Bulgarian e-Journal of Archaeology | Българско е-Списание за Археология
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Kozareva Mogila. The Eneolithic Necropolis (excavations 2005–2018): Book review: Petya Georgieva, Veselin Danov. Kozareva Mogila. The Eneolithic Necropolis (excavations 2005–2018). With contributions by Victoria Russeva and Maria Gurova. Archaeologia Bulgarica Supplements, vol. 2, 2021, ISBN 978-954-92566-7-3
Full text linkWere there any tells in the Coţofeni culture area?
Full text linkThe approach to the topic of tells in the North-Danube area, between 3500 and 2800 BC, corresponding to the Coţofeni culture (in Bulgaria, Magura–Coţofeni, Tărnava culture) has been inconsistent. This study aims to clarify a series of archaeological and terminological aspects in direct relation to those Coţofeni sites that may or may not be included in the category of tell settlements. The so-called tell settlements are also discussed and the term pseudo-tell is proposed. Sites at very high altitudes (over 1000 m) or others related to salt exploitation have generated complex stratigraphies, consisting of successive Coţofeni levels, but completely different from the types of sediments that led to the formation of “classic” tells from the lowlands. The lack of fortifications is another feature of these settlements, which takes them away from the classic definition of a tell.Following this analysis, it can be summarized that the terminological problems or the established conventions are not sufficient to define certain Coţofeni sites, such as those from Ostrovu Corbului, Basarabi or Moldova Veche. However, there are arguments to speak of tell or pseudo-tell settlements in the Coţofeni area. Compared to the impressive number of known sites in the area (over 1500), their percentage is only around 1%
Spanish lustreware from the western Black Sea coast, 14th–15th centuries
Full text linkThe paper presents for the first time the imports of Spanish lustreware in Bulgaria. For a long time such ware remained neglected probably because there have been very few finds usually representing an insignificant segment of the ceramic assemblages from medieval settlements. However, to assume a supply of western goods is more than reasonable given the wide trade contacts of the Tarnovo Tsardom and the Dobrudzha Despotate during the 14th c., and the dominant role of the Italian maritime republics in the Black Sea trading region. The targeted search for Spanish imports in several museum collections confirmed their presence in six settlements along the Black Sea coast: Sozopol, Varna, Kastritsi, Kaliakra, the fortresses of Rusokastro and Petrich near Varna. The pottery included in the paper illustrates the 14th to 15th c. imports of the following well known in the European studies subgroups of Valencian production: loza valenciana malagueňa dorada y azul; loza valenciana dorada Pula; loza valenciana dorada clasicá. The presence of some 16th c. post-Valencian products, most probably originating from the workshops of Muel, Saragossa, is also suggested.
Most of the examined finds show that Iberian imports, even though just a few, reached Bulgaria between the 1330s and the late 15th c., most likely due to Italian merchants. Numerous written sources prove that the main reason for the active policy followed by Genoa and Venice was the export of cheap cereals and raw materials. There is no explicit information about the import of ceramics but given the connections of the two maritime republics with Spanish ports, especially the Genoese ones, it can be assumed that they supplied luxury lustreware to both Bulgarian lands and cities on the North Black Sea coast
The Peraia of Samothrace project: report on the 2020–2021 fieldwork campaign
Full text linkThe Peraia of Samothrace Project (HFRI-FM17-750) is a multi-disciplinary archaeological fieldwork project to investigate the diachronic settlement patterns from Prehistory to the Modern Era of the coastal and inland landscape opposite the island of Samothrace in the northern Aegean Sea. It uses integrated and non-invasive methods such as remote sensing, geophysical prospection, and intensive pedestrian field walking to explore the regional topography and the diversity of human occupation. One important aspect of the project addresses the question of Samothracian settlements mentioned in the written sources. This paper presents the results of the 2020–2021 fieldwork campaign, including the methodological framework of the survey, an overview of ancient literary sources and previous archaeological work in the region, and a preliminary report of the archaeological survey as well as a general discussion of the combined outcome of the results
E-conference: Ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine Fibulae, 12–13 May 2022, Izmir, Türkiye
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The Early Iron Age pottery assemblage from site 1/1000 at the foot of Vrashka Chuka, northwest Bulgaria
Full text linkIn 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
Contextualizing rare shapes of Athenian Kerameikos from coastal and inland Thrace (6th–4th c. BC): an approach through the AtticPOT repository
Full text linkAlthough Attic pottery is found even at the edges of the ancient world, different geographic areas constituted different markets, thus Attic production was to fulfil various needs. Shapes seen in context has always been a fundamental way of tracing the interrelation between ancient markets and the production of Athenian Kerameikos. However, not all shapes share the same popularity. And although studying those that come in large numbers is the first and understandable impulse, tracking the distribution of rare shapes in space as well as time can also be very fruitful. For more than three years the team of the project Attic POttery in Thrace (AtticPOT; http://atticpot.athenarc.gr/) has recorded and studied a substantial part of the published Attic figured pottery dated between the 6th and the 4th c. BC, from numerous sites of ancient Thrace. With this article, we aim to outline the spatial as well as temporal distribution of shapes that appear with 20 items or less (vessels or sherds) in the extensive geographic area covered by ancient Thrace and to study them within their contexts. In this effort, we will use all the tools provided by our digital repository and the archaeological GIS laboratory of the Athena R.C. (http://aegis.athenarc.gr/)
