Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Pottery in the Upper Thracian Plain, Tundzha Valley and the Burgas Lowland, Bulgaria – Diversity, Technology and Distribution (original) (raw)
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The main purpose of this article is to present Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age pottery of the not so known Upper Thracian Plain, Tundzha Valley and the Burgas Lowland in Bulgaria, with an emphasis on ceramic diversity, technology, distribution, and use of vessels in archaeological contexts. The investigation shows that the ceramic of both periods consists of wares for serving, cooking, storage, and transportation. The classes of cups, jugs, plates, bowls, kantharoi-like vessels, amphora-like vessels, jars, storage vessels, and pyraunoi had been in widespread use until the 8 th century BC, when a new pottery class-pithoi with a 'wide stamp'-was added. The general transformations, which occurred during the beginning of the Early Iron Age, included modification of the above-mentioned pottery classes to a flattened spherical form; the treatment of the surface through burnishing with the effect of polishing; decoration with a combination of flutes and knobs and firing in reduced atmosphere with control of the process to achieve the desired uniform dark colour. However, absence of major changes in the morphology of Early Iron Age ceramics probably illustrate permanently established eating habits. According to ethnographic models, each change in the pottery production which included a stylistic variation of the vessels realized without marked changes in energy investment on the part of the craftsman, such as the introduction of new decorative motifs, new ways of arranging existing motifs and even some small changes in vessel forms, points to a horizontal differentiation of the society and increased numbers of equivalently ranked groups in a given society-a change that occurred in our study area in the Early Iron Age.
Sideris A. & Tonkova M., Pottery of the Classical Period from Halka Bunar, Central Southern Bulgaria
Classical Pottery from the Northern Aegean and its Periph (480-323/300 BC). Thessaloniki , 2019
Based on the grey pottery from the site of Halka Bunar, municipality Bratya Daskalovi in the south-eastern Bulgaria, the present paper intends a general overview of this class of pottery in inner Thrace, known already since the Archaic period and with documented relations with the Aeolid and the area of the North Aegean Sea. In Halka Bunar the grey ware of the Classical period, as in many other neighbouring sites, it has been found within ritual or domestic pits, and it seems to develop in continuity with that of the Archaic period. The shape repertory includes bowls, cups and mugs, strainers and jugs, lekanae with vertical or horizontal handles, craters, table amphorae and possibly hydriae. The distribution of the grey ware, the dating of which is often based on contextual finds imported from the Greek world, spreads from the shores fo the Black Sea to the western parts of the Maritsa/Evros Valley, and even to the regions on the north of this valley. It is undoubtedly the product of local workshops, which continued, even though with a more restricted shape repertory, during the early Hellenistic period as well.
Characteristic Features of the Bronze Age Pottery from a Site Near the Village of Panayot Volovo, Interdisciplinary Approaches to Early Bronze Age Burial Mounds in Oltenia, in V. Diaconu, A. Gafincu (eds.), The Bronze Age in south-eastern Europe. Multidisciplinary Studies. Piatra Neamț-Brăila, 2023
The main purpose of this article is to present the pottery from the Late Bronze Age settlement of Site No. 1 near the village of Panayot Volovo, northeastern Bulgaria, with an emphasis on ceramic diversity, technology, and use of vessels. For this purpose, a database was created, through which direct observation was carried out, which provides information about the preparation of the clay, the methods of forming the vessels, the surface treatment and the characteristics of the moulding and firing technique. The analysis of ceramic fragments, alongside with the study of typology and classification, provide information on various aspects of the settlement's daily life. The research shows that the pottery of this period consist of serving, cooking and storage vessels. The classification pattern presents the presence of the following forms used in the settlement from Site No. 1: cups, jugs, plates, bowls, kantharos-like vessels, amphora-like vessels, cooking pots, storage vessels and vessels with internal handles. The above-mentioned types of ceramic vessels are most often conical, with S-profiles, or spherical in shape; the treatment of the surface was carried out by means of not very precise smoothing; decoration is registered on few fragments and vessels. Relief applied bands predominate, often in combination with handles or knobs. The most often decorated forms are the pots and the cups.
Bulgarian e-Journal of Archeology, 2022
In the course of rescue archaeological excavations of site 1/1000 at Baba Velika locality, located at the foot of Vrashka chuka in Northwest Bulgaria, the remains of an Early Iron Age site were encountered. This paper is focused on the pottery assemblage found during the rescue archaeological excavations at Vrashka chuka. The study presents the main characteristic of the Early Iron Age pottery found in the features and the general characteristics of the pottery found in the Early Iron Age cultural layer. It also discusses the recognizable shapes and decorative motifs and points out synchronous parallels. The study of the pottery assemblage from Vrashka chuka provided us with the opportunity to shed a new light on the development of the Early Iron Age in Northwest Bulgaria, and especially the district of the modern city of Vidin. The intensive archaeological excavations in recent years have opened a new page in the studies of the Early Iron Age in this part of Bulgaria, which so far was not studied in details.
Българско е-Списание за Археология, 2013
In the first part of this report, we will present two large ceramic complexes – one from the beginning of the ninth century and the second from the mid-ninth century. Both sets of pottery were found while excavating the secret passages, which form a net of tunnels, in Pliska. The discovery of the numerous complex of table vessels in the center of Pliska puts forward the question of the specific needs of such an inventory at the ruler's court. The deposition of the vessels near the ruler's residence means that they were used for the needs of the king's household. The second part of the report presents a pottery kiln, found in the south-east sector of the so called "Inner Town" of Pliska capital city. The kiln used to have two chambers placed one above another. The firing (lower) chamber is slightly bigger than that of the upper chamber. Three big oval pits was found, situated in a raw south of the pottery kiln. Two of them were functionally connected with the ki...
Praehistorische Zeitschrift, 2019
40 potsherds and five other fired clay fragments from the prehistoric site of Nova Nadezhda in Bulgarian Thrace were analysed by archaeometric techniques. Twenty sherds and a daub fragment were analysed in thin section by optical microscopy; these thin sections, and thick sections of a further 24 sherds were also analysed by SEM-EDX. Results were used to describe the Early Neolithic chaîne opératoire at Nova Nadezhda, which was then compared to pottery production in roughly contemporaneous Starčevo-Criş communities in the central Balkans, to shed light on the Neolithisation process that took place in the 6th millennium BC. A variety of ceramic recipes was used to make different vessel shapes. Analyses of surface coatings were particularly enlightening in terms of provenance and the organisation of pottery production.
in: Tourner autour du pot… Les ateliers de potiers médiévaux du Ve au XIIe siècle dans l’espace européen, (eds.) F. Thuillier, E. Louis, Publications du Centre de Recherches Archéologiques et Historiques Médiévales (CRAHM), Brepols Publishers, 2015, ISBN:978-2-84133-524-4