europa, cept, norden and sepac stamps information blog
Georgia
Date of Issue: 9th May 2025
two stamps issued one souvenir-sheet of 4 stamps (4x 4.- GEL (2 of each))
Belt Fragment, Bronze. Mtskheta. 9th-8th centuries BC. Discovered during archaeological excavations in Samtavro. (Mtskheta, Georgia).The belt depicts a hunting scene. Deer, Bronze, Chabarukhi Hoard. Horseman Figurine, Bronze. Brili (Racha, Region in Georgia). These two discovered figures dated 7th-6th centuries BC.
Azerbaijantwo souvenir-sheets (2x 1.50 AZN)
From prehistoric rock art to musical stones, the Azerbaijani people’s past comes dramatically to life in the Gobustan State Reserve, home to an astonishing collection of over 6,000 - 7,000 ancient petroglyphs. Depicting scenes of people, animals, boats, dances, hunting, camel caravans and more, they chart ways of life dating back between 5,000 and 20,000 years, spanning from the Upper Palaeolithic to the Middle Ages. In 2007 Gobustan was included in the UNESO World Heritage List. In 2013, the Gobustan Museum became one of the winners of the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA). Today, thanks to the rock carvings, archaeological findings and paleontological discoveries in Gobustan, we have a glimpse into the lives of our distant ancestors and a chance to imagine their way of life and the world around them.
Latvia
Date of Issue: 9th May 2025
one stamp (3.77 €)
this stamp is issued in a mini-sheet of 10 stamps tête-bêche
Openwork jewelry crafted using the openwork (pierced) technique represents the most striking phenomenon of early – also known as Roman – Iron Age jewelry art in the Baltic lands. In Latvia, such jewelry is rare. The Razbuki neck ring (3rd century AD) is the most remarkable find of this kind. This exemplifies the high level of metalworking in Latvia at the time and highlights the distinctiveness of Baltic culture within Europe. Only a few similar examples have been discovered in Baltic territories in Lithuania and East Prussia.
Montenegro
Date of Issue: 9th May 2025
one stamp (2.- €) and one souvenir-sheet (2.- €)
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
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
Date of Issue: 9th May 2025
one stamp (1.21 €) and one souvenir-sheet (3.51 €)
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
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.
