

Selected papers

• Sideris A., “A Lydian Silver Amphora with Zoomorphic Handles”, in Honorary volume to prof. Iva Ondrejova, Studia Herzynia1 (2016), pp. 19-26, 174-179.
• Sideris A., “A Dekaprotos in Antikyra of Phokis”, Eirene 49 (2013), pp. 54-74.
• Sideris A. & Tonkova M., “Archaeological research in a multilayered site of the Neolithic period and the 1^st millennium BC, at the source Halka Bunar, village Gorno Belevo, municipality Bratia Daskalovi, Stara Zagora region” in Archaeological Finds and Excavations in the year 2011 (AOR, Sofia 2012, in Bulgarian), pp. 156-158.
• Sideris A., “Faces of Macedonian Toreutisc”, in Valavanis P. (ed.), Travelling in Classical Greece. Volume in Honor of Professor Petros Themelis (Athens 2011, in Greek), pp. 283-313.
• Sideris A., “Bronze finds from the Archaic sanctuary of Athena in the Phokian Antikyra”, Kubaba 8/17, (May 2011), pp. 95-96 (full version forthcoming)
• Sideris A., Tonkova M., “Geophysical and archaeological research in a multilayered site at the source Halka Bunar, village Gorno Belevo, municipality Bratia Daskalovi, Stara Zagora Neolithic constructions”, in Archaeological Finds and Excavations in the year 2010 (AOR, Sofia 2011, in Bulgarian), pp. 100-102
• Sideris A., “Art Deco in Athens: modernizing the Classical”, in Bouzek J. and Blakolmmer F. (eds), Zeit-Brücken: Art Déco, Kubismus, Neoklassizismus und Antike, Studia Hercynia Proceedings of the International Conference, Prague, 10-13 April 2008 (Prague 2009), pp. 76-91.
• Sideris A., “Achaemenid Toreutics in the Greek Periphery”, in Darbandi S. M. R., & Zournatzi A. (eds), Ancient Greece and Ancient Iran. Cross-Cultural Encounters. 1^st International Conference, Athens 11-13 November 2006 (Athens 2008), pp. 339-353.
• Zymi E. & Sideris A., “Bronze Vases from Galaxidi”, in Themelis P., Stathaki-Koumari R. (eds.), Galaxidi: from Antiquity to Present. Proceedings of the 1^st Scientific Conference on Galaxidi, Galaxidi 29-30 September 2000 (Athens 2003, in Greek), pp. 35-60
• Sideris A., “Bronze Drinking Vases Bearing Dedicatory Inscriptions”, Eirene 38 (2002), pp. 68-101.
• Sideris A., “Les tombes de Derveni: quelques remarques sur la toreutique”, Revue Archéologique 2000, pp. 3-36.
• Sideris A., “La représentation en réalité virtuelle de la “Maison de Dionysos” à Pella, créée par la Fondation du Monde Hellénique”, in Descamps-Lequime S., Charatzopoulou K. (éds.), Au royaume d’Alexandre le Grand. La Macédoine antique. Catalogue of the exhibition in the Louvre museum (Paris 2011), pp. 682-683.
• Georganas I. & Sideris A., “The Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World. Vol 2: The Black Sea”, in Tsetskhladze G., Atasoy S., Avram A., Dönmez Ş. and J. Hargrave (eds.), The Bosporus: Gateway between the Ancient West and East (1st Millennium BC-5th Century AD). Proceedings of the Fourth International Congress on Black Sea Antiquities, Istanbul, 14th-18th September 2009, (Oxford 2013), pp. 297-300
• Sideris A., “Recontextualised Antiquity: Interpretative VR Visualization of Ancient Art and Architecture”, in Makropoulos T. A. and Papachristos N. M. (eds), Proceedings: International Symposium on “Information and Communication Technologies in Cultural Heritage”, Ioannina, 16-18/10/2008 (Ioannina 2008), pp. 159-176.
• Sideris A., “A Virtual Cradle for Democracy: Reconstructing the Ancient Agora of Athens”, in Proceedings of the International SEEArchWeb Conference, Thessaloniki, September 2006 (cd – AUTh)
• Sideris A., “The Encyclopedic Concept in the Web Era”, in M. Ioannides, D. Arnold, F. Niccolucci, K. Mania (eds), The e-volution of Information Communication Technology in Cultural Heritage, The 7^th International Symposium on Virtual Reality, Archaeology and Cultural Hertitage VAST (2006), Short Papers, pp. 192-197.
• Sideris A., “Scientific Archaeological Publications in the Digital Era”, στο Λαμπράκη Α., Lézine V., The current situation of scientific publications in the fields of archaeology, art and folklore. Proceedings of the international conference, Athens 20-24 February 2004 (Athens 2004), pp. 143-156
• Sideris A., “Ancient Art in Digital Environment”. Imeros 4 (2004), pp. 146-165
• Sideris A., Roussou M., Gaitatzis A., “The Virtual Reconstruction of the Hellenistic Asklepieion of Messene”, Imeros 4 (2004), pp. 208-216
• Sidiropoulos G. & Sideris A., “Requirements and Assumptions in Visualization Process of Urban and Surrounding Areas (The Case of Greek City in Time)”, CAA 2002 “The Digital Heritage of Archaeology”, Computer Applications and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology Conference, 2-6 April 2002, Heraklion, Crete, Greece (Athens 2003), pp. 63-68
• Sideris A. & Roussou M., “Making a new world out of an old one: in search of a common language for archaeological immersive VR representation”, Creative Digital Culture, 8^th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia, Gyeongju, Korea 25-27 September 2002 (Seoul 2002), pp. 31-42.

Rare large containers, such as amphorae and cauldrons, are discussed next to exquisite silver gilt drinking cups. Vases, which have served in the prestigious social custom of the banquet, are presented along with others, which might have had ritual function. Many of them were created in workshops of the Middle and Near East and represent the aesthetic and social values of the Phrygians, the Phoenicians or the Persians. Even more exemplars come from the workshops of Peloponnese, Athens, Macedonia and the Aegean coasts. The variety of shapes, the intriguing functions, the luxurious decoration, the rarely depicted myths occurring on some of these vases, as well as the diversity of inscriptions and graffiti, are some of the characteristics, which actually range the collection amongst the richest worldwide regarding metal vases. The volume is lavishly illustrated with hundreds of high quality full color pictures of the artifacts and their details, with profile and detail drawings, and with depictions of comparative material from other museums and collections. Maps, indexes, lists and cross-references make the reading enjoyable for everyone, while the specialist is gratified with an extensive and updated bibliography to guide further research.