Excavation reports from Bulgaria

Golden jewellery from a 2nd millennium BC tumulus grave at Ovchartsi, Radnevo district

by Stefan Alexandrov

(4 May 2009)

During the rescue excavations of a tumulus close to the village Ovchartsi, southeastern Bulgaria, a burial of ca. 65-year old woman with rich golden and bronze grave goods and a unique wheel-made vessel of unusual shape and painted decoration was discovered. The tumulus lies in the so-called Maritsa Iztok (Eastern Maritsa) region (Fig. 1). This region is one of the most intensively researched areas in Bulgaria, due to numerous archaeological rescue excavations, necessitated by the fact that whole stretches of landscape and archaeological monuments have been systematically destroyed since the 1960s by open charcoal mines.

The Bronze and Iron Age Site of Dragoyna

by Elena Bozhinova

(14 June 2007)

The excavations carried out till now were all concentrated in the fortified part on the highest peak of Dragoyna where an area of about 450 sq.m. was excavated. The site was inhabited, probably uninterrupted, from the Late Bronze Age till the Early Hellenistic Period. The peak was first occupied at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age (17-16th c. BC), as few sherds belong to vessels with a form and decoration typical for the late phases of the Early Bronze Age cultures in Thrace.

Necropolis and Ritual Structures from the Early Bronze Age near the Village of Dubene, Karlovo Region

by Martin Hristov

(10 April 2007)

The necropolis and the ritual structures are situated 2 km southeast of the village of Dubene, Karlovo region, between the Stara Planina and the Sredna Gora mountains in southern Bulgaria. The necropolis encompasses at least nine separate mounds, four of which are smaller and lower and five are larger and higher. The larger mounds reach 25 m in diameter and 2.70 m in height. The lower mounds, situated among the high ones, differ in diameter, ranging from 5.50 m to 14.50 m, while their height reaches 25cm above the surrounding terrain. The mounds should be dated to the third stage of the Early Bronze Age (Early Bronze Age III) in Thrace in the Bulgarian periodisation, that is, the late third millennium BC. A settlement was located 400 m southwest of the necropolis and the structures; it was inhabited continuously during the Early Bronze Age. Thus, the necropolis is likely related to it.

Aegeo-Balkan Prehistory