"Even in the poorest years, when we were starving after the 'democratic changes' in 1989, this museum had visitors," says Bojidar Dimitrov, who heads the National Museum of History in Sofia. Today, he works the gate like a business. "I want gold and silver artifacts here to attract the crowds," he says. Part Soviet dictator, part free-market capitalist with a dash of P. T. Barnum, he funds archaeologists, they find artifacts, and more people come. In August 2004, a normal vacation month, the museum had 7,000 visitors. One year later, with newly discovered gold from a Thracian tomb on display, it had 68,000. That, multiplied by an average ticket price of five leva, or a bit more than three dollars, brings in a nice sum of money. It's much needed. "After 1989 the state had no money for excavations,” Dimitrov explains. "But after several years in shock, we began to find our way through this new system.”

On the other side of the balance sheet are the archaeologists, who now have to find support for their work. Most deal with unglamorous things—stones and bones and plain pottery—and for that they might cobble together a year's funding of $10,000 or so. But someone who makes dazzling discoveries again and again can do much better. Kitov, for example. In a good year, he might get the equivalent of $65,000 from a foreign foundation, $30,000 from a Bulgarian business, and $20,000 from Dimitrov—totaling $115,000. In this new equation, eager sponsors plus the problem of looters add up to a double load of pressure. Which is why he works so fast.

Kitov doesn't have much time, or patience, for interviews. "I only agreed to talk to you because of the Thracians," he says. "I want the world to know that there were such a people, and that they were great." What he and his colleagues are discovering about this little-known culture is changing the history of the ancient world. Classical Greek authors described their neighbors to the north as barbarians. But Dionysus, worshipped by the Greeks as the god of wine and good times, was originally Thracian. And Orpheus, a hero and musician in Greek legend, came from Thrace too. Clearly the barbarians had traditions worth borrowing, and as the archaeological record is revealing, they had wealth and power and art as well.