Karanovo cultures

Karanowo - Bulgaria - Neighboring places: Nowa Sagora , Stara Sagora

The Karanovo culture (mostly and scientifically written Karanovo culture ) is a prehistoric culture in Bulgaria . It is named after the settlement hill of Karanowo (Bulgarian Карановска селищна могила) near the village of Karanowo in the western part of the Thracian plain , 10 km west of Nowa Sagora . The Karanowo culture provides a chronological system for the Neolithic and Aeneolithic of the Balkan Peninsula . The eastern Karanowo burial mound has been open to tourism since June 2010.

Karanovo settlement mound

Stratigraphy of the Karanowo settlement mound

Karanovo settlement mound is one of the oldest and largest settlement mounds in Bulgaria and Europe. It occupies an area of 24,000 m². Its height is 13 m, its dimensions 250 × 150 m. It is located in the north-western part of the village Karanowo, 10 km west of Nowa Sagora . The burial mound is located 5 km north of the road connecting Stara Sagora and Nowa Sagora, which is part of the Sofia-Plovdiv-Burgas long-distance route.

The settlement mound is located on the last foothills of the Sarnena Sredna gora (Bulgarian Сърнена Средна гора), the eastern part of the Sredna Gora (Bulgarian Средна гора). The fertile black earth plain of Nowa Sagora connects to the south. There are a large number of settlement mounds in Bulgaria. They reach their greatest density here, where the Karanowo settlement mound is located, in the area around Nowa Sagora.

The settlement mound emerged from prehistoric settlements that were built one after the other in the same place, i.e. one above the other. The Karanowo settlement mound was inhabited during the Neolithic , Copper, and Bronze Ages . Well-preserved building foundations and rich finds of everyday objects were uncovered here. There were 18 buildings on the settlement hill that housed around 100 residents.

The settlement mound was inhabited continuously for more or less 4000 years, from the early 6th millennium (Neolithic) to the early 2nd millennium BC. BC (early Bronze Age).

Sequence of layers and chronology

The Karanowo chronological system was created on the basis of the established stratigraphic system and serves as the standard for the synchronization of prehistoric cultures in the eastern Balkans. The hill of Vinca, near Belgrade, fulfills a similar function for the central Balkans. The stratigraphy in the hill of Karanovo is thus a guide for the development of culture from the early Neolithic to the early Bronze Age in Southeastern Europe. A total of seven basic horizons can be distinguished from one another in the settlement mound.

Karanowo I-II: early Neolithic, approx. 6200-5500 BC Chr.
Karanowo II-III (since 1992).
Karanowo III classic (since 1992).
Karanowo III-IV: Middle Neolithic , approx. 5500-4950 BC Chr.
Karanowo V: early Copper Age, approx. 4950–4500 BC Chr.
Karanowo VI: late Copper Age, approx. 4500–4000 BC Chr.
Karanowo VII: late Copper Age, approx. 4000-? v. BC to early Bronze Age (?)

Gumelnița-Varna-Karanovo VI, late Copper Age, approx. 4500–4000 BC Chr.

Although the Karanowo settlement mound was only partially explored by excavations (covering an area of 1700 m²), it revealed important archaeological information. The stratigraphic profile was explored to a depth of 12.40 m. This made it possible to periodise the cultures from the individual layers. This is how the chronological Karanowo system could be created. It serves as a benchmark for the development of the various cultures in the Neolithic, the Copper Age and the first half of the Bronze Age in southern Bulgaria.

Some archaeological finds are exhibited on site. Many are in the National Historical Museum in Sofia and in the Nova Sagora Museum.

Karanovo culture I and II

The early Neolithic cultures in Thrace are assigned to the Karanowo culture I and II. The characteristic ceramics of this culture were tulip-shaped cups with a hollow base. There are also spherical vessels with a cylindrical neck and cord handles. The plates were hemispherical. The surface of the ceramic was red to brown. With the ornaments, checkerboard-shaped ornaments were typical, as well as belt-shaped ornaments that were filled with reticulated ornaments. There were also hanging triangles as ornaments.

Karanovo Culture III

The walls of the water jugs were typically perpendicular to the bottom of the ceramic vessels and were thick and solid.

Karanovo Culture VI

The Karanowo culture VI mixed with a form (from the left bank of the Danube, from Little Wallachia ) of the Cucuteni-Tripolje culture to form a conglomerate. The main settlement mounds of this conglomerate were Karanowo, Hârşova and Borduşani. It left its mark on the Varna necropolis .

Find gap (" Hiatus ")

From the end of the Copper Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age, there is a long gap (hiatus) in the history of settlement. The reasons for this have not yet been clarified.

According to one thesis, the resident population and their culture were completely destroyed by nomads invading from the north. This thesis is based on the excavations of the grave field of Varna from the late Copper Age (4600-4200 BC). Many gold objects were found in Varna, the oldest known processed gold of mankind. The finds in the graves show that some of the buried came from wealthy families. They testify to the division of the population into social classes, wealthy, higher-ranking rulers, their not quite so wealthy vassals and simple people. Real city-state- type civilizations appeared later, in Egypt and Mesopotamia .

According to another thesis, environmental factors such as climate change, the drying up of water sources or the fatigue of the soil forced the population to leave their settlements for a certain period of time.

stamp

In Karanowo, in the 1950s, Wasil Mikow found a round stamp with signs in the remains of a Thracian house. The stamp has a diameter of 6 cm and is 2 cm thick. The characters are taken by some to be the initial form of writing ( picture ( memento from January 26, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )). The stamp probably dates from the 4th to 3rd millennium BC. The first known script is younger, it is the script that comes from Crete ( Aegean writing systems ) and dates to the second half of the 3rd millennium BC. Is dated. It is believed that the stamp was a mark of prestige given for special merit and was likely used in religious ceremonies.

Some scientists believe that the signs represent the western starry sky (signs of the zodiac).

Excavation history

Wasil Mikow carried out the first excavations from 1936 to 1937 at the suggestion of the high school teacher Nikola Kojchev from Nova Sagora. Using the ceramics, he dated the finds in the oldest layer, Karanowo I, to the same time as Troy I. It was only much later that it became clear that the Karanowo I layer is much older than the Troy I layer. While the Karanowo I layer from the 7th to 6th millennium BC The Troy I layer dates from the early Bronze Age and is therefore much younger. The excavations in Karanowo were carried out for Bulgaria for the first time according to scientific methods, according to stratigraphic aspects and with grid squares. Mikow resumed excavations in 1946. In 1947 Georgi Georgiev joined him. The excavations lasted until 1957. On the basis of the excavations by Minkow and Georgiev, the chronological Karanowo system was established, which serves as a standard for the synchronization of European prehistoric cultures. The system was presented at a scientific conference in 1961.

The “Karanovo Venus” in the hands of its finder

From 1984 to 1992 new excavations took place as part of a Bulgarian-Austrian cooperation between the Bulgarian Archaeological Institute under Georgi Georgiew (until his death in 1988) and Wassil Nikolow and the University of Salzburg under Stefan Hiller .

literature

Sándor Bökönyi (Ed.): Neolithic of Southeastern Europe and its Near Eastern connections. International Conference 1987 Szolnok-Szeged. Varia Archaeologica Hungarica 2, Budapest, 1989, ISBN 96-73391-57-6 .
Juraj Pavúk: On the question of the spread of the Neolithic in the Central Balkans and Central Europe. In: Florin Draşovean (Ed.): The Vinča Culture, its Role and Cultural Connection. Mirton, Timişoara 1996, ISBN 973-578-106-9 , pp. 23-40.
Stefan Hiller, Vassil Nikolov (ed.): Karanovo. Austro-Bulgarian excavations and research in Karanovo.
- Vol. 1: The excavations in the southern sector 1984-1992. Salzburg, Sofia 1997, ISBN 3-85028-291-0 .
- Vol. 2: The excavations in O 19. Phoibos, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-901232-33-8 .
- Vol. 3: Contributions to the Neolithic in Southeast Europe. Phoibos, Vienna 2000, ISBN 3-901232-19-2 .
- Vol. 4: The excavations in the north-south section. Phoibos, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-901232-58-3 .
Wassil Nikolow: Проучвания върху неолитната керамика в Тракия. Керамичните комплекси Караново II-III, III и III-IV в контекста на Северозападна Анатолия и Югоизточна Европа ( Studies on Neolithic ceramics in Thrace. The ceramic complexes in Karanovo II-III, III and III-IV in the context of Northwest Anatolia and Southeast Europe. ) Sofia 1998, ISBN 954-8761-33-5 .

Milutin Garašanin: Cultural currents in the Neolithic of the southern Balkans. In: Prehistorische Zeitschrift 73 (1998), pp. 25–51.

Marion Lichardus-Itten , Jan Lichardus : Structural Basics for Understanding the Neolithic Processes in Southeast and Central Europe. In: Erzsébet Jerem, Pál Raczky (Hrsg.): Morgenrot der Kulturen. Early stages in human history in Central and Southeast Europe. Festschrift for Nándor Kalicz on his 75th birthday. Budapest 2003, ISBN 963-8046-46-5 , pp. 61-81.

Raiko Krauß : Karanovo and the Southeast European chronology system from today's perspective. In: Eurasia Antiqua 14 (2008), pp. 115–147 PDF .