Varna Necropolis

The cemetery at Varna ( Bulgarian Варненски некропол / Warnenski Nekropol ) is a burial ground from the Copper Age in the western Bulgarian city of Varna, where the oldest so far discovered machined gold was found. The cemetery of Varna is one of the most important archeological sites of prehistory.

Location

The archaeological site is located 5 km from the center of the city of Varna on a gently sloping south facing terrace on the north bank of the Warnasees.

Discovery and excavation

In October 1972, the excavator driver Raitscho Marinow discovered the burial ground in excavation work for a cable trench in the western industrial zone of Varna. The scientific excavations were carried out from 1972 to 1976 under the leadership of Mikhail Lazarov and 1976-1991 under the direction of Ivan Ivanov from the Archaeological Museum of Varna. In an area of about 7,500 m² in lanes of 294 individual graves have been found. About 30% of the archaeological monument have not yet been excavated. Many grave pits containing testimonies sophisticated metallurgical Werkens (gold and copper), pottery ( about 600 pieces, including two vessels with geometric strictly stylized and be painted with gold paint symbols from grave No. 4), and high-quality flint and obsidian blades, beads and shells. Over 3000 pieces of jewelry made of very pure gold ( 23 to 23.5 carats) with a total weight of 6 kg possess great technical talent and craftsmanship of the artists. Among the findings are grave arm and headbands, necklaces and massive decorative ends of rods scepter and numerous trim pieces of garments of gold sheet, which have partly animal form.

Chronology

The graves were in 2004 by AMS radiocarbon dating to 4600 - dated 4200 BC (late Eneolithic ) and belong to the Varna culture, the local variant of the Gumelnitza - Karanowo VI Kodjadermen culture.

Description

We found both skeletons in crouched position and in an extended supine position in the grave pits. At 57 graves it was symbolic burials ( cenotaph ), they contained no skeletal remains, but only grave goods. In the symbolic graves of most artifacts were found. The finds show that the Varna culture may entertained trade relations with distant areas, up to the lower Volga and the Cyclades. As commodity was salt from the salt mine Provadiya. The copper ore in the artifacts comes from the deposits of Ai- Bunar north of Stara Zagora. Shells of Spondylus shells that were found in the graves may have served as a simple currency.

The Varna culture points to strong religious beliefs about life after death and developed hierarchical power structures. The end of the 5th millennium BC, is considered by Marija Gimbutas as the beginning of the transition to the patriarchal social structures in Europe. The cemetery at Varna contains the oldest known evidence of a patriarchal embossed upper class.

The Gold of Varna

Grave No. 43 contained the skeleton of an approximately 1.70m forty to fifty year old man surrounded by 990 gold objects with a total weight of 1516 g, and copper tools, bone jewelery, pottery and Spondylus. His clothes were provided with numerous applications of gold. The to be regarded as clan chief or priest man was buried with a gold scepter that is similar to the blunted tips and the gilded stem a battle ax. He wore a golden penis essay. In grave 43 more gold than in the entire rest of the world has been found from this era, including one of a kind; a gold chain with biconical beads.

In the bottom of the oval pit tomb No. 1, there was a depression, which was covered with a layer of ocher. Among the offerings of symbolic funeral included a total of 216 gold objects with a total weight of 1092 g and bangles and trim in gold plate and numerous gold beads, various copper tools and a stylized human figure from the leg. A chain found in grave No. 3 from golden, short cylindrical beads can be regarded as the earliest gold jewelry. Three symbolic graves ( grave No. 2, 3, and 15) contained only weak masks from clay with golden decorations. They were interpreted by using their equipment as a symbolic woman burials.

The beginnings of a new European civilization

Marija Gimbutas believes " that the discontinuity of the Varna, Karanowo, Vinča and Lengyel cultures in their main settlement areas and the large population shifts indirect evidence for a disaster of such massive scale are in the north and north- west, that they do not can be explained by possible climatic changes, soil exhaustion, or epidemics for which there is no evidence for the second half of the 5th millennium BC. Direct evidence was however found for an invasion of equestrian warriors, not only by the remains of burial mounds that were created for a single man, but because at that time emerged a " whole complex " of cultural traits, which was characteristic for the development of Kurgankultur. "

According to John Chapman " was time not too long ago generally accepted that steppe nomads from the northern Pontusgebiet in the Balkans of the sophisticated society of the Copper Age to an end translated by an invasion that built their settlements on the tell ( settlement mounds ), an autonomous copper metallurgy possessed and as grandest climax, the cemetery of Varna with its stunning early art products created from gold. Now the views are completely changed and it is the Warnakomplex and associated communities, which are held responsible for the rise of the funeral rites marked by extremely rich grave goods as a result of the spread of agriculture. "

Museums, exhibitions

The artifacts are exhibited in the Archaeological Museum Varna and at the National History Museum in Sofia. 2006, several gold objects were shown in a major national exhibition of antique 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 horseman " in the 1970s in many of the world 's leading museums and exhibitions shown. In 1982 she achieved in Japan for 7 months under the title " The oldest gold in the world - The first European civilization ' great publicity, two TV documentaries emerged in the sequence. In the 1980s and 1990s, gold objects were exhibited from Varna including in Canada, Germany, France, Italy and Israel. The National Geographic Magazine in December 2006 brought a controversial cover story on the "gold rush in Bulgaria".