Friday, January 25, 2013

PREHISTORY IN BULGARIA

The first archaeological researches in Bulgarians mounds began at the end of XIX century. In 1898 – 1903 French dilettantes of antiques had excavated the mounds aroiund Yambol, Proslav (Mechkyur) and Kostinevo. Mounds were investigated also by Atanas Chilingirov (in Nevsky Sultan (city of Popovo, Razgrad region, in the Region of  Shumen in 1905). Karel Shkorpel and D. Kostov in Ruse and in 1912 Rafail Popov made archaeological investigations of the mounds situated by Salmanovo – Shumen region and 1914 he has investigated the Kodjadermanskata mound. Prof. Gavrail Katzarov has investigated the mound at Kirilometodievo (today’s Kirilovo, Haskovsko) in 1912, later the mound in Kirilovo has been investigated by the German archaeologists Karel Bitttel.

These first investigations of prehistoric mounds in Bulgaria were only with initial investigation character. The main purpose was to fill the local collections of the museums. Exception are only the excavations of Rafail Popov in Kodzhadermen and Salmanovo – Shumen region. The Bulgarian first prehistoric scientists had a solid theoretical and practical base. His investigations were made for purpose. The main task was to explore the life and the culture of the inhabitants in the settlements hidden under the mounds. The most effective were the investigations in the mounds of Kodzhadermen and Salmanovo. They brought a lot of information and they had shown that the ancient settlement mounds hide precious archaeological finds which has a value for the history and which are monuments of the ancient art and speaks about the enriched cultural life of the prehistoric inhabitants. The majority of the materials are dated from the Copper Neolithic Age.

After the World War I the young Vasil Mikov participated in the prehistoric investigation. He has investigated the ancient settlement by Kubrat – region of Ruse in 1924/25 and the mound at Veselinovo – region of Yambol  - 1935. Mikov first brough the Karanovo ancient settlement  mound and begin the first archaeological investigations in 1936. His investigations in Karanovo continued in 1946 – 1957 after the world war II. More about the Karanovo culture could be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karanovo_culture




Picture of Karanovo


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