Montenegro 2025

Montenegro

Date of Issue: 9th May 2025

one stamp (2.- €) and one souvenir-sheet (2.- €)

this stamp is issued in a mini-sheet of 8 stamps + 1 vignette

The site of Crvena stijena (Red Rock), located in the village of Petrovići, gained archaeological recognition in the early 1950s. Initial investigations began during that period, revealing a multi-layered archaeological site with remarkable and scientifically valuable stratigraphy. The importance of this site is evident across various fields, including archaeology, anthropology, geology, palaeontology, archaeozoology, palaeobotany and other scientific disciplines, marking it as one of the most significant habitats of prehistoric humans in Europe. The research has so far identified periods spanning the Bronze, Neolithic, Mesolithic, Upper Palaeolithic and Middle Palaeolithic Ages.

Portugal 2025

Portugal

Date of Issue: 9th May 2025

one stamp (1.21 €) and one souvenir-sheet (3.51 €)

the stamp is issued in a mini-sheet of 10 stamps

Ara ao Sol e ao Oceano (Alto da Vigia, Sintra)
SÓLI ET OÇ[EA]NO / [-] VIRlVS AGR[IC]QLA / [P]RQÇ(urator) AVGVSTOR(um) / ÇVM STATILIA C(aii) • F(ilia) • /5 IVLJANE • VXORE E[T] / LIBERJS A «To the Sun and the Ocean, - Virius Agricola, procurator of the Augusti, with Statilia Iuliane, daughter of Caius, (his) wife, and children. » On a small promontory north of Cape Roca (the Promonturium Magnum to the Romans), near the mouth of the Colares stream in Sintra, we find an archaeological site where, in the 11th century AD, the Muslims established a small ribat (a religious and military complex) over the ruins of a temple where the Romans worshipped the Sun, the Moon, and the unknown Ocean (ignotus oceanus), most likely from the second quarter of the 1st century AD. This attests to the existence of a sacred site (locus sacer) from the Roman era, which later became the westernmost frontier of the European continent. This Roman altar stone is dedicated to the Sun and the Ocean by Virius Agricola, governor of the Roman province of Lusitania, and was erected at the sanctuary of Alto da Vigia, in the mid-2nd century AD. This piece is part of the collection of the São Miguel de Odrinhas Archaeological Museum.

Child from Lapedo (Abrigo do Lagar Velho, Vale do Lapedo, Leiria)
In December 1998, 25 years ago, the team led by archaeologist Jãoo Zilhão excavated the grave of a child aged around four who lived in the so-called Gravetense period of the Upper Palaeolithic. An international and multidisciplinary team was assembled to study and publish, under his guidance and that of Erik Trinkaus, the skeleton and the funerary context, carefully deposited by the group of hunter-gatherers, which most likely included members of his family, in the shelter of the leafy Lapedo Valley. Using new methods of analysis, it has recently been proposed to update the time interval in which the child lived to between 27,800 and 28,600 years before the present. This reveals what is an important hallmark of archaeology: the progress of research through continuous collaboration with other scientific disciplines. This unique tomb is central to understanding the evolution of Modern Man, as well as how the living came to relate to the dead. In 2021, it was classified as a National Treasure and is deposited in the National Archaeological Museum.

Azores 2025

Azores

Date of Issue: 9th May 2025

one stamp (1.21 €) and one souvenir-sheet (3.51 €)

the stamp is issued in a mini-sheet of 10 stamps

Colubrina by Joham Diaz (Santo António Fort, Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island)
With the collaboration of the Museum of Angra do Heroísmo, we have selected what is considered to be the oldest bronze mouthpiece made in Portugal by Joham Diaz, a master foundryman under King Joao III, and taken from the waters of Angra Bay in 1972. This element of the Museum's collection, which has already been proposed for classification as a National Treasure, illustrates the important role of Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira Island and the Azores archipelago in the history of the Atlantic and navigations, as well as in political, economic and social relations, in times of peace and war, between the three continents - Europe, Africa and America - from their discovery and settlement to the present day.
The selection of this cultural asset also recognises the fundamental role of underwater archaeology in Portugal. In the Azores, the work of this scientific discipline has been decisive in obtaining a clearer picture of the strategic importance of the city and ocean port of Angra do Heroísmo - whose Historic Centre was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983 - especially throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.
Thanks to the recognition of the importance of underwater cultural heritage, it was possible to create, by decree of the Regional Government in 2005, an Underwater Archaeological Park, made up of several dozen shipwrecks. In this veritable underwater museum, the sea holds and preserves for the future, and for the observation of visitors-divers, archaeological testimonies and remains of great wealth.

Madeira 2025

Madeira

Date of Issue: 9th May 2025

one stamp (1.21 €) and one souvenir-sheet (3.51 €)

the stamp is issued in a mini-sheet of 10 stamps

The sugar industry or ‘White Gold’ (Funchal)
With the collaboration of the A Cidade do Açúcar Museum team, a group of artefacts was selected, including a ceramic sugar loaf form, which is part of the archaeological remains exhumed during the excavation of the house of the sugar merchant Janine Esmenaut, João Esmeraldo to the Portuguese, one of the oldest in the 16th century. This cultural asset, recovered by Modern Archaeology in Portugal, illustrates the important and lucrative island industry of sugar production, which began in 1425 with the planting of sugar cane, a central activity in the economy of the Atlantic islands, soon after the colonisation of the island, discovered in 1419. Within thirty years, Madeira, driven by mainly Genoese capital, initially using hired labour from Morocco and later African slave labour, as well as intensive forest clearing used to feed the sugar factories (around fifty kilos of wood were needed to produce one kilo of sugar), became the largest sugar producer in Europe, earning it the title of the ‘White Gold Islands’. From the first decades of the 16th century, production began to decline, with São Tomé and Príncipe and, above all, Brazil gradually emerging as new production sites, until it was definitively extinguished in 1986 with the closure of the William Hinton factory.

Bosnia and Herzegovina 2025

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Date of Issue: 9th May 2025

two stamps (2x 3.20 BAM) 

both stamps are issued mini-sheets of 10 stamps

Hungary 2025

Hungary

Date of Issue: 9th May 2025

two stamps (2x 1020.- HUF) issued in one souvenir-sheet of 4 stamps (2 of each)

Somló Hill played an important role in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, and was most likely the seat of an elite who hid their treasures there during mysterious sacrificial ceremonies. For this reason, this isolated hill is among the most important archaeological sites in Hungary today. Archaeological excavations on Somló have uncovered numerous fascinating finds which provide important information about the history and culture of the region. The archaeologists, with the help of volunteers, found ritual treasures dating from the Late Bronze Age during a metal detecting survey. The neck collar discovered at Somló is a unique find, as it consists of an eggshell-thin bronze plate covered by a thin gold foil held in place by its edges being folded back over the rim of the bronze plate. The neck collar is divided into four fields by three bundles of cord-ribs and is also adorned with densely stamped concentric circular patterns. This jewellery was probably part of a set of ceremonial vestments and may have been a sign of the wearer’s high social status. The gold and amber jewellery is evidence of a flourishing Late Bronze Age culture. These pieces of jewellery indicate that there was probably a close network of European contacts spanning the Baltic, the Alps and the Carpathian Basin. The excavations have also unearthed a set of wild boar tusk trophies and individual weapons, which are indicative of the rich culture and traditions of the region’s warring communities.

The two stamps of the special miniature sheet focus on the bronze neck collar covered in ornate gold foil, and an ornate bronze disc likewise covered in gold foil with amber beads, while the design of the frame features a composition of artefacts from Hoard I.

Turkey 2025

Turkey

Date of Issue: 9th May 2025

two stamps (35.- TRY)

The Neolithic City of Çatalhöyük, which witnessed important social changes and developments such as the beginning of agriculture and hunting along with the transition to settled social life, is before us in all its glory. One of the most extraordinary settlements of Anatolia between 7400-6200 BC, Çatalhöyük, located in Çumra, Konya, on an area of ​​approximately 14 hectares, contains many firsts such as the first settlement plan sketch, the first weavings, the first landscape painting, and the mother goddess cult. The stamp design consists of Çatalhöyük excavation site, figures in wall paintings and a pottery with a human face motif.