Articles about 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.

A Bronze Sword of the Aegean-Anatolian Type in the Museum of Varna, Bulgaria.

by Bogdan Athanassov, Raiko Krauß and Vladimir Slavčev

(26 March 2012)

A sword of Aegean type, until now the best parallel of the Aššuwa-sword, was given to the Archaeological Museum in Varna, Bulgaria. The following text deals with the chronological and typological position of the new find. The question of its origin evokes reflections about the possible forms of exchange between Northwestern Anatolia and the Balkans during the second millennium BC.

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.

The Phenomenon of Mattpainted Pottery in the Northern Aegean.
Introduction, Overview and Theories

by Barbara Horejs

(3 October 2007)

The term mattpainted pottery was first used by A. Furtwängler and G. Loeschke in their classification of pottery from Grave Circle A in Mycenae. It quickly gained wide use in research as the designation for a category of pottery with dull, lustreless, that is, ‘matt’ painting. In the course of time different chronological and technological appearances accumulated under this very flexible nomen. The spectrum ranges from the wheel-made and handmade polychrome ware of Middle Helladic southern Greece, to handmade pottery of the Late Bronze Age – with bichrome and monochrome ware in West Macedonia and monochrome ware in Central Macedonia – and the Iron Age phenomenon of mattpainted handmade pottery in Epirus and Albania.

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.

Late Bronze Age Pottery from the Site of Vratitsa, Eastern Bulgaria. Definition, Chronology and its Aegean affinities.

by Rositsa Hristova

(9 March 2011)

The site is located along the route of the “Trakia” Highway and administratively belongs to the village of Vratitsa, municipality of Kameno. It is situated in the field called Aladinova Chesma (Aladin’s Fountain), 1.5 km northeast of the village. This is an area of low hills and the region is well watered. In geographical terms, this area is part of the Burgas Plain, which forms a region on its own within the Black Sea climatic sub-zone. The site occupies a gentle slope facing south-southwest and is situated at the western edge of the plain where the southern terrace of the Karnobat Hills starts.

Grey Wares as a Phenomenon

by Peter Pavúk

(12 June 2008)

Fine wheel-made (or handmade) burnished grey wares keep occurring in and around the Aegean area throughout the second millennium, but also in the preceding third and in the following first millennium B.C. What may (or may not) be just a coincidence, has often been interpreted as evidence for something: movement of people, development of culture, chronological cross-links. Whereas in some cases it is clear that grey and grey is not always the same, there are other instances, which have kept archaeological discourse busy for well over a century now. This contribution intends to present a kind of entrée into the study of Aegean and Anatolian grey wares, on the background of the history of research, with an open eye also to the neighbouring regions, such as Bulgaria, Georgia and the Levant. Grey wares have received only a few monothematic studies and were mostly dealt with site by site, along with other types of pottery.