Family, friends and colleagues took final leave of one of the most renown Bulgarian archaeologists Georgi Kitov on Friday.

The mourning ceremony was held in the Archaeological Museum in Sofia.

The 65-year-old specialist in Ancient Thrace died unexpectedly Sunday night of heart attack in his hotel room in Starosel, Plovdiv region.

He was there for excavations of a Thracian settlement, which started about two weeks ago.

Kitov's team of four archaeologists tried to save him for fifteen minutes but their efforts proved useless.

Kitov was born in the southwest Bulgarian town of Dupnitsa in 1943. He graduated with a degree in history from Sofia University "St. Kliment of Ohrid" in 1966, and specialized art history in the St. Petersburg State University in 1974-5.

Over the last quarter of century Georgi Kitov made some of the greatest archeological discoveries about Ancient Thrace including the Strelcha tombs, the religious complex at Starosel, the 673-gram gold masque of the Thracian king Sevt III at his tomb at Shipka, the Alexander Tomb at Haskovo.

He is the author of over 200 articles and 10 monographs on the history, culture, and religion of the Ancient Thracians.

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