arna Necropolis

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The Varna Necropolis (Bulgarian ????????? ????????) (also 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), Bulgaria, internationally
considered one of the key archaeological sites in world prehistory. The oldest gold
treasure in the world, dating from 4,600 BC to 4,200 BC, was discovered at the
site.[1]

Contents [hide]
1 Discovery and excavation
2 Chronology
3 Burial rites
4 Historical impact
5 Museum exhibitions
6 See also
7 References
8 Bibliography
9 External links
Discovery and excavation[edit]

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The site was accidentally discovered in October 1972 by excavator operator Raycho
Marinov. The first to value the significant historical meaning was Dimitar
Zlatarski, the creator of the Dalgopol Historical Museum. He was called by the
locals to examine what they had found earlier that day. Being a bright historical
figure at that time, he realized how important the finding was, so he contacted the
Varna Historical Museum and, after signing government papers, he handed over the
research to the direction of Mihail Lazarov (19721976) and Ivan Ivanov
(19721991). About 30% of the estimated necropolis area is still not excavated.

A total of 294 graves have been found in the necropolis,[2] many containing
sophisticated examples of metallurgy (gold and copper), pottery (about 600 pieces,
including gold-painted ones), high-quality flint and obsidian blades, beads, and
shells.

Chronology[edit]
The graves have been dated to 45604450 BC by radiocarbon dating in 2006 [2] and
belong to the Eneolithic Varna culture, which is the local variant of the KGKVI.

Burial rites[edit]

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A burial at Varna, with some of the world's oldest gold jewellery, dating back to
4,600 - 4,200 BC.
There are crouched and straight inhumations. Some graves do not contain a skeleton,
but grave gifts (cenotaphs). These symbolic (empty) graves are the richest in gold
artifacts. Three thousand gold artifacts were found, with a weight of approximately
six kilograms. Grave 43 contained more gold than has been found in the entire rest
of the world for that epoch. Three symbolic graves contained masks of unbaked clay.

The findings showed that the Varna culture had trade relations with distant lands
(possibly including the lower Volga and the Cyclades), perhaps exporting metal
goods and salt from the Provadiya rock salt mine [2]. The copper ore used in the
artifacts originated from a Sredna Gora mine near Stara Zagora, and Mediterranean
Spondylus shells found in the graves may have served as primitive currency.

The culture had sophisticated religious beliefs about afterlife and had developed
hierarchical status differences. The site offers the oldest known burial evidence
of an elite male (Marija Gimbutas claims that the end of the fifth millennium BC is
the time that the transition to male dominance began in Europe). The high status
male buried with the most remarkable amount of gold held a war adze or mace and
wore a gold penis sheath. Bull-shaped gold platelets might also have venerated
virility, instinctual force, and warfare. Gimbutas holds that the artifacts were
made largely by local craftspeople.

Historical impact[edit]
According to M. Gimbutas (1991), The discontinuity of the Varna, Karanovo, Vinca
and Lengyel cultures in their main territories and the large scale population
shifts to the north and northwest are indirect evidence of a catastrophe of such
proportions that cannot be explained by possible climatic change, land exhaustion,
or epidemics (for which there is no evidence in the second half of the 5th
millennium B.C.). Direct evidence of the incursion of horse-riding warriors is
found, not only in single burials of males under barrows, but in the emergence of a
whole complex of Kurgan cultural traits.

According to J. Chapman (2005), Once upon a time, not so very long ago, it was
widely accepted that steppe nomads from the North Pontic zone invaded the Balkans,
putting an end to the Climax Copper Age society that produced the apogee of tell
living, autonomous copper metallurgy and, as the grandest climax, the Varna
cemetery with its stunning early goldwork. Now the boot is very much on the other
foot and it is the Varna complex and its associated communities that are held
responsible for stimulating the onset of prestige goods-dominated steppe mortuary
practice following the expansion of farming.

Among the metallic (gold and copper) and non-metallic (minerals, rocks, pottery,
pigments, biofacts) artifacts in the graves from the Varna Chalcolithic site are
numerous beads of a chalcedony (carnelian) and agate composition. Three main
morphological types of beads are described type 1 elongated barrel-shaped; type 2
elongated with trapezohedral facets; type 3 short cylindrical (Kostov, 2007;
Kostov, Pelevina, 2008). The carnelian and related beads of type 2 have a constant
number of 32 facets 16+16 on both sides on the elongation of the bead, which is
considered probably the earliest in Chalcolithic complex faceting on such a hard
mineral (hardness of chalcedony is 6.57 on the Mohs scale). In the hole of a
single carnelian bead was found a gold mini-cylinder (~2x2 mm). The gold artifacts
from the Varna Chalcolithic necropolis are assumed to be the oldest gold of mankind
according to their total volume and quantity. Analysis of the measured weight of
the different types of gold art?facts (beads, appliqus, rings, bracelets,
pectorals and diadems) revealed a weight system with at least two minimal weight
units of ~0.14 and ~0.40 g among both mineral and gold beads (Kostov, 2004; 2007).
The second one (=2 carats) was suggested as a basic Chalcolithic unit with the name
van (from the first letters of Varna necropolis).

In 2009, logician H. Smolenov suggested that the Varna culture people had achieved
certain advanced mathematical knowledge as testified by the artifacts from the
necropolis, some of which might have been used for navigation purposes apart from
their possible sacred function.

Museum exhibitions[edit]

Golden objects found in the necropolis.

The artifacts can be seen at the Varna Archaeological Museum and at the National
Historical Museum in Sofia. In 2006, some gold objects were included in a major and
broadly advertised national exhibition of antique gold treasures in both Sofia and
Varna.

The Varna gold started touring the world in 1973; it was included in The Gold of
the Thracian Horseman national exhibition, shown at many of the world's leading
museums and exhibition venues in the 1970s. In 1982, it was exhibited for 7 months
in Japan as The Oldest Gold in the World - The First European Civilization with
massive publicity, including two full length TV documentaries. In the 1980s and
1990s it was also shown in Canada, Germany, France, Italy, and Israel, among
others, and featured in a cover story by the National Geographic Magazine.

The Varna necropolis artifacts were shown for the first time in the United States
in 1998 and 1999 as part of a major Bulgarian archaeological exhibition, Thracians'
Riches Treasures from Bulgaria. In 20092010, several artifacts were shown at the
New York University Institute for the Study of the Ancient World in a joint
Bulgarian-Romanian-Moldovan exhibition entitled The Lost World of Old Europe The
Danube Valley, 50003500 BC.[3][4] [5]

See also[edit]
Old Europe
Prehistoric Balkans
Varna culture, Hamangia culture (directly related)
Gumelni?aKaranovo culture, Karanovo culture, Lengyel culture (distantly related)