Chapter 5 The Neolithic, Eneolithic and Transitional

Period in Bulgarian Prehistory

Henrietta Todorova

The Neolithic and Eneolithic periods of Bulgarian prehistory have been studied for
almost a century. In 1898, Gerome led a French expedition to the Racheva Mogila
near Yambol and probed the multi-layer tell there. Since the French excavations at
Racheva, Bulgarian archaeology has passed through three stages.

During the first stage of the development of Bulgarian archaeology, from 1898 to
1947, initial information about the sites and material was collected, prehistoric sites
were registered, museum collections were compiled, and limited areas of sites which
had been attacked by treasure hunters were excavated. The first summarizing studies,
such as Vasil Mikov's study of prehistoric plastic art, appeared in this period as did
the first attempts at stratigraphic excavation. In many cases the attempts at
stratigraphic work were not precise (e.g. at the Vesilinovo tell). Indeed the
imprecision of these excavations, and Mikov's interpretation, mis-led an entire
generation of European prehistorians, especially with respect to the suggestion that
the Bulgarian middle Neolithic (i.e., the Veselinovo culture) was synchronous with
Troy II. This misleading information was one of the pivots of the short chronology of
European prehistory.

The second period of prehistoric research in Bulgaria ran from 1948 to 1961 and
began with the publication of James Gaul's The Neolithic Period in Bulgaria, the
epoch's first summary. Gaul's book was the first scientific attempt to chronologically
and geographically systematize the available information about Bulgarian prehistory.
During this period systematic excavations of tells (e.g. Ruse, Krivodol, Karanovo)
began and the first stratigraphically based attempts were made to build a relative
chronology for the Neolithic, Eneolithic and early Bronze Ages in Thrace. In 1961
Georgi Georgiev summarized these advances and presented the stratigraphy from his
excavations at Karanovo. Georgiev also revealed the error of Mikov's equation of
Vesilinovo and Troy. It became clear that the material analogous with Troy II (i.e.,
Karanovo VII) stratigraphically follows not only Veselinovo (i.e., Karanovo III) but
also the entire Eneolithic (Karanovo V and VI) period. These observations threw new
light on the relationship of European and Anatolian prehistory and undermined the old
chronological theories.

Despite these advances of the archaeological investigations of the second stage in the
development in Bulgarian prehistory, there remained insufficient evidence to permit
the recognition of the enormous
Figure 1. Map of sites discueesd in Chapter 5.

hiatuses in the Karanovo system and little was known of the cultural development
outside of Thrace. The character of most excavations was sondage and these, limited
investigations, did not reveal the structure of the settlements. Thus many social and
economic aspects of prehistory remained unknown.

The solution of these problems and the assault on new questions have occupied the
third stage of prehistoric research in Bulgaria (1961 to the present). With a new
generation of better prepared scholars, research took on a more complex character.
Excavation has aimed to uncover entire site-surfaces and to develop comparative
stratigraphies which have revealed and complemented the Karanovo hiatuses.
Interdisciplinary approaches to the subject were developed and computers were
employed. Radiocarbon dating and archaeomagnetic dating built an absolute
chronology which in calibrated terms placed the 3000-year span of the Neolithic,
Eneolithic and early Bronze Ages between the third quarter of the seventh millennium
and the third quarter of the fourth millennium BC.

Prehistoric research broke out of the previous geographic limitations (restricted to

Thrace) and now covered the entire country. Thus we can speak of four principal
ethnic and cultural areas in which Neolithic, Eneolithic and early Bronze Age cultures
developed: northeast Bulgaria, western Bulgaria, the Black Sea Coast, and the
Rhodopes.

Much research has centered on the northeastern region where numerous sites have
been studied. Indeed it was only in the third stage of the development of prehistoric
research in Bulgaria that a Neolithic culture was identified in the northeast
(Samovodene near Veliko Turnovo). Samovodene remains the only Neolithic tell in
this region. Other Neolithic sites are open settlements which sit on river plateaux and
include the excavated sites of Koprivets (near Ruse) and Ovcharovo-gorata (near
Turgovishte). One result of the intensive work in the northeast is the discovery of
three new Neolithic cultures: Koprivets (monochrome Neolithic), Ovcharovo (middle
Neolithic), and Hotnitsa (late Neolithic).

During the Eneolithic the type sites in northeastern Bulgaria are the Ovcharovo and
Polyanitsa tells while additional excavations have focused on the settlements of
Vinitsa, Radingrad, Turgovishte and Ruse. Material from the Transitional Period
(from the Eneolithic to the Bronze Age) has been recovered at Ovcharovo-platota,
Hotnitsa-vodopada, Kachitsa II and Shemshevo.

During the early Neolithic a standard inner organization of settlements existed with
above-ground architecture. The late Neolithic is characterized, however, by settlement
discontinuity with dwellings made from pits in the ground. During the early
Eneolithic, housing once again is above-ground and substantial while the evidence
from the transitional period (pit-dwellings) reflects, once again, settlement
discontinuity.

Necropolises at Vinitsa, Polyanitsa and Radingrad provided valuable information on

the character of the Eneolithic populace (the Mediterranean-type prevailed) and their
ideas of the after-life. The bulk of research from northeast Bulgaria has already been
published and thus is accessible to specialists.

While this work was being carried out in the north, to the south, the excavations at
Karanovo were renewed and, under the exceptionally precise guidance of Stefan
Hiller from Salzburg, have revealed important details concerning the Neolithic. With
the exception of Karanovo, we do not have a single publication of the completely
excavated tells from this part of the country. Even the excavations at Karanovo have
not been completely published. The Kazanluk and Azmak tells are two examples of
sites which are as important as Karanovo. The lack of good published material holds
for the remaining investigations in Thrace: Nova Zagora (Khlebozavoda), Yunatsite,
Sadievo, Nebet Tepe (in Plovdiv), Dolnoslav, Mudrets, Chatalka, Stara Zagora
(Mineralni Bani), Stara Zagora (Bolnitsa), Kirilovo, Kaloyanovets among many
others. To date, the only information available comes from annual reports and
preliminary announcements.

The establishment of new stratigraphies from some of these excavations permits a

more precise reading of the Karanovo stratigraphic column (Table 1).
The investigation of the prehistory of the Black Sea coast and southern Dobrudzha has
produced particularly interesting results. These regions had long remained unnoticed
by scholars, their prehistory only being studied during the past few decades. The
sample sites in these areas are Golyamo Delchevo, Usoe, Durankulak (Golemiya
Ostrov), and the necropolises at Devniya, Varna I and Durankulak. The excavation of
Durankulak revealed especially unsuspected aspects about the social structure of the
late Eneolithic society.

The underwater prehistoric researches on the southern Black Sea coast at Kiten,
Sozopol, and Akhtopol are additional important recent explorations. These
expeditions showed that at the end of the fifth millennium B.C. the level of the Black
Sea was 6-7 m below its present level; thus today the coastal Eneolithic settlements lie
submerged. These facts correlate well with the findings at the Varna Lake, where
Eneolithic settlements also lie under water, and at Durankulak where some of the late
Eneolithic burials lie below the present level of the sea.
Table 1.2-D Dispersion Calibration Diagram. Bulgarian and Hacilar VI 14C Dates.
The third period in the development of prehistoric studies in Bulgaria yielded five
important discoveries: 1) the presence of the Monochrome Neolithic, the
identification of which fixes the moment of Neolithization some 200 years earlier than
had originally been agreed; 2) the discovery of the Varna Chalcolithic necropolis; 3)
the establishment of a prolonged transition period dividing the Eneolithic from the
early Bronze Age; 4) the research of mankind's oldest metallurgy; and 5) the
numerous supra-regional comparative studies which have permitted the incorporation
of prehistoric Bulgarian cultures into a European context and which have allowed the
processes, which took place between the end of the seventh and the beginning of the
third millennium B.C., to be seen as changes between consecutive cultural blocks.

Beginning of the Neolithic

At the beginning of the Holocene the Balkan Peninsula was almost completely
uninhabited. Mesolithic sites are few, the only one in Bulgaria being located at the
ancient interglacial sand dunes near Pobiti Kamuni, west of Varna. This site revealed
numerous microliths, unfortunately unstratified,which belong to the period between
the ninth and eighth millennia B.C. While there are no corresponding finds from other
parts of Bulgaria, similar unstratified flint assemblages have been found at the ancient
sand dunes north of Istanbul (e.g. Yarumburgas and Lyuleburgas). Both finds
document the presence of Mesolithic human groups along the western Black Sea
coast. Typologically, these assemblages belong to the Grebenkovo Mesolithic,
although other influences are also present.

A hiatus of more than 2,000 years stands between the occupation of these Mesolithic
sites and the presence of the earliest representatives of a productive economy on the
Balkan Peninsula (indeed for the Black Sea periphery this hiatus is even longer—
nearly 3,000 years).

It is important to realize that the climate of the Balkan Peninsula varies a great deal
from region to region. The influence of the Mediterranean is strongest and spreads as
far north as the central Balkans, where the warm air, travelling along the Vardar and
the Struma valleys, reaches as far as the Iron Gates. Thrace is cooler, as the Rhodopes
serve as a barrier to the southern warmer climate. The climate north of the Balkan
Range is continental, while in Dobrudzha (open to the north and the north-east) the
climate is typical of the steppes (i.e., cold and dry).

Depending as they did on the climate, the early agrarian economies found favorable
conditions for settlement only in the warmer areas which possessed favorable
balances of temperature and water.

Following the rise of the mean annual temperatures at the beginning of the climatic
optimum, the climatic zone favorable for early agriculture moved to the north. The
extremely high mean annual temperatures (1-3° C higher than today) were disastrous
to early agriculture, because of the droughts and their detrimental influence on the
entire ecosystem. Within the optimum, the climatic zone with such negative
characteristics moved north, following the zone with favorable conditions and leaving
behind colossal environmental disasters (like the Sahara). At the culmination of the
climatic optimum, this arid unfarmable climate was the principal reason for the
disappearance of the Neo-Eneolithic system in this part of the world, covering the
Balkan Peninsula up to the Carpathian Mountains.

Early Neolithic

There is no direct archaeological evidence of continuity between the Mesolithic and

the Neolithic populace. If such a succession did exist, it took place outside the areas of
initial Neolithization and was not of decisive importance, at least for the regions south
of the Balkan Range. In the lower Danube the problem of Neolithization is a much
more complex one, archaeologists having established the presence of Mesolithic man
(e.g. at Padina, Schela Cladovei), who was anthropologically European and who
buried his dead extended and in the supine position.

The logical conclusion is that, at the end of the seventh and the beginning of the sixth
millennium B.C., groups of the lower Danube populace, without having undergone
Neolithization, continued to live in the area between the Carpathians and the Danube.
Regrettably, to date we have no archaeological evidence to confirm this conclusion.
The populace was most probably incorporated into the Neolithic system at the
beginning of the late Neolithic, a process which we will discuss at the appropriate
place below.

Discoveries made during the last decades show that Bulgarian lands underwent
Neolithization during the second half of the seventh millennium B.C. by people who
came from central Anatolia. The earliest evidence of the presence of Neolithic man on
the Balkan Peninsula belongs to the so-called Monochrome stage of the Balkan Early
Neolithic (BEN-M), which includes the Achilleion culture in Greece, the
Monochrome Neolithic at Shumadia, the so-called Proto-Star[ccaron]evo and others.

The infiltration of this Neolithic populace followed the rivers Vardar, Struma and
Nišava northwards (up to the Iron Gates) and from there to the east along the Danube
up to the Rusenski Lom river. This was not a gradual (successive) settlement of the
peninsula, but a quick and intended invasion. Evidently, each settling group preserved
an area large enough for its potential demographic development. This is the only
explanation for the fact that although the early Neolithic-Monochrome settlements are
single and isolated, they possess technologically and typologically strikingly similar
pottery. Indeed, the similarity is so great that it is almost impossible to differentiate
between cultural groups. The basic pottery is red pottery with simple spherical,
semispherical and tulip-like shapes on low, thick little feet. This pottery is the
foundation of the relative typological similarity of later early Neolithic cultures in
southeast Europe.

In Bulgaria, the presence of early Neolithic Monochrome was established by this

author for the first time in 1974, at the site of Polyanitsa-platoto near Turgovishte
(6,400-6,100 B.C.). For a long time this site remained with neither parallel nor
explanation of its existence and it is only some recent discoveries that have completed
the picture. Monochrome Neolithic was found at Krainitsi, near Kyustendil in western
Bulgaria, and among other sites at Koprivets I, Orlovets I, and Cherven I in the
Rusenski Lom river valley (whose southernmost point is Polyanitsa). Both at Krainitsi
and at Koprivets the sites are covered with alluvial accumulations. Evidently, man as
a carrier of early Neolithic Monochrome moved down along the Danube until he
entered the last favorable river valley branching to the south (i.e., the Rusenski Lom).
To date Thrace has not produced sites from this early stage, thus indicating a later
date for the Neolithization of Thrace. Such sites are also absent in northwest Bulgaria
and the Rhodopes.

The carriers of early Neolithic Monochrome could not settle permanently in the
northern part of the peninsula. In their development they reached the stage of the
earliest white-painted pottery (Gura Baciului type) as seen at the sites from Orlovets
and Koprivets. The sharp drop of temperature at the end of the seventh and the
beginning of the sixth millennium B.C. evidently terminated the development of the
early Neolithic agglomerations north of the Balkan Range. This was precisely the time
when Thrace, the Pirdop and Sofia Plains underwent Neolithization. The only
acceptable explanation of why the early Neolithic appeared so late and so well
developed (with pottery decorated with white ornaments) in these areas is that the
cold spell forced the populace from north Bulgaria south to look for new territories
with a more favorable climate. Evidently, they found what they were looking for in
Thrace, for it is during the subsequent chronological stage (Balkan Early Neolithic)
that not only did the Karanovo I culture flourish but northeast Bulgaria was
depopulated. The sharp discontinuity in the development of the early Neolithic
evident in eastern Bulgaria is not matched in western Bulgaria where there is a
discontinuity of settlement (e.g. at Krainitsi). In western Bulgaria, the Balkan Early
Neolithic is represented by the first phase of the West Bulgarian Painted Pottery
culture, characterized by white painted ornaments (e.g. at Gulubnik VII, Slatina,
Pernik). Also belonging to this period is the interesting site of Kovachevo situated
along the lower reaches of the Struma.

Within this period, early Neolithic man also appeared in the Rhodopes (e.g. at
Rakitovo, Krumovgrad, Kurdzhali). This impressive territorial expansion of the
bearers of a productive economy indicates a considerable demographic growth. The
result was that all of the climatically most favorable areas in the Balkans underwent
Neolithization; those parts with less favorable climate like the Black Sea coast,
Dobrudzha, northeast Bulgaria, Muntenia and southeast Thrace, remained beyond the
influence of Neolithization processes.

The Early Balkan Neolithic passed through at least two internal sub-phases of
development, traceable chiefly through the development of the white-painted
ornament. The majority of the sites with white-painted early Neolithic pottery belong
to the latest sub-phase (e.g. Karanovo, Azmak, Slatina, Gulubnik, Rakitovo). The
demographic boom at the beginning of the 6th millennium B.C. evidently brought
early Neolithic man face to face with the problems typical in such cases, forcing him
to seek and conquer new territories.

Middle Neolithic

The next step in the Neolithization of Bulgarian lands belongs to the Middle
Neolithic. It is connected with the end of the climatic regression, mentioned above,
and with the development of a new, fast warming period of the postglacial climate.
The climatic change once again made the territories north of the Balkan Range
attractive for settlement.
In Thrace at this time the Karanovo II culture developed with a gradual loss of painted
pottery decoration and a transition to a (reduction) technology of pottery firing.
Decoration included the use of cannelures. Neolithic man, who carried these late
monochrome traditions, now moved from the south to the north, entering northeast
Bulgaria by way of passes in the Balkan Range. In the north he evidently had contacts
with people who carried the Criş culture and who had originally moved down
along the Danube and the Rusenski Lom for the same demographical reasons which
had pushed the northeast Bulgarians to the south in the early Monochrome Neolithic.
The interaction of these two phenomena resulted in the Ovcharovo culture whose
complexes revealed single fragments of black-painted pottery which increase in
frequency as one moves in the direction of the Danube (e.g. at Maluk Preslavets, near
Silistra). These evident material infiltrations came from the region of the central
Balkans where, at this stage, the Star[ccaron]evo cultures and the West Bulgarian
Painted Pottery passed through their classical black-painted phases.

Black-painted pottery provides a reliable basis for synchronizing the classical phases
of the Star[ccaron]evo culture with the above-mentioned phenomena in the central
Balkan region. Black-painted pottery is also found in the so-called proto-Linear
horizon along the Tisza, which in turn marks the beginning of the Neolithization of
central Europe. At the same time bearers of the eastern version of the Criş
culture, in the northeast, brought the Neolithic to Moldavia and participated in the
formation of the Bug-Dniestr culture.

Seen in this light, stage B of the early Neolithic is an important historical moment
when the Balkan Peninsula became the source of neolithization impulses for central
Europe. The quick Neolithization of vast territories in southeast Europe at this stage
presupposes the presence of considerable demographic potential which was formed in
the area of initial Neolithization of Europe (i.e., south of the Balkan Peninsula) in less
than half a millennium (i.e., for 28 or 30 generations).

The next chronological stage is known from a number of Bulgarian sites, the majority
of which, alas, are not published. The finds from Kazanluk and Yasatepe provided
Georgiev with the grounds for formulating a phase II/III of the Karanovo culture in
Thrace. It corresponds in western Bulgaria to the initial stages of the polychromatic
phase of the West Bulgarian Painted-Pottery culture. By this time, the so-called early
Vin[ccaron]a elements (Vin[ccaron]a A1-A2) had begun to evolve within the range of
the future Vin[ccaron]a culture and phase IV of the Criş culture. The elements
can also be traced in the late phases of the Ovcharovo culture in northeast Bulgaria
(Ovcharovo-zemnika). Typical of this phenomenon are the middle levels of the
Samovodene tell, near Veliko Turnovo (hence the Samovodene phase) of the
Ovcharovo culture. The transition to the late Neolithic in Thrace took place at the time
of Karanovo III.

If there is any middle Neolithic to speak of in the periodization of Bulgarian

prehistory, it begins with Karanovo II which is synchronous to the beginning of the
Sesklo culture in Thessaly, the regional representative of the middle Neolithic.
However, as the entire southeast European early Neolithic cultural block is a
connected and continuous development, it would be inadvisable to divide it into early
Neolithic and middle Neolithic for Bulgaria.
In general then the Balkan Early Neolithic block developed from the dominant
homogeneity of the Monochrome Neolithic into regional, individual cultures. These
individual cultures which had been quite similar at one time, now stood apart. Three
principle complexes within the Balkan Neolithic block are evident by stage B:

1) the painted-pottery cultures of Thessaly and the central Balkans (including western
Bulgaria and Albania but without the Adriatic);

2) the unpainted-pottery cultures of the northeast Balkan Peninsula and Moldavia;

3) the cardial impressed-ware cultures of the Adriatic coast.

This regional division has a deep ethnic and cultural value and can be detected in the
later prehistoric development of these regions.

Late Neolithic-Early Eneolithic

In the middle of the sixth millennium B.C. the block of Balkan Late Neolithic-Early
Eneolithic cultures (also called the Vin[ccaron]a block) replaced the early Neolithic
cultural block. This cultural block had four development phases (i.e., the late
Neolithic and the early Eneolithic each had two subphases of development).

Late Neolithic

The late Neolithic in Bulgaria was discovered quite recently and the period remains
little investigated and even less published. The late discovery and infrequent
publication is the result of the unconventional situation of the late Neolithic sites
(most frequently found away from tells. That the sites are so located is the
consequence of a number of natural and geographical factors, the most important
being the slightly cooler and more humid climate which developed in the middle of
the sixth millennium B.C. As a result, the watertable rose to such a level that it forced
the Neolithic people to leave the flooded terraces and settle on the plateaux. In the
tells of Thrace, the Kaloyanovets culture (Karanovo IV) is found only sporadically,
Georgiev having identified it at Karanovo itself. However, a nearby large and well
studied settlement of this period (i.e., Klebozavoda near Nova Zagora) covered
several hectares. The settlement has buildings organized in rows. The pottery is grey-
black, decorated with cannelures, inlaid pseudo-cannelures, indented cordons and
incised white- and red-inlaid ornament. The early phase of the Kaloyanovets culture,
familiar from a similar settlement on the Karasura plateau, allows us to track the
genesis of late Neolithic pottery to that of Karanovo III.

Early Eneolithic

The early Eneolithic in Thrace is represented by phases I-III of the Maritsa culture
and documented in horizons V-VII of the Azmak tell, at Kirilovo and in others sites; it
is absent at Karanovo. Typologically, the Maritsa culture is a direct continuation of
the Kaloyanovets culture; it is even possible to call them the Kaloyanovets-Maritsa
culture. The difference in names is a result of the fact that they were
discovered at different times. The bearers of the Maritsa culture were the first miners
who laid the foundations of ore mining in the Aibunar area. The pottery of this culture
is richly decorated with positive linear graphite ornament and white-inlaid incised
decoration. At this stage, the people again resettled the tells after leaving the plateaux.
Evidently, the settlement discontinuity between the late Neolithic and the early
Eneolithic in Thrace was based on environmental reasons and did not affect the area's
cultural continuity and development.

In northeast Bulgaria (i.e., part of the lower Danubian basin, southern Muntenia and
Dobrudzha) Neolithization only occurred in the late Neolithic. The bearers of the
Hamangia (phase I) and Boian-Bolentineanu cultures had no early Neolithic
predecessors, their burial customs following the ancient Mesolithic tradition (i.e.,
extended and supine burials). Anthropologically, the populace was a mixture of proto-
European and Mediterranean, and the typology of their flint industry revealed
numerous retardations of Mesolithic features (e.g. microlithisation). The principal
dwelling form was the dug-out. The pottery is definitely early Vin[ccaron]a in
character (Vin[ccaron]a A3), with specific local features. Evidently, the origin of the
bearers of these two cultures was a complex one. It is best to assume that during the
development of the Dudeşti culture, and the similar phenomena in the central
lower Danubian region, the remnants of the ancient Mesolithic tribes were integrated
into the Neolithic community, laying the foundations of the resulting mixed proto-
European-Mediterranean populace which spread to the east, including into
Dobrudzha. Undoubtedly, these two cultures are an integral part of the lower
Danubian late Neolithic complex which also includes the Vin[ccaron]a culture (in the
regions of Vidin, Vratsa, Montana and Sofia), the Vadastra culture (in northern
Bulgaria and east of the Iskur River up to Rusenski Lom) and the Hotnitsa culture (in
central-north Bulgaria).

The Hamangia culture is characterized by extended supine burials for men with
women crouched and placed on their right side (i.e., the hockergrab tradition). This
burial custom is atypical for the remaining part of southeastern Europe and could be
yet another manifestation of a remnant Mesolithic tradition (especially as seen in the
case of the women whose burial was influenced by the crouched inhumation of the
remaining Neolithic populace). In its pure form (i.e., without these influences) the
Hamangia tradition was preserved until much later in the steppes and forest steppes of
southern Russia and the Ukraine.

In most of the cases, the early Eneolithic cultures of the complex under discussion
were a development of the late Neolithic phenomena. The development is seen in the
conditions where the first metal object appeared and in the 'metalisation' of populaces'
aesthetic view as documented by the graphite-decorated pottery. The fact that this
continuity cannot convincingly be traced everywhere is more the consequence of
enormous gaps in research than it is to anything else. In northwest Bulgaria the
Gradeshnitsa culture (a southern relative of the Rast phase of the Vin[ccaron]a culture
north of the Danube) developed during the early Eneolithic. In northeast Bulgaria a
southern pendant of the Boian-Vidra culture, which spread not only in Muntenia but
also in the vicinity of Rusenski Lom, is the Polyanitsa culture which lies at the base of
settlement tells (e.g. Polyanitsa, Radingrad, Lilyak, Smyadovo, Salmanovo,
Ovcharovo). At this time in Dobrudzha, the Hamangia culture passed through its
classical phase III, preserving its characteristic burial customs. As was already
mentioned, during the late Neolithic and the early Eneolithic northwest Bulgaria and
the Sofia Plain were part of the lower Danubian cultural complex. Southwest Bulgaria
developed independently as part of a new ethnic and cultural influence which ran
along the middle and lower Struma and covered Aegean Thrace (Sitagroi II and
Paradimi) from the Struma to Komotini. This is a link between the Vin[ccaron]a-type
north Balkan cultures and the cultures in Thrace and Thessaly. The late Neolithic here
is represented by the Topolnitsa-Akropotamos culture, excellently studied in Bulgaria
at Topolnitsa (near Petrich) and Damyanitsa (near Blagoevgrad). This culture is
characterized by settlements compactly covered with mudbrick buildings, kitchens
dug into the ground and buildings with probably horizontal inhabited roofs.
Excavation at Topolnitsa also revealed a temple building.

The pottery is thin and either black, black and red, black-topped with graphite or
decorated with fine cannelures. Red pottery is dominant, with rare decoration of black
or brown painted ornament or with bitumen or polychrome-band ornaments. In the
following chronological stage (the early Eneolithic), the Topolnitsa-Akropotamos
complex passes through the Strumsko phase (Topolnitsa I) and grows into the
Dikilitash-Slatino culture (Sitagroi III), which is characterized by rich linear graphite
decoration along with incised, white-inlaid ladder-type ornament. Elements and the
imitation of elements from the classical stage of the Dhimini culture in Thessaly (and
as found in Sitagroi III) are found at Topolnitsa and around Struma and permit a
precise synchronization between these two cultures. Furthermore, the numerous
analogies between the Maritsa culture (phase II-III) in Thrace and phase C of the
Vin[ccaron]a culture provide the foundations for an outline of an early Eneolithic
synchronization which links together Vin[ccaron]a C, Maritsa II/III, Sitagroi III;
classical Dhimini-Peukakia I, Sava, Gradeshnitsa, Kableshkovo, Boian, and Vidra.

Along the Black Sea coast the territories north and south of the Balkan Range show a
different development during the late Neolithic and the early Eneolithic. In
Dobrudzha, the Hamangia culture continued its development: phases I and II belong
to the late Neolithic and phase III to the early Eneolithic. The oldest copper and
malachite here date as far back as Hamangia phase II B. At this time the spread of
Spondylus gaederopus begins to spread along the Danube into central Europe. This
earliest of long-distance trade was probably in the hands of the people inhabiting the
Black Sea coast of Dobrudzha and was practiced intensively until the end of the late
Eneolithic when it disappears with the local Neo-Eneolithic populace.

The area around the river Kamchiya developed differently from Dobrudzha and was
the only area in the region to undergo Neolithization as early as the early Neolithic.
The local middle Neolithic Tsonevo culture (the local descendent of the Karanovo II
and Ovcharovo cultures) is known from the first horizon at the Golyamo Delchevo tell
and from Balkuzu near Dulgopol.

The late Neolithic in this region is represented by the Usoe culture, excellently studied
on the Usoe plateau near the village of Asparukhovo in the Varna region. Usoe is a
completely independent Black Sea phenomenon with contacts reaching to the
Bosphorus. Local men lived in dug-outs on large and sunny plateaux (as at the type-
site Usoe). Settlements covered many hectares and have horizontal stratigraphy. The
flint industry is characterized by microliths, while pottery is grey to grey-black, with
simple cannelured or impressed decoration. Idol figurines are particularly numerous
and varied. During the Usoe II stage (Proto-Sava), the Usoe culture grew into the
early Eneolithic Sava culture which is found at the bases of tells in the region (horizon
II at Golyamo Delchevo, and Sava I). Thus here, as was the case in Thrace, we find
discontinuity of settlement (but continuity of culture) between the late Neolithic and
the early Eneolithic. The Sava culture is characterized by pottery with incised, white-
inlaid, linear and chess-board ornament. Positive graphite decoration of Maritsa III
type is found but is rare.

Research has only recently started in the part of Bulgaria which lies south of the
Balkans. The late Neolithic complexes there have yet to be discovered, but recently
archaeologists have defined the local early Eneolithic, represented by the so-called
Kableshkovo-type. The Kableshkovo pottery complex unites the typological features
of the Sava and Maritsa cultures. It is dominated by incised, white-inlaid linear
decoration, along with the ladder-incised ornament and other incised or stroke-
ornament techniques which served as the basis of the white- and red-inlay work.
Kableshkovo levels also lie at the base of the tells in the area around Burgas on the
southern Black Sea coast. To date underwater archaeological research in this area has
not provided much information concerning submerged late Neolithic or early
Eneolithic sites. The only sample is a fragment with incised decoration, found in the
port of Akhtopol, and probably originating from a submerged settlement of the
Kableshkovo type. It is also interesting to note that in the Yarumburgas Cave, north of
Istanbul, archaeologists have studied horizons with exact parallels in the Usoe culture
(i.e., with the late Neolithic of the Bulgarian Black Sea coast), but which have no
parallels with the Sava culture or the Kableshkovo type.

Middle Eneolithic

The middle Eneolithic in Bulgaria is an interesting, intermediary phenomenon which

should be reviewed on its own. As a result of the development of metal mining,
metallurgy and the intensification of cultural contacts, the mid-fifth millennium B.C.
in southeast Europe witnessed deep integration among neighboring cultures, resulting
in the formation of large cultural complexes. A product of the autarchic social
structures characteristic of the Neolithic, the cultural fragmentation of this part of the
oikoumene, receded as uniting processes lead to the standardization, over enormous
territories, of the typology of material inventories. These integration processes
occurred during the middle Eneolithic which is correctly defined as a transitional
stage. This is a period when the last features of the Balkan Late Neolithic-Early
Eneolithic died out and the characteristics of the late Eneolithic block appeared and
spread. During the middle Eneolithic, as the borders between the former individual
culture areas were erased, two large cultural complexes and one independent culture
were formed in the northern part of the Balkan Peninsula.

The final phases of the following early Eneolithic cultures belong to the middle
Eneolithic: Maritsa IV in Thrace (this is equivalent to Karanovo V); Sava IV from the
region of the Kamchiya; and Hamangia IV in Dobrudzha. Hamangia IV had
particularly close contacts with Pre-Cucuteni III culture in Moldavia. As a result the
Bolgrad-Aldeni culture appeared in Besarabia and the Varna culture (along the
Bulgarian Black Sea coast).
At this stage, the Boian-Spanţov and Maritsa IV cultures merged together and
formed the Kodzhadermen-Gumelniţa-Karanovo VI (KGK VI) complex.

These processes of integration have been studied in detail both by Romanian and by
Bulgarian prehistorians. The stages which are of interest are represented in the
accumulations of the tells on both sides of the Danube. The numerous stratigraphical
observations from Raduvanu, Tangiru, Ovcharovo, Polyanitsa, Radingrad,
Turgovishte, Smyadovo, Salmanovo, Ruse and elsewhere show a convincing
repetitiveness of the results. It is these that serve as the basis of the conclusions about
the processes which led to the emergence of the late Eneolithic cultural block in the
Balkans.

In western Bulgaria the Vin[ccaron]a D and Gradeshnitsa cultures combine to form

the Krivodol-Salcuţa-Bubanj complex. Regrettably, the middle Eneolithic in
the central Balkan region has not been studied sufficiently. In the Sofia region it is
convincingly represented by the Poduene settlement a typical representative of the
Vin[ccaron]a D3 culture. The single finds from northwest Bulgaria dating from
Vin[ccaron]a D4 do not permit a detailed study of the Krivodol-Salcuţa-
Bubanj integration processes. The situation with the finds and sites in eastern Serbia
belonging to this period is little better.

Late Eneolithic

The fully investigated necropolis at Durankulak (1,204 burials) has allowed scholars
to establish the genesis of the Varna culture. Genetically, it is the direct descendant of
the Hamangia culture, but in its formation one discerns the influences of the Cucuteni-
Tripolye and the Sava cultures. The Varna culture pottery is deep black, with the
surface covered with pyrolusite paint. The ornamentation is negative and stands out
against the background of kerbschnitt fields inlaid with white or red paste. Graphite
ornaments are rare, being both linear and negative. In grave number 4 of the Varna I
necropolis gold has been substituted for these ornaments. There appear isolated finds
of pottery forms (like the bowls with thick rolled ring-edges) which are common for
the Eneolithic of the entire Balkan Peninsula and northwest Anatolia. The buildings
are of the megaron type, with massive mudbrick walls on stone plinths of up to 1 m in
width. A palace and shrines with ritual facilities were found on Golemiya Ostrov off
the coast near Durankulak.

Research of the Varna I, Devniya and Durankulak necropolises revealed valuable

information about the deep social differentiation among the bearers of the Varna
culture. Grave 43 from Varna I indicates the existence of royal power. The rich
copper and gold inventory from the so-called symbolic burials in the same necropolis
evidently belonged to large male and female temple idols deposited in the ground,
This, along with the representative gold trimmings from the so-called Grave Number
36, is an important indicator of the might of the local temple complex. The temple
workshops probably included a large metallurgy center. Trade of copper and copper
objects, by way of the Black Sea, between the Varna culture and the Cucuteni-
Tripolye complex also started from the bay of Varna and was evidently in the hands
of the temple complex. At the end of the fifth millennium B.C. therefore, the bearers
of the Varna culture stood on the brink of civilization. The earliest evidence of this
phenomenon in Europe. It proved to be extremely short-lived.
The development of the late Eneolithic peoples in the rest of the country was as
intensive as it was in the Varna culture. However, we have sufficient archaeological
information only from northeast Bulgaria where several necropolises have been
studied; they did not reveal the high social differentiation characteristic of the Black
Sea coast.

During this period, the northeast of the Balkan Peninsula (from the Carpathians to the
Rhodopes) was occupied by the KGK VI cultural complex. The vast accumulations of
settlement tells (which north of the Balkan Range only appear in the Eneolithic) are
the remains of this complex. The architecture is of posts and wattle. The dwellings
themselves are well fortified and built according to a definite plan. The settlements
are densely filled dwellings separated with narrow streets. Each settlement has one or
more central two-storey public building. At Ruse archaeologists discovered a temple
building whose walls held large anthropomorphic idol appliques. Further evidence of
such temple idols comes from the Hisarluka tell near Razgrad. The pottery of the
entire complex is typologically uniform: grey-black and black pottery known as
Gumelniţa ware, decorated chiefly with negative graphite ornament or
barbotine on the coarse ware. Forms are biconical.

The wealth of the KGK VI complex are the copper mines in northern Thrace (e.g.
Aibunar), which were used intensively. Little of the metal itself remained in Thrace as
it formed the basis for trading activities. As some of the metal objects (like the Vidra-
type axe) are found mainly within the scope of KGK VI there may have existed
strictly differentiated metallurgic production centers with characteristic produce.
Chemical analyses of the numerous copper artefacts and ores identify metal mining
centers in northern Thrace and eastern Serbia (e.g. Bor, Maidanpek), each of which
had separate spheres of influence in the Balkans.

In western Bulgaria the Krivodol-Salcuţa-Bubanj complex is the central

Balkan descendent of KGK VI.

The influence of Krivodol-S alcuţa-Bubanj ranges from Oltenia to the

north and Pleven district in northern Bulgaria, through the central Balkan zone and
Macedonia to the Aegean (Thasos). Research over this large territory is very irregular;
there are none of the convincing, repeated stratigraphical observations characteristic
of the KGK complex, no known necropoli and insufficiently studied social structures.

The late Eneolithic Krivodol-Salcuţa-Bubanj settlements are mainly located at

high altitudes or in caves; stratigraphic depth does not exceed 3-4 m. The principal
sites that have been investigated include Telish-Redutite near Pleven, which has been
completely excavated, and Krivodol (near Vratsa), Salcuţa (Oltenia) and
Bubanj (near Niš) which have been studied only by sondage. The caves (e.g. Zlotska
Pe[cacute]ina) have quite mixed accumulations and do not provide a clear
stratigraphical picture.

The first phase of the Krivodol-Salcuţa-Bubanj complex is known from

Dyakovo (near Kyustendil), the second and third from Krivodol, Zaminets, Pernik and
Galatin, and the fourth from Telish, Reburkovo, Kolarovo and others. Architecture is
of mudbrick, with megaron-type rectangular buildings. At Galatin archaeologists have
studied a burnt building which revealed convincing proof of a second storey and
despite topographical inaccessibility of the site evidence suggests that a rock
fortification had been built at the site. At Telish a temple with an altar and figures in
relief on the walls were found. Krivodol-Salcuţa-Bubanj pottery varies a great
deal. Decoration includes cannelures, tongue-like sprouts and poly-chrome paste
ornaments. The graphite motifs preserve their linear, positive character, a fact which
has frequently misled some to think that it resembles the early Eneolithic graphite
ornamentation from the same area (Dikilitash-Slatino culture). The negative graphite
ornament, typical of the Gumelniţa culture, is not found in Krivodol-
Salcuţa-Bubanj.

The main sources of metal for the area were the single ore deposits around Bor and
Maidanpek, the Rudna Glava deposit at this time no longer being mined. There was
also probably another, as yet unidentified, mining center in the region of Plakalnitsa in
the district of Vratsa. Initially the produce of these centers was small and in terms of
quantity far behind that of Aibunar. It was only after the decline of the north Thracian
mining center that central Balkan metallurgy flourished, a matter discussed below.
The principal late Eneolithic metal forms of this region were the Plo[ccaron]nik-type
axe and the heavy spearheads, although the area of their discovery is not as strictly
limited as is that of the Vidra-type axe.

Transitional Period

For many years Bulgarian prehistorians assumed that the early Bronze Age followed
directly after the late Eneolithic. This opinion was based only on data from Thrace,
where the stratigraphy of the tells, such as Karanovo, Ezero and Yunatsite, showed a
stratigraphic sequence, albeit one which was interrupted by a large hiatus. It was only
in recent years that comparative studies and the excavations at Ovcharovo-gorata in
northeast Bulgaria have revealed the existence of a Transitional Period, dividing the
Eneolithic from the Bronze Age and spanning more than half a millennium (i.e., the
first half of the fourth millennium B.C.).

The brilliant development of the late Eneolithic cultural block was terminated at the
end of the fifth and the beginning of the fourth millennium B.C. by a colossal, global
and multi-causal environmental catastrophe: the final stage of the climatic optimum,
when the mean annual temperatures reached their post-glacial maximum of 3° Celsius
above their present temperatures. For a number of southern regions, including
southeastern Europe, this was a catastrophic event. The rising sea levels caused the
water table to rise resulting in the swamping of the plains (i.e., in Thrace and south
Muntenia). These plains were precisely the places where Eneolithic farming had
flourished. The final blow to the Eneolithic economy was delivered by prolonged
droughts which deprived the people of their means of existence and forest fires and
erosion put paid to any chance of survival.

Sea waters continued to rise during the first half of the fourth millennium B.C.,
bringing them above their present level and flooding the land. This phase of sea
ingression (the so-called Flood) reached its culmination around 3,500 B.C. Different
parts of Europe were effected in different ways by this development as it was
connected with the oscillations of the European land platform which, freed from the
melted glacial caps, rose in the north, while in the south was depressed under the
increased volume of the Mediterranean. These movements can be seen very clearly
along the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. The steppes dried up, becoming deserts or semi-
deserts in the south, and spread beyond their Neolithic bound-aries. To these
phenomena were added anthropogenic factors (e.g., over two millennia of forest
clearing for wood to burn) which contributed to the decline of the environmental
conditions in the Balkans. The combination of these and a number of other
consequent phenomena formed the complex environmental background of the
Transitional Period on the Balkan Peninsula. The Transitional Period passed through
Two chronological stages: the final Eneolithic (or post-Eneolithic) and the proto-
Bronze stage.

Transitional Period I: Final Eneolithic

The final Eneolithic includes the first centuries of the fourth millennium B.C. and
corresponds to the period of the Bodrogkeresztur culture in Hungary. At this time the
development of the territory of the Balkan Peninsula was differentiated. As early as
the mid-fifth millennium B.C., the rising environmental catastrophe put an end not
only to the Dhimini cultures in Thessaly, but also to Malic Ia in southern Albania and
Dikilitash-Slatino along the Struma and in Aegean Thrace. Next to be affected were
the cultures of northern Thrace, Muntenia, the Black Sea coast and eastern Bulgaria
(i.e., the regions of the plains and the steppes bordering on forests). The Varna culture
and the KGK VI complex perished during their phase III (i.e., as early as the end of
the fifth millennium B.C). The catastrophe was of colossal scope as seen from
changes in the settlement density which in the late Eneolithic included more than 600
settlements. By the start of the Transitional Period not a single site is known. It was a
complete cultural caesura.

At this time in western Bulgaria and the central Balkan region life went on situated at
a higher altitude, where the settlements were fewer in number and better protected
from natural cataclysms. Indeed, at the end of Krivodol-Slcuţa-Bubanj phase
III and the beginning of phase IV, the complex underwent a considerable boom
inspired by, among other things, the boom in metal working. Freed from the
competition of the now out of use mine at Aibunar, the mining and metal-working
centers in eastern Serbia at Bor and Majdanpek and northern Transylvania were
producing the universal Yasladani cruciform axe/mattocks, flat copper spearheads and
jewellery on a massive scale. There was a preference for copper ores containing
arsenic. The first metal cutting tools (Bodrogkeresztur-type knives) also appeared at
this time. Gold objects are now found in the whole of south-central Europe.

The principal excavated sites from this period in Bulgaria include Telish-Redutite II
(near Pleven), Krivodol, Reburkovo and Galatin (near Vratsa). The settlements all
have solid mudbrick architecture. Two-storey buildings have been studied at Telish
and Galatin; a temple with relief figures on the walls was found at Telish. The
settlements are situated on inaccessible heights and have commanding views.
Settlements also occupied all suitable caves at this time. Pottery varies considerably.
The dominant type is a bowl with inward turning rims and thick rolled ring-type rims.
The vessels frequently have two or more handles, as do the cups. There is also a
sample of the so-called pudding bowls ('mechnitsi'). Decoration is impressed and
inlaid (Lasiniya I type), with graphite, barbotine and polychrome motifs. Cannelures,
protruding ribs and knobs, and watery white drawings are also present.

The unexpected caesura experienced in the eastern part of the peninsula is not found
in the Krivodol-Salcuţa-Bubanj complex; a gradual dying down of the culture
and the infiltration of new and foreign elements from the east characterizes northwest
Bulgaria. At the end of Krivodol-Slcuţa-Bubanj IV B pottery contained
crushed shell, quartz, sand and organic temper and had lost both its high quality and
its varied decoration. This pottery is characteristic of the proto-Bronze stage and, with
time, its elements gradually increased in importance. There is no evidence for
settlement discontinuity between the two stages of the Transitional Period. In some
places the accumulations from the two stages lie stratigraphically one on top of the
other and document a degree of relative cultural continuity lacking in the other parts
of the country at this time.

The Rhodopes

In the Rhodopes there are no descendents of Krivodol-Slcuţa-Bubanj phase IV

of the complex either in northeast Bulgaria or in Thrace. The latest Eneolithic
settlements in Thrace (phases IIIb/c of the KGK VI complex) were destroyed after
enormous fires (e.g., at Yunatsite and Dolnoslav) and were not re-established. It is
interesting to note that a new phenomenon (the Yagodina culture) developed in the
caves of the Rhodopes during the final Eneolithic. People of the Yagodina culture
were possibly immigrants from Thrace who found that the caves provided protection
from the environmental catastrophe which had affected their homeland. Particularly
well studied are the Yagodina and Haramijska Dupka caves (near Smolyan).
Excavation revealed traces of post-built buildings with ovens and hearths. The pottery
is black, with polychrome paste, graphite or whitish pseudo-granite decoration and
has a high frequency of two-handled vessels. Two copper daggers were found in the
Haramijska Cave. Regrettably, the interesting investigations of both sites (by
Vaklinova, Avramova and Vulchanova) have yet to be fully published. Little, if
anything, is known of cultural development in the Rhodope region after the end of the
Yagodina culture.

Transitional Period II: Proto-Bronze Stage

The proto-Bronze stage spans the period around the middle of the fourth millennium
B.C. during which time both the eastern and western parts of the Balkan Peninsula
continued their different development, although some common tendencies are evident.
Due to several factors, this stage has been little investigated. Not only does the period
follow the colossal demographical collapse of the beginning of the fourth millennium
B.C. when the population of Bulgaria was still very small but the settlements
themselves are not the highly visible tells of previous periods and are found in marshy
terrain which was not very suitable for occupation.

In Thrace there is not a single archaeological site belonging to the Transitional Period
and this cannot be due entirely to a gap in research. Rather, the ethnic and cultural
phenomena evolving in the region of the lower Danube region were still unstable and
the settlers were few. This situation has always prevented the resolution of the
problem of the origin of the early Bronze Age Ezero culture, which, when it did
appear in Thrace, did so without links to any local antecedents.

The proto-Bronze Age in northeast Bulgaria is more or less well recorded where it is
represented by the Pevets culture, a southern descendent of the [Ccaron]ernavod I
culture from southern Muntenia and Dobrudzha. The Pevets culture has been studied
at the sites of Ovcharovo-gorata and Pevets (near Turgovishte), Hotnitsa-vodopada,
Shemshevo and Kachitsa (near Veliko Turnovo), and Borovo and Krasen (near Ruse).
The settlements are small, situated on shielded foothills near streams and consist of
five to ten dug-outs with ovens and hearths for baking small flat loafs of bread. The
population of domestic animals was dominated by goat and sheep and a limited
agricultural regime was augmented by food gathering.

Pevets pottery has organic or crushed-shell temper, thin walls, falling slip and almost
no decoration. There is an abundance of handles which are frequently drawn high
above the rim. Two small metal daggers and awls were found at Hotnitsa-vodopada.
Infiltrations of watery whitish painted-pottery and vessels decorated with caterpillar-
type corded ornament indicate connections with the Cucuteni B-Tripolye C cultural
complex and thus permit a good relative dating of the Ovcharovo culture. The

Ovcharovo culture, together with the [Ccaron]ernavod I culture, are the

easternmost descendents of the large Horizon-of-disc-like-handles from the central
Danube and thus represent a zone of contact with the bearers of the Usatovo culture in
the northern Pontic steppes.

At the same time southern Dobrudzha was visited by people who represented the
proto-Pit culture of the northern Black Sea coast. These people left behind flat barrow
necropolises with cromlechs, stone stelae and skeletons which were painted in red
(although not with ochre), buried crouched and turned to the left, and with the head
pointing eastwards. At Durankulak archaeologists have found several such burials
under flat barrows and dug-outs dating from the Renier phase of the [Ccaron]ernavod
I culture. All this indicates that there was a very early, pre-Pit, invasion of the lower
Danubian region and Dobrudzha by people coming south from the southern Russian
steppes. These people reached the area around the Varna lakes (as seen by the
contents of grave number 3 at Devniya II). A necropolis from the same period was
also found at the Ruse tell, although it was identified as such at the time of excavation
by the excavators, Georgiev and Angelov. It is not clear whether these people from
the Russian steppes managed to infiltrate Thrace as well.

In northwest Bulgaria the proto-Bronze stage is represented by the Galatin culture

which is identical to the so-called Slcuţa IV in Oltenia. The Galatin culture is
known from numerous high altitude settlements in the area including Telish-Redutite
III (near Pleven), Galatin II, Reburkovo, Lesura and Mezdra (near Vratsa). The
archaeological record in the burnt settlement sites corresponds to that of the so-called
Tripolye sites; they included two-storey mudbrick buildings with plaster ceilings.
Galatin pottery contains the above mentioned organic temper and is grey to brown in
color, with very little decoration. Common forms include double vessels, jugs and
handles, the latter including shajbenkhenkeli and such pulled high above the rim.
Common pottery forms connect the Galatin culture with the Bakurno Gumno-
Suplevac phenomenon in Macedonia, Maliq II A in southern Albania, Sitagroi IV in
northern Greece and late Rakhmani in Thessaly. Thus it is possible to unite these
cultural phenomena into one proto-Bronze complex covering Thessaly, Aegean
Thrace, the central Balkan region, and with connections with the disc-like handle
complex of the lower Danube region.

The appearance of the earliest arsenical bronze objects is an important indicator of the
proto-Bronze stage; these objects infiltrating the Balkan Peninsula from the territory
of the late Tripolye culture (e.g. southern Ukraine and Moldavia). The Transitional
Period also frames a significant transformation in metal working. The last phases of
pure copper working in the Balkan-Carpathian province belongs to the final
Eneolithic. During the proto-Bronze stage, metal-working disintegrated and was
followed by a period which has been defined by its hunger for metal. Evidently it was
this hunger that stimulated the discovery of copper-arsenic alloying, a new technology
which was the basis for the metallurgy in the Circum-Pontic metallurgic region where
mainly arsenical bronze was worked during its early Bronze phase.

The characteristic features of the proto-Bronze stage in the Transitional Period

between the Eneolithic and the Bronze Age find their full development during the
early Bronze Age. It is in the Transitional Period that the Neolithic-Eneolithic cultural
system completes its development and marks the transition to the Bronze Age in
Bulgaria.