TEXTILE REMAINS FROM PREHISTORIC GRAVES FROM THE TERRITORY OF BULGARIA Vanya Petrova

In the recent years a specific field of research is gaining more and more popularity and significance among the archaeologists - the so-called 'archaeology of textiles'. Actual textile remains survive extremely seldom and under exceptional conditions in anaerobic, either very humid or very dry environment or in frozen environment. Other forms of preservation, usually rather fragmentary, are carbonization and contact with metal objects (especially copper and iron), resulting in the so-called 'pseudomorphs' in which textile is incorporated in the patina of the object. The conditions in the Balkans are extremely unfavorable for the prehistoric textile remains to survive and it is one of the reasons this field of research to be almost totally unexplored. Yet there are a few examples of preserved scraps of cloth due to contact with metal items or some cases where indirect evidence points to the presence of textiles, almost all of them from burial contexts. The earliest evidence derives from three cemeteries in Northeastern Bulgaria. These are the Late Chalcolithic necropolises near Varna and Devnya and the recently published cemetery of Durankulak. Textile remains from graves context are preserved exclusively as "pseudomorphes" in the copper oxide of different types of metal objects. From the cemetery near Devnya four such finds are recorded in the publication (Todorova-Simeonova, H. 1971, 3-40). 26 graves have been excavated, including male, female and children's burials and a group of four pits with typical grave inventory but without human remains - these represents the so-called cenotaphs or symbolic graves. Although the exact nature of these burials is unclear, with interpretations varying from "specific religious beliefs reflecting the worship of ancestors" to symbolic burials of members of community who had died far away from home, they are a constant element in the mortuary practices of Late Chalcolithic cultures in the region. Metal tools with oxidized textile fragments are found in two graves of adults - one male (Grave 26) and one destroyed, probably male (Grave 1) and in two of the cenotaphs (Graves 23 and 24). Unfortunately, the published photos are of extremely low quality, so all we have is the description in the text, which is sufficiently detailed. In three of the cases scraps were adhered to copper axes of 'Choka' or 'Devnya' type and in the male grave cloth were preserved on a copper wedge. Two of the textiles are described as
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a plain or tabby weave and the other two - as repp weave (Todorova-Simeonova H. 1971, Tabl. IX, 1-4). The last, also called faced weave, is regarded as a variant of the plain weave, in which one of the two interwoven sets of threads is so tightly beaten that hides or faces the other, thus providing a slightly ribbed relief effect of the cloth. While in the case of the male grave cloth can plausibly be interpreted as part of the costume or burial shroud of the dead, and this interpretation is further supported by the presence of a big copper needle near the right shoulder - probably a dress fastener, in the cenotaphs textiles were obviously used to wrap the burial goods. The Varna cemetery provides five examples of metal objects with textile fragments - four from cenotaphs and one from a male grave. These are cenotaph graves Nos. 4, 5, 26 and 40 and male grave No. 32 (Todorova, H. 1981, 38-42, Taf. 7.114115; Taf.9.138; Taf. 10.148-149). Like the Devnya cemetery scraps of cloth are observed mainly on copper axes. All of them represent plain tabby weave. Best preserved on a large part of the surface of a copper axe is the example, illustrated here, found in the cenotaph grave 40 (Fig. 1). Fine spun thread and the regularity of the cloth all support the identification of the cloth as linen and future microscope examination may check this suggestion. The only other find from Varna that is related to textiles is a fine spun cord wound around the handle of a big copper awl or borer from one of the richest graves in the cemetery - male grave 43 (Todorova, H. 1981, 43, Taf. 18.204). The fragmentary nature of our finds does not allow identification of the size and character of the fabrics, whether they are parts of costume or just shrouds and coverings. Textiles from Devnya cenotaphs were obviously used for wrapping the objects, which were deposited in deep narrow pits. Textiles from Varna - most of them are again from cenotaphs and symbolic graves but here pits have normal size and some of them contain a number of ornaments, the place and arrangement of which suggests the presence of highly ornamented dress. A repeating feature in all cases is the presence of black organic substance and traces of red ochre pigmentation on the bottom of the pits (Ivanov, I. 1988, 183-208). An intriguing problem is the occurrence of red pigmentation on different parts of the bodies, which,

according to the authors remained from the colouring of the dress (Todorova-Simeonova, H. 1971, 5). Such interpretation is rather speculative for red ochre might have been used also for colouring of the body. This topic is further complicated by the abundant traces of colour reported from the cemetery of Durankulak (Avramova, M. 2002, 117-119). Although the relatively big number of copper objects, no oxidized textile remains are recorded. Yet there are some indirect indications for clothing and belts given by the position of different kinds of ornaments. Pigmentations in red and rarely - black colour are recorded on the bones, sometimes showing a certain pattern and organization - examples include band on the forehead or around the neck, parallel narrow stripes around hand, also around waist, on the legs, etc. and also white and red colorings on the pit-bottoms, interpreted as indications for organic covering under the buried bodies. Maybe the most interesting example is from a male grave - where alternating white and red oblique stripes are traced under the skeletons. Although not numerous, the finds from the Chalcolithic graves in Bulgaria testify the existence of real woven textiles already in the fifth millennium and their steady role in the burial customs. The regularity of fabric, the use of fine spun thread and the presence of at least two weaving techniques tabby and repp all speak about long established traditions and skills in textile manufacture. The available evidence from the three cemeteries in NE Bulgaria does not allow us to reconstruct the type of clothing with certainty. The existence of a dress is indicated by the place of dress ornaments, needlefasteners, or by the belt. Textiles must also play a certain role in the funeral in the form of wrapping, shroud or undercover, in the cases of cenotaphs textiles may have both been used to imitate a funeral dress or simply to wrap the burial goods. Some couloring or even dying might also be suggested. The earliest evidence for use of textiles in mortuary practices is doubtlessly from atal hyk, where babies were buried under floors and hearths wrapped in narrow stripes of fine woven cloth (Helbaek, H. 1963; Burnham, H. 1965). Evidence for more or less complete textiles exists also from graves that are roughly contemporary with ours. One example is the so-called Cave of the Warrior in the Judean Desert dated to the beginning of fourth millennium (Schick, T. 2000). An enormous linen cloth was used for the burial, folded twice thus forming a shroud, in which the body was wrapped. Red pigment appeared in small spots on one side of the cloth, suggesting sprinkling with liquid containing red ochre during the ceremony. Another example is from the recently re-examined textile remains from the Tsarskaya (or Novosvobodnaya)

tumulus in Northern Caucasus, dated to the EBA Maykop culture (Shishlina, N., Orfinskaya, O. and V. Golikov, 2003). The body was warped in narrow woolen stripes and then in animal skin; again there are traces of additional sprinkling or painting with red ochre liquid. Cloth and animal skin remains are found in the Late Chalcolithic burials of Alishar hyk. Textile pieces are identified as tightly woven fine spun linen (von der Osten, H. H 1937, 44, 52; Fogelberg, J. 1937). The most recently published metal find with textile remains from the territory of Bulgaria belongs to the Bronze Age. The find in question is a bronze dagger which, together with other metal objects, including silver jewellery and bronze tools, entered the National Museum of History in 1998. The provenance of the finds is uncertain, the only information being that the objects had been found through illicit diggings somewhere in the region of Khaskovo (Avramova, M., B. Todorieva 2002). According to the author's opinion the whole find constitutes a grave inventory, probably from a cremation burial, which is suggested by the slight deformation of some of the items, caused by fire. For the date of the finds most important is one axe of a developed 'Fensterbeile' type, which allows a dating in the end of MBA - LBA. The dagger is 31.8 cm long and its maximum width is 10.8 cm (Avramova, M., B. Todorieva 2002, 476-477 and Fig. 5). It is made of bronze and subsequently coated with tin. Over the whole surface numerous pieces of cloth are visible, best preserved near one of the cutting edges. Up to ten scraps of cloth could be countered through macroscopic analyses; the largest one is ca. 2 sq. cm. The following technological observations can be made on the base of one macroscopic photo (Fig. 2). All fragments are woven in plain tabby weave; thread count is even - 15 warps to 15 wefts per square cm. The average thickness of the warp and weft threads is equal and measures about 0.4 mm. All threads are Z twist and S-plied. The identical technological indices and weaving technique of all fragments prove that the dagger was wrapped with a single piece of cloth. In the primary publication the origin of the textile is identified as generally vegetable, whether flax or hemp. Yet, according to the ancient textile historians, hemp was not introduced in Europe prior to the Iron Age (Barber, E. 1991, 15-18). This and the fine quality of the woven fabric make it more probable that the cloth is actually linen. During the conservation works traces of red ochre covering became visible on the surface of the dagger and the rest of the bronze items. It seems that, despite the much later date, this find shares the same principal elements like those previously described from the Chalcolithic cemeteries - a
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metal item wrapped in linen cloth as a funerary gift and covered with red ochre. It is interesting to note that the rest of the finds do not have any traces of cloth although their wide surfaces should have been suitable for its adhesion. So, it seems that only the dagger was wrapped as if the ancient people had intended to protect by cloth the precious metal item. Vice versa, it was in fact the metal that saved the perishable matter and stored it till nowadays. There are a number of cases when small pieces of cloth were adhered to bronze items, known from Bronze Age graves in Greece, the Aegean and Anatolia. Here we can list scraps of cloth on a dagger blade from a tomb on the Cycladic island of Amorgos, EBA, casts on EBA and MBA daggers from several Cypriote sites, for example Vounous, tiny flecks both of garments or shrouds and of sheaths or wrappers around bronze blades and vessels, found in both grave circles at Mycenae, bits of cloth on a sword in a tomb at Zafer Papoura, near Knossos, etc. (Barber E. 1991, 147 with ref.). Some peculiar examples of preservation of textile fragments are small scraps of cloth integrated in the surface of Cypriote vessels, obviously through carbonization (astrm, P. 1964, 112 and figs. 1-2). The textile fragments are always in plain tabby weave and of linen, wherever such details are determinable. A repeating feature of these textile finds is their association with graves and, when existing, their

inevitable determination as plain linen weaves. It is however surprising in a period when wool must have been already well known and used in cloth manufacture as it is well attested in the written records at least from the period of Old Assyrian colonies in Anatolia and later in palace archives of Linear B tablets at Knossos. A possible explanation is that even after the adoption and wide use of wool, linen with its natural whitish colour and purity of its vegetable origin, was deliberately preferred in the funerary ceremonies. The evidence from the Balkans is still rather fragmentary and insufficient for offering more general conclusions in the field of 'textile archaeology'. Yet, it shows well established traditions and skills already in the fifth millennium BC in preparing of fine spun thread and neatly woven fabrics of fine quality. Linen cloth was introduced in the mortuary practices at least in the late Chalcolithic and this tradition continues well into the Bronze Age. Acknowledgments I would like to thank to Maya Avramova, who kindly provided me with quality photos of the bronze dagger and with detailed information on the whole find. Also, I would like to thank to Prof. Josef Maran, for his generous hospitality during my stay in Heidelberg University in 2004, where most of the foreign literature used in the article was collected.

References:
astrm, P. 1964. Remains of Ancient Cloth from Cyprus. Opuscula Atheniensia 5, 111-114. Avramova, M. 2002. Farbspuren, Rtel und andere anorganische Materialen in den Grberfeld von Durankulak. In: Todorova, H. (herausgeber), Durankulak, Band II, Teil 1. Die prhistorischen Grberfeld, Sofia, Anubis, 117-119. Avramova M., B. Todorieva 2002. Kolektivna nahodka ot metalni predmeti sredna bronzova epoha. . Studia in honorem Prof. Ivani Marazov, ed. by R. Gicheva and K. Rabadzhiev, Sofia, Anubis, 474-478. Barber, E. J. W. 1991. Prehistoric Textiles. The Development of Cloth in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. With Special Reference to the Aegean. Princeton. Helbaek H. 1963 Textiles from atal Hyk. Archaeology, 67, 39-46. Burnham H. 1965 atal Hyk - The Textiles and Twined Fabrics. ASt, 15, 169-174. Novitskaja, M. 1947. K voprosu o tekstile Tripolskoj kulturi. Arheologija, I, 44-61. Todorova-Simeonova, H. Kusnoeneolithijat nekropol kraj grad Devnya Varnensko. INMV, VII (XXII), 3-40. ASt - Anatolian Studies INMV - Izvestija na Narodnija Muzej Varna OJA - Oxford Journal of Archaeology PB - Prahistorische Bronzefunde Todorova H. 1981. Die kupferzeitlichen xte und Beile in Bulgarien. PB, IX, Band 14, C.H. Becksche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Mnchen. Ivanov, I. 1988. Das Graberfeld von Varna Katalog. In: Fol A. und J. Lichardus (herausgeber), Macht, Herrschaft und Gold. Das Graberfeld von Varna (Bulgarien) und doe Anfnge einer neuen europischen Zivilization. Saarbrcken, 183-208. Schick, T. 2000. 6000 years old textiles from the Cave of the Warrior, Judean Desert. In: Archeologie des textiles des origines au Ve siecle. Edited by D. Cardon et M. Feugere Montagnac, Monique Mergoloil, 15-22. Fogelberg, J. 1937. Chalcolithic Textile fragments. In: von der Osten, H. H., 1937, 334-335. Von der Osten, H. H. The Alishar Hyk. Seasons of 1930-32, Part III. Researches in Anatolia Volume IX. Chicago, The University of Chicago Press Shishlina, N., Orfinskaya, O. and V. Golikov, 2003. Bronze Age Textiles from the North Caucasus: New Evidence of Fourth Millennium BC Fibres and Fabrics. OJA 22(4) 331-344.

Abbreviations

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. , , . . , , . - - . . , - () (, 1971, 3-40). () . . . , . , ( ), , . , , . , . , . . , (, ., . 2002, 474-478). , . , . , - . () , . , , . , . - . , .

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Fig. 1 - Copper axe with textile fragments from Varna cemetery, Grave 40 (Photo courtesy Varna Historical Museum).

Fig. 2 - Bronze dagger from a collective find from the region of Khaskovo (published with the permission of the author).

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