Varna burial ground

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The Varna Necropolis ( Bulgarian Варненски некропол / Warnenski nekropol ) is a burial ground from the Copper Age in the western Bulgarian city of Varna . Of particular importance are the copper and gold finds, which raise the burials above the regular graves of this period. According to previous knowledge, the first European copper and gold finds appear in the group of graves of Varna II, a few kilometers west of the burial ground . This group of tombs is considered to be the immediate forerunner of the Varna burial ground (Varna I). The Varna burial ground is one of the most important archaeological sites in prehistory .

In terms of cultural history, the graves belong to the Varna culture , which is considered a local variant of the Kodzadermen-Gumelnitza-Karanovo-VI (4500-4000 BC).

Gold objects from the Varna burial ground

location

The site is located about 5 km from the center of the city of Varna on a slightly sloping terrace on the north bank of the Warna lake.

Discovery and excavation

In October 1972, the excavator operator Raitscho Marinow discovered the cemetery while excavating a cable trench in the western industrial area of ​​Varna. The scientific excavations were carried out from 1972 to 1976 under the direction of Mikhail Lasarow and from 1976 to 1991 under the direction of Ivan Ivanov of the Varna Archaeological Museum. Traces of 294 individual graves were found in an area of ​​around 7500 m². Over 30% of the archaeological monument has not yet been excavated. Many grave pits contained evidence of highly developed metallurgical work (gold and copper), ceramics (around 600 pieces, including two vessels with geometrical, strictly stylized symbols from grave no.4 painted in gold) as well as high quality flint and obsidian blades , pearls and shells. Over 3000 pieces of jewelry made of very pure gold (23-23.5 carats ) with a total weight of approx. 6 kg testify to the great technical and craftsmanship of the artists. Among the grave findings are arms and tiaras, necklaces and massive ornamental ends of Scepter bars and numerous trim pieces of garments made of gold sheet that have partially animal form.

chronology

The occupation time of the cemetery can be traced back to 4590–4340 BC on the basis of radiocarbon dates on the skeletal material of the buried and on other organic materials from which the grave goods were made. BC ( late Eneolithic ). An internal structure of the burials on the basis of the statistical analysis of the grave contents shows a five-phase development. The burial site develops from northwest to southeast, that is, towards the shore of Lake Varna. The occupancy begins in phase 1 on the north-western edge of the square with side stools and back stretchers that follow the natural slope in their position. Advancing to the southeast, but also taking advantage of empty areas between the older graves, the entire area of ​​the burial field is occupied in phases 2 and 3. If you look at the natural relief of the terrain, the burials move over time from higher to lower elevations, i.e. down the slope. From the second phase onwards, the back extensors emerge dominantly, with the stool graves continuously decreasing in the course of development. The distribution of the graves in the last phases 4 and 5 is particularly revealing. Only a few burials are being introduced in the south-western area of ​​the cemetery during this time. These include many of the graves, which are particularly rich in copper heavy implements and gold objects. At the same time, however, symbolic graves and rich material deposits will be created along the south-western border of the burial area, which could represent a symbolic boundary between the burial field and the lakeshore zone. It is possible that these depots were brought into the ground during different rituals, not necessarily at the same time, but in a definable chronological framework, along a pre-existing boundary line between the world of the dead and that of the living.

description

Skeletons were found in the grave pits , both in a crouched position and in a stretched supine position. The finds show that the Varna culture had trade relations with distant areas, possibly as far as the lower Volga and the Cyclades . Salt from the Prowadija salt mine was used as a commodity . The copper ore in the artifacts comes from the Ai-Bunar deposits north of the city of Stara Sagora, about 200 km southwest . Shells of spondylus clams found in the tombs may have served as simple currency.

Grave number 43 with pieces of the oldest gold jewelry known to man

The gold of Varna

Grave No. 43 contained the skeleton of a 40- to 50-year-old man about 1.70 m tall, surrounded by 990 gold objects with a total weight of 1516 g, as well as copper tools, bone jewelry, spondylus and clay vessels. His clothing was decorated with many gold applications. The man, to be regarded as a clan chief or priest , was buried with a gold scepter, which with its blunt tips and gilded shaft resembles a battle ax. He wore a golden penis attachment. More gold was found in grave 43 than in the rest of the world from this era, including a unique gold chain with double-conical pearls.

In the bottom of the oval pit grave No. 1 there was a depression that was covered with a layer of ocher . The additions to the symbolic burial included a total of 216 gold objects with a total weight of 1092 g as well as bracelets and decorative parts made of sheet gold and numerous gold beads, various copper tools and a stylized human figure made of bone . A necklace of gold, short-cylinder-shaped pearls found in grave number 3 can be considered the earliest known gold jewelry. Three symbolic graves (grave nos. 2, 3, and 15) contained masks made of only lightly fired clay with gold decorations. Based on their furnishings, they were interpreted as symbolic women's burials.

Interpretations

Marija Gimbutas believes that “the discontinuity of the Varna , Karanowo , Vinča and Lengyel cultures in their main settlement areas and the large population shifts to the north and north-west are indirect evidence of a catastrophe of such magnitude that it is not can be explained by possible climatic changes, soil depletion or epidemics , for which it is necessary for the second half of the 5th millennium BC. There is no evidence. Direct evidence has been found, however for an invasion of horsemen warriors, not only by the finds of mounds that were created for a single man, but because at that time emerged a "whole complex" of cultural traits, which for the development of Kurgankultur was characteristic . "

According to John Chapman, “Not long ago it was widely recognized that nomads from the steppe region north of the Black Sea, by invading the Balkans , put an end to the highly developed Copper Age societies that built their settlements on tells (settlement mounds), an autonomous copper metallurgy owned and created the greatest highlight of the Varna burial ground with its breathtaking early gold artifacts. Now the views have changed completely and it is the Warnakomplex and the associated communities that are held responsible for the emergence of the burial rites marked by extremely rich grave goods as a result of the spread of agriculture . "

The Varna culture points to pronounced religious ideas about life after death and to developed hierarchical power structures. The end of the 5th millennium BC Is seen by Marija Gimbutas as the beginning of the transition to patriarchal social structures in Europe. The cemetery of Varna contains the oldest known references to a patriarchal upper class .

Gold from Varna

Museums, exhibitions

The artifacts are exhibited in the Varna Archaeological Museum and the National History Museum in Sofia. In 2006 some gold objects were shown in a large national exhibition of ancient gold treasures in Sofia and Varna. The exhibition tour “The Gold of Varna” began in 1973. It was integrated into the national exhibition “The Gold of the Thracian Horsemen” and shown in many of the world's leading museums and exhibitions in the 1970s. In 1982 it achieved great publicity in Japan for 7 months under the title “The oldest gold in the world - The first European civilization”, and two TV documentaries were subsequently made. In the 1980s and 1990s, gold objects from Varna were exhibited in Canada , Germany , France , Italy and Israel , among others . The National Geographic Magazine brought in December 2006, a controversial cover story on the "gold rush in Bulgaria".

See also

literature

  • Alexander Fol , Jan Lichardus (ed.): Power, rule and gold: the cemetery of Varna (Bulgaria) and the beginnings of a new European civilization. Saarland Cultural Heritage Foundation, 1990, ISBN 3-925303-39-1 .
  • John Chapman: Social inequality on Bulgarian tells and the Varna problem. In: Ross Samson (Ed.): The social archeology of houses. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1990.
  • John Chapman: The creation of social arenas in Varna. In: Paul Garwood (Ed.): Sacred and profane. Oxford University Committee for Archeology, 1991.
  • Brian Hayden: An Archaeological Evaluation of the Gimbutas Paradigm. In: The Virtual Pomegranate. Issue 6, 1998.
  • Tom Higham, B. Gaidarska, Vladimir Slavchev: The first AMS dates for the Varna cemetery . Antiquity. 2004.
  • R. Krauss / C. Schmid / D. Kirschenheuter / J. Abele / V. Slavchev / B. Weninger, Chronology and development of the Chalcolithic necropolis of Varna I. Documenta Praehistorica 44, 2017, 282-305
  • Raiko Krauß : Karanovo and the Southeast European chronology system from today's perspective. In: Eurasia Antiqua. 14, 2008, pp. 115-147.
  • Raiko Krauss: On the accumulation of prestige goods in the western Black Sea region during the 5th millennium BC Chr. In: C. Theune, F. Biermann, Ruth Struwe, GH Jeute (eds.): Between fjords and steppe. Commemorative publication for Johan Callmer. (= Studia honoraria 31). Rahden 2010, pp. 289-300.
  • Raiko Krauss, V. Leusch, S. zuner: On the earliest metallurgy in Europe - investigations of the copper age burial ground of Varna. In: Bulgaria-Yearbook 2012. ISBN 978-3-86688-426-7 , pp. 64–82. (on-line)
  • Ivan Marazov : The Blacksmith as 'King' in the Necropolis of Varna. In: Joan Marler (Ed.): From the Realm of the Ancestors, An Anthology in Honor of Marija Gimbutas , Knowledge, Ideas & Trends 1997 (e-book).
  • Joan Marler: A Response to Brian Hayden's article "An Archaeological Evaluation of the Gimbutas Paradigm." In: The Virtual Pomegranate Issue 10, 1999.
  • Iwan Iwanow: The treasures of the Varna chalcolithic necropolis / Treasures of the Varna chalcolith necropolis. Varna 1978. (Bulgarian, English, German)
  • Vladimir Slavchev: Fragmentation research and the Varna Eneolithic Cemetery Spondylus rings. In: Proceedings of the Varna Round Table. 2004.
  • Henrieta Todorova, Ivan Vajsov: The copper age jewelry of Bulgaria . Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-515-07616-6 .
  • Babette Wiedmann: Investigations into the social structure in the cemetery of Varna (Bulgaria) and in the KGK VI culture. Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, Freiburg 2002.
  • Jan Lichardus: The cemetery of Varna as part of the death ritual of the Kodzadermen-Gumelnita-Karanovo VI complex. In: Jan Lichardus (Ed.): The Copper Age as a historical epoch I-II. Symposium Saarbrücken and Otzenhausen 6. – 13. November 1988. Saarbrücken 1991.
  • Laurence Manolakakis: Les industries lithiques énéolithiques de Bulgarie: The Copper Age Stone Processing in Bulgaria (International Archeology), Marie Leidorf, Rahden 2005.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ И. Иванов, Раннохалколитни гробове до град Варна. Известия Музей Варна 14 (29), 1978, 81-92.
  2. ↑ Henrieta Todorova, Ivan Vajsov: The copper age jewelry Bulgaria. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-515-07616-6 .
  3. ↑ uni-tuebingen.de
  4. ↑ Raiko Krauss, Clemens Schmid, David Kirsch Heuter, Jonas Abele, Vladimir Slavchev: Chronology and development of the Chalcolithic necropolis of Varna I . In: Documenta Praehistorica . tape 44 , no. 0 , January 4, 2018, ISSN  1854-2492 , p. 282–305 , doi : 10.4312 / dp.44.17 ( uni-lj.si [accessed January 4, 2018]).
  5. ↑ R. Krauss / C. Schmid / D. Ciobotaru / V. Slavchev, Varna and the aftermath. Reflections on the ocher graves between the Carpathian Basin and the northern Aegean Sea. In: M. Bartelheim / B. Horejs / R. Krauss (Ed.), From Baden to Troia. Use of resources, metallurgy and knowledge transfer. An anniversary publication for Ernst Pernicka (Rahden 2016) 273-315.
  6. ↑ Tom Higham , John Chapman, Vladimir Slavchev, Bisserka Gaydarska, Noah Honch, Yordan Yordanov: New perspectives on the Varna cemetery (Bulgaria) - AMS dates and social implications. In: Antiquity Journal. Volume 81, No. 313, York 2007, pp. 640-654.
  7. ↑ R. Krauss / S. Fences / E. Pernicka, Statistical and Anthropological Analysis of the Varna Necropolis. In: H. Meller / R. Risch / E. Pernicka (Ed.), Metals of Power - Early Gold and Silver. 6th Central German Archaeological Day from October 17 to 19, 2013 in Halle (Saale). Conferences of the State Museum of Prehistory Hall 11 / II (Hall 2014) 371-387.
  8. ^ R. Krauss, V. Leusch, S. zuner: On the earliest metallurgy in Europe - investigations of the copper age burial ground of Varna . In: Bulgaria Yearbook 2012 . ISBN 978-3-86688-426-7 , pp. 64-82 .
  9. ↑ R. Krauss / S. Fences / E. Pernicka, Statistical and Anthropological Analysis of the Varna Necropolis. In: H. Meller / R. Risch / E. Pernicka (Ed.), Metals of Power - Early Gold and Silver. 6th Central German Archaeological Day from October 17 to 19, 2013 in Halle (Saale). Conferences of the State Museum of Prehistory Hall 11 / II (Hall 2014) 371-387.
  10. ^ A b Albert Schmitz: Typological, chronological and palaeometallurgical investigations on the early copper flat axes and copper chisels in old Europe. Dissertation . Saarland University, Saarbrücken 2004, p. 43. (PDF; 2.9 MB)
  11. ↑ Wonderland Bulgaria, Bulgaria's Thracian Heritage Photo of a clay mask with gold decorations
  12. ↑ Marija Gimbutas: The Civilization of the Goddess. Harper, San Francisco 1991, ISBN 0-06-250337-5 .
  13. ↑ John Chapman Book Review, Blagoje Govedarica: Scepter bearer: Ruler of the steppes. The early ocher graves of the older Aeolithic in the Carpathian-Balkan region and in the steppe region of Southeast and Eastern Europe . Balkan Commission of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences , International Interacademic Commission for Research into the Prehistory of the Balkans. Monographs Volume 6. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-8053-3365-X .
  14. ^ AR Williams: Bulgaria's Gold Rush. In: National Geographic Germany . December 2006. (English)
  15. ↑ Raiko Krauss, Clemens Schmid, David Kirsch Heuter, Jonas Abele, Vladimir Slavchev: Chronology and development of the Chalcolithic necropolis of Varna I . In: Documenta Praehistorica . tape 44 , January 4, 2018, ISSN  1854-2492 , p. 282–305 , doi : 10.4312 / dp.44.17 ( uni-lj.si [accessed January 4, 2018]).

Coordinates: 43 ° 12 '47 "  N , 27 ° 51' 52"  E