EAA 2014_Session T01S001_Programm - Balkans and Anatolia in Prehistory:Cultural interactions and barriers (original) (raw)
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The socio-economic upheavals of the Chalcolithic are particularly evident in southeastern Europe within the zone of the Kodžadermen-Gumelnița-Karanovo VI cultural complex. In the lithic industry, they are accompanied by a specialized production of objects that are related to both identity and prestige. These are very long blades manufactured by the lever pressure technique. The zone of distribution of these very long blades coincides with that of graphite decorated pottery, defined as a Graphite Pottery Zone. While it is established that each village manufactured its own domestic tool kit - through laminar debitage by indirect percussion realized exclusively in place - the production sites of the very long blades are still poorly known. The raw materials exploited for both the domestic and specialized tool kits are Aptian and Barremian-Hauterivian flints from the Lower Cretaceous. These flints, which are abundant across the entire Moesian plateau of North-East Bulgaria, are often defined as "Pre-Balkan platform" flints. We have begun to understand the procurement strategies used to obtain nodules of a sufficient size and quality for the production of very long blades and the organization of the workshops relative to the settlements and raw material procurement sites. Archaeological and geological surveys and test-pits, realized in North-East Bulgaria between Kubrat and Razgrad, have contributed new information and research perspectives. The only known source with nodules adequate for the manufacturing of very long blades is located at Ravno, two kilometers from the Early Chalcolithic tell of Kamenovo, where test-pits revealed a local production realized by the lever pressure technique. This village manufactured in place both their domestic toolkit by indirect percussion and their specialized toolkit by pressure. The flint available at the foot of the tell was exploited for the domestic toolkit, but did not furnish nodules large enough for use with the lever pressure technique. We thus can propose the hypothesis that these large nodules were obtained at Ravno where they were roughed out or perhaps initially prepared, and then brought to Kamenovo in a more or less prepared state to be reduced. The lever pressure technique, which we cannot imagine being mobile due to the infrastructure it implies, required a high technical proficiency and probably a very long apprenticeship. While it is clear that these were specialists, there is no evidence indicating control over access to the flint source. The Ravno source also yielded the first flint exploitation shaft, whose dating remains problematic. The laminar debitage waste products, which constitute most of the fill of the shaft, are compatible with the indirect percussion debitage of the domestic tool kit identified in the settlements. If this shaft is indeed attributed to the Early Chalcolithic, the question is thus raised as to the intended destination of thus laminar production, usually realized in the villages themselves in all of North-East Bulgaria. A possible diffusion route would be the contemporary sites of Gumelnița located on the other side of the Danube, where this "Pre-Balkan" flint has been found.
Neolithic Flint Assemblages from Bulgaria: An Overview
Samara Journal of Science, 2014
This paper offers a brief overview of the flint assemblages from the Neolithic period in Bulgaria (VI mill. cal BC) by following their evolution that depending on the context could also be called innovation, retardation or simply modification. Some significant changes occur during the Neolithic who reflected to all aspects of the flint industry - from the raw material acquisition via techno-typological parameters until the functional connotations of different artefacts categories. The empirical corpus of the study contains assemblages coming from 18 different sites. Expectedly whatever changes are attested as occurring alongside the evolution on the Tell settlements, there is no striking rupture and discontinuity in the flint industry as claimed on the basis of fragmentary assemblages coming from other sites belonging to different cultural stages/periods of the Neolithic. The paper ends with a series of challenging questions referring to different level of our knowledge and understa...
Early Neolithic in North Macedonia and Bulgaria: Geographical and Cultural Relations, 2021
One of the key topics of European prehistory – the Neolithization of the Balkans is still subject to a variety of explorations, polemics, ideas and hypotheses. Bearing in mind the geographical position of this territory in Southeastern Europe and wider in the immediate vicinity of the hotspot of the large (both Aceramic and Ceramic) Neolithic cultures and sites of the Eastern Mediterranean, in the second half and especially towards the end of the 7th millennium cal BC, a large number of Neolithic sites has been documented. The earliest Neolithic sites in Europe were discovered in Greece, which are characterized by a particularly authentic material culture, and later a number of EN sites were discovered in North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, and a smaller number in Albania. Considering the rich material culture some sites from North Macedonia and Bulgaria are of special interest, which apart from the visible differences, are distinguished by great similarities in some categories of artefacts, in different micro-regions within the two countries. Hence, the paper focuses on discovering the causes of similarities in certain artefacts in communities that, although living in the same period of time, practice almost the same lifestyle, but are somewhat characterized by a relatively different material culture.
Bulgarian e-Journal of Archaeology, 2018
This paper offers a general overview of the chipped stone assemblages from Bulgaria during the Neolithic period (6th millennium BC). Based on numerous flint assemblages belonging to different phases of the Neolithic (many of them studied by the author), some general observations on the key features and trends are presented in a diachronic perspective. Following a long phase characterized by distinctive formal toolkits and uniform raw material use that served as the hallmark of a major Early Neolithic cultural alliance represented by the Karanovo I and II cultures, a shift in all aspects of the flint industry occurred around 5500 cal BC. The Balkan flint raw material distribution network declined, and there appeared chipped stone industries based mainly on local resources and expedient production. Strong evidence of microlithization – represented both by cores and tools with small dimensions and by the presence of geometric microliths – is reflected clearly in the morphometric parameters and typological repertoire of the flint industry, and can be regarded as a diagnostic feature of the Late Neolithic assemblages.