Burial with gold treasure, 4600-4200 BC, AM Varna, Varm25

The Varna culture is a

Chalcolithic The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...

culture of northeastern

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedo ...

, dated ca. 4500 BC, contemporary and closely related with Gumelnița in southern Romania, often considered as local variants. It is characterized by polychrome pottery and rich cemeteries, the most famous of which are

Varna Necropolis The Varna Necropolis ( bg, Варненски некропол), or Varna Cemetery, is a burial site in the western industrial zone of Varna (approximately half a kilometre from Lake Varna and 4 km from the city centre), internationally c ...

, the eponymous site, and the Durankulak complex, which comprises the largest prehistoric cemetery in

southeastern Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical subregion of Europe, consisting primarily of the Balkans. Sovereign states and territories that are included in the region are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia (a ...

, with an adjoining coeval Neolithic settlement (published) and an unpublished and incompletely excavated

settlement. 294 graves have been found in the necropolis, many containing sophisticated examples of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

and

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile me ...

metallurgy,

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and ...

(about 600 pieces, including gold-painted ones), high-quality

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

and obsidian blades,

beads A bead is a small, decorative object that is formed in a variety of shapes and sizes of a material such as stone, bone, shell, glass, plastic, wood, or pearl and with a small hole for threading or stringing. Beads range in size from under ...

, and shells. The site was accidentally discovered in October 1972 by excavator operator Raycho Marinov. Research excavation was under the direction of Mihail Lazarov and Ivan Ivanov. About 30% of the estimated necropolis area is still not excavated. The findings showed that the Varna culture had trade relations with distant lands, possibly including the lower Volga region and the

Cyclades The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name ...

, perhaps exporting metal goods and

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

from the

Solnitsata Solnitsata ( bg, Солницата, "The Saltworks") was a prehistoric town located in present-day Bulgaria, near the modern city of Provadia. Believed by archaeologists to be the oldest town in Europe, Solnitsata was a fortified stone settlement ...

rock salt mine. The

copper ore Following is a list of minerals that serve as copper ores in the copper mining Copper extraction refers to the methods used to obtain copper from its ores. The conversion of copper consists of a series of physical and electrochemical proces ...

used in the artifacts originated from a

Sredna Gora Sredna Gora ( bg, Средна гора ) is a mountain range in central Bulgaria, situated south of and parallel to the Balkan Mountains and extending from the Iskar to the west and the elbow of Tundzha north of Yambol to the east. Sredna Gora ...

mine near Stara Zagora, and

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

spondylus shells found in the graves may have served as primitive currency.

Burial rites

Grave A grave is a location where a dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of burial, such as grav ...

s of the

contained the oldest known examples of gold working in the world. Burials included both crouched and extended inhumations. Some graves did not contain a skeleton, only grave gifts (cenotaphs). These symbolic (empty) graves are the richest in gold artifacts. 3000 gold artifacts were found, with a weight of approximately 6 kilograms. Three symbolic graves also contained masks of unfired clay.

Religion

The Varna culture had sophisticated religious beliefs about afterlife and developed hierarchical status differences. It has the oldest known burial evidence of an elite male. Some authors have described the Varna elite males as 'kings'. The end of the fifth millennium BC is the time that

Marija Gimbutas Marija Gimbutas ( lt, Marija Gimbutienė, ; January 23, 1921 – February 2, 1994) was a Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist known for her research into the Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures of " Old Europe" and for her Kurgan hypothesis ...

, founder of the Kurgan hypothesis claims the transition to male dominance began in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. The high status male was buried with remarkable amounts of

, held a war axe or mace and wore a gold penis sheath. The bull-shaped gold platelets perhaps also venerated virility, instinctive force, and warfare.

Gallery

File:Grave 43 (Varna Archaeology Museum) (36755886415).jpg File:Burial with gold treasure, 4600-4200 BC, AM Varna, Varm26.jpg File:Grave offerings from Grave 4 (Varna Archaeology Museum) (36616793851).jpg File:Small bulls, thin gold sheet, 4600-4200 BC, AM Varna, Varm27.jpg File:20140611 Varna 08.jpg File:Gold treasure, 4600-4200 BC, AM Varna, Varm24.jpg File:Golden amulet, 4600-4200 BC, AM Varna, Varm22.jpg File:Face and funeral golden jewelry, 4600-4200 BC, AM Varna, Varm21.jpg File:201705 - Balkans - Stone Age king with Earliest Wrought-Gold Artifacts - 39 of 101 - Varna - Varna, May 25, 2017 (41675092201).jpg File:Insignias of power, gold, 4600-4200 BC, AM Varna, Varm28.jpg File:Grave Offerings from Grave 4 (Varna Archaeology Museum) (35921851754).jpg File:Grave offerings (Varna Necropolis) (35947337093).jpg File:Vessel, pottery, 4500-4000 BC, AM Varna, Varm12.jpg File:Small furniture and utensils, terracottas, 5000-3000 BC, AM Varna, Varm04.jpg File:20140611 Varna 12.jpg File:Human-sized clay head found at Varna necropolis.png

References

External links

Varna Archaeological Museum

Varna Necropolis Cultural Tourism
page on th

web site.
Another photo by Ivo Hadjimishev

* ttp://www.varnanecropolis.maxportal.eu/ Very detailed information about findings in Varna necropolis I and II (founded in 1972 and 1976) - in Bulgarian language {{Prehistoric technology 5th-millennium BC establishments 5th-millennium BC disestablishments Archaeological cultures in Bulgaria History of Varna, Bulgaria Neolithic cultures of Europe

Burial rites

Religion

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links