The National Anthropological Museum is part of the structure of the Institute of Experimental Morphology, Pathology and Anthropology with a museum at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences /IEMPAM-BAN/.
It was established in March 2007 and is located in the city of Sofia on Tsarigradsko Shose Blvd. №73 (it is located on the 1st floor of the IBIR-BAN building). NAM is a unique scientific, cultural and educational institution that makes available to the public the anthropological knowledge accumulated over decades, known only to a narrow circle of specialists, about the population that lived in our lands.
The opening of the museum is the result of the great interest caused by the traveling exhibition “Man in the past”, which presents the work and research of the scientists from the anthropology section at IEMA-BAN.
In the permanent exhibition in chronological order (from the Neolithic to the Renaissance), against the background of the data on the historical and cultural development and on the religious beliefs during the different eras, the physical types of the people, information about the diseases and traumas that left traces on their bones, for the healing and ritual effects on them. The earliest dated exhibits are 8 thousand years old. Unique exhibits are on display, which present the artificial deformation of the skull and surgical trepanation of the skull practiced in our lands, both symbolic and real. Reconstructions of €œhawker€ type burials and Christian burials are also presented.
Certain images from different eras are visualized through a plastic anthropological reconstruction of the head on the skull, and among the most famous are the “Thracian Princess” from Vratsa (IV century BC), Chargubilya Mostich (X century), Tsar Samuil ( 11th century) and Kaloyan (13th century), of the revivalists G.S. Rakovski, Lyuben Karavelov Zahari Stoyanov and many others. The author of the reconstructions is Prof. Yordan Yordanov, who is the only one in Bulgaria and one of the few in the world to use M. Gerasimov’s methodology for reconstructing images from different eras. A National Ossuary was built next to the museum, where anthropological material from various archaeological sites in the country is stored. Scientists and researchers from various fields use the bone remains to study the people who lived from ancient times to the present day on the Bulgarian lands.
Work time:
June-September Tuesday-Sunday: 09:00 – 17:00 Closed: Monday
October-May Tuesday-Saturday: 09:00 – 17:00 Closed: Monday and Sunday
Entrance fees:
Individual visits: Persons over 18 years of age – 6 BGN
Pupils, students, soldiers – 4 BGN
Pensioners – 3 BGN
People with special needs – 0 BGN
Group visits: Group of schoolchildren, students and children – 3 BGN / person
Family ticket (2 adults with children under 18 years old) The ticket includes entrance and a talk in Bulgarian: BGN 19.
Family ticket (2 adults with children under 18) The ticket is only entrance without a talk – BGN 12 (children enter without entrance)
Talks:
In Bulgarian (group up to 5 visitors) – BGN 14
In Bulgarian (group of up to 10 visitors) – BGN 19
In Bulgarian (group of more than 10 visitors) – BGN 24
Conversation in English – BGN 30
Contacts:
1113 Sofia, Acad. G. Bonchev”, bl. 25
Tel.: +359 (02) 979 23 11
Address of the National Anthropological Museum
1113 Sofia, Tsarigradsko shose Blvd. #73
Tel.: +359 (02) 870 49 21
Tel./Fax: +359 (02) 871 83 75
