Karanovo statuettes of humans and animals

In the fifth and uppermost cultural stratum at Karanovo statuettes of humans and animals disappear, and so does the pottery, so varied in form and ornamentation. A change is felt even in the plan of the house — the narrow back side rounds out and forms an apse. An original pottery now appears, much simplified with scant ornamentation, consisting mostly of incised lines. The unusually elongated lugs ending in a knob are characteristic of this pottery. The change in the life of those who inhabited the fifth settlement at Karanovo is striking. Its causes are not yet clear. Certain scholars consider that it was due to the incursions of new tribes, who were already acquainted with bronze. Some link these new tribes with the Thracians.

The same materials found in the fifth cultural stratum of the Karanovo tell were also found in the so-called Dipsiska Mogila settlement mound at the village of Ezero, near Nova Zagora. The houses are the same as in Karanovo; rectangular with two rooms, and a semicircular wall at the short back side. In the western smaller room, around the hearth and the hand mill, a number of domestic objects were found. Similar ones were also found around the houses.

Copper spearheads

One is, however, impressed by the still-existing predominance of implements made of stone, bone and horn, and by the weapons — stone battle-axes. However, the first metal weapons — copper spearheads — appear together with them. There is no doubt whatever that this is the earliest period of the Bronze age, which is recently thought to begin the second half of the third millenium B. C., when bronze was still an alloy most difficult to obtain and only slightly distributed. Nevertheless, the rare and expens- i ve bronze implements exercized an influence upon the stone implements with their more expedient forms tours bulgaria. The stone battle-axe found at the village of Lyulin, Yambol district, shows undoubted imitation of a bronze original.

The settlement of pile-dwellings, found at the bottom of the Varna Lake, near the village of Strashimirovo also belongs to the early Bronze Age. Certain extremely interesting articles and pottery were found there.

The bronze implements and weapons so far found in Bulgaria belong to the late period of this age. Of particular interest are the double axes of the type of those found at the village of Semerdjievo, Rousse district. A bronze sword and a bronze spearhead appear here for the first time. Swords of the so-called Mycenaean type, of the second half of the second millenium have been found in Bulgaria, which plainly indicate therelationsof these lands with the Mycenean culture.

Whole treasure-troves of sickles, small bronze axes, as well as the stone moulds in which they were cast, are often found. As to the precise dating of these objects, however, we have no positive data as yet. Perhaps some of them will have to be attributed to the transition from the Bronze to the Iron age. The pottery of this period is also most interesting, particularly that found in North-West Bulgaria. This pottery is distinguished by a new colour scheme in the ornament, consisting of a combination of linear motifs, incised and covered with white matter. This pottery is wi ’ely distributed in the North-Western part of the Balkan Peninsula.

Metal implements now increasingly made their way into production, intensifying and increasing surplus production. This now led to an exchange of the commodities produced between the individual clans, and also to more frequent clashes between clans and tribes to appropriate the accumulated surpluses. This was followed by a develop-ment in weapons, particularly daggers and later swords, which were unknown in the preceding age.