The Ezero culture, 3300—2700 BC, was a

Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

archaeological culture An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of types of artifacts, buildings and monuments from a specific period and region that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between thes ...

occupying most of present-day

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

. It takes its name from the Tell-settlement of Ezero. Ezero follows the

copper age The Chalcolithic ( ) (also called the Copper Age and Eneolithic) was an archaeological period characterized by the increasing use of smelted copper. It followed the Neolithic and preceded the Bronze Age. It occurred at different periods in dif ...

cultures of the area ( Karanovo VI culture, Gumelniţa culture, Kodzadjemen culture, and

Varna culture The Varna culture was a Chalcolithic culture of northeastern Bulgaria, dated , contemporary and closely related with the Gumelnița culture. The oldest golden artifacts in the world (4600 BC - 4200 BC) were found in the Necropolis of Varna. Th ...

), after a settlement hiatus in Northern Bulgaria. It bears some relationship to the earlier Cernavodă III culture to the north. Some settlements were fortified. The Ezero culture is interpreted as part of a larger Balkan-Danubian early Bronze Age complex, a horizon reaching from

Troy Troy (/; ; ) or Ilion (; ) was an ancient city located in present-day Hisarlik, Turkey. It is best known as the setting for the Greek mythology, Greek myth of the Trojan War. The archaeological site is open to the public as a tourist destina ...

Id-IIc into Central Europe, encompassing the

Baden Baden (; ) is a historical territory in southern Germany. In earlier times it was considered to be on both sides of the Upper Rhine, but since the Napoleonic Wars, it has been considered only East of the Rhine. History The margraves of Ba ...

of the Carpathian Basin and the Coţofeni culture of

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. According to Hermann Parzinger, there are also typological connections to Poliochne IIa-b and Sitagroi IV.

Economy

Agriculture is in evidence, along with domestic livestock. There is evidence of grape cultivation. Metallurgy was practiced.

Interpretation

Within the context of the

Kurgan A kurgan is a type of tumulus (burial mound) constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons, and horses. Originally in use on the Pontic–Caspian steppe, kurgans spread into mu ...

hypothesis, it would represent a fusion of native "

Old European culture Old Europe is a term coined by the Lithuanian-American archaeologist Marija Gimbutas to describe what she perceived as a relatively homogeneous pre-Indo-European Neolithic and Copper Age culture or civilisation in Southeast Europe, centred in th ...

" and intrusive "Kurgan culture" elements. It could also represent an Anatolian-influenced culture, either coming from Anatolia (in Renfrew's hypothesis), or heading to Asia Minor.

Genetics

Haplogroups

Genetic studies have shown that the Ezero culture had a male

haplogroup R1b Haplogroup R1b (R-M343), previously known as Hg1 and Eu18, is a human Y-chromosome haplogroup. It is the most frequently occurring paternal lineage in Western Europe, as well as some parts of Russia (e.g. the Bashkirs) and across the Sahel in ...

. Among the female haplogroups were J2a1, T, U5a1, T2d2, W.

Autosomal DNA

Genetically the Ezero culture was of local Neolithic origin mainly, also had a contribution from WSH, but this contribution was of varying degrees in the Ezero samples. Ezero-1 DNA

Notes

Sources

* G.Il. Georgiev et al. (eds.), Ezero, rannobronzovoto selishte. Sofii︠a︡ : Izd-vo na Bŭlgarskata akademii︠a︡ na naukite, Arkheologicheski institut 1979 (excavation report of Tell Ezero). *

External links

*https://web.archive.org/web/20050817120446/http://archaeology.ro/so_cernav_eng.htm {{Bronze Age footer Archaeological cultures of Europe Archaeological cultures in Bulgaria Bronze Age cultures of Europe 4th millennium BC