The internationally well-known archaeological excavation site known as Provadia-Solnitsa, just South of the town of Provadia, is visible from Dobrina village. Provadia-Solnitsa is thought to be older than any other prehistoric town ever discovered in Europe. Objects of equal age (and much older) are constantly being found in Dobrina as well, even in the grounds of our Dobrina Cottage! See below for pictures and articles relating to the continuing excavations at Provadia-Solnitsa.
Daily Telegraph, 31 Oct. 2012:
Archaeologists in Bulgaria believe they have discovered Europe's oldest prehistoric town, a settlement that was founded nearly 5,000 years before the birth of Christ. Experts believe the key to the development of the town was salt, which at the time was as valuable as gold.
Remains of the ancient settlement, including the ruins of two-storey houses, fortification walls and parts of a gate, have been unearthed near the modern-day town of Provadia, close to the Black Sea resort of Varna.
It dates back to between 4,700 and 4,200BC – more than a millennium before the start of Greece's ancient civilisation.
Archaeologists found a site where salt was produced from nearby rock-salt deposits, some of the most extensive in southeast Europe.
The inhabitants of the settlement, in north-west Bulgaria, boiled brine from salt springs in kilns, then baked it into bricks and used it for trading.
Highly valued by surrounding tribes, it may explain why ancient caches of gold jewellery and ritual objects have been unearthed in the region.
A collection of 3,000 gold objects found 40 years ago at a necropolis near Varna represented the oldest trove of ancient gold treasure in the world.
"At a time when people did not know the wheel and cart, these people hauled huge rocks and built massive walls. Why? What did they hide behind them? The answer was salt," Vasil Nikolov, a researcher with Bulgaria's National Institute of Archeology, told AFP.
"Salt was an extremely valued commodity in ancient times, as it was both necessary for people's lives and was used as a method of trade and currency starting from the sixth millennium BC up to 600 BC," he said.
The "town", known as Provadia-Solnitsata, was small by modern standards and would have had around 350 inhabitants.
"We are not talking about a town like the Greek city-states, ancient Rome or medieval settlements, but about what archaeologists agree constituted a town in the fifth millennium BC," said Mr Nikolov.
The original article, with illustrations, is here:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hkVADtbQz6q1iAhdKd_jZFNtkknA?docId=CNG.78822e53fb7057035b6d8fedabe463e4.01
Archaeologists in Bulgaria believe they have discovered Europe's oldest prehistoric town, a settlement that was founded nearly 5,000 years before the birth of Christ. Experts believe the key to the development of the town was salt, which at the time was as valuable as gold.
Remains of the ancient settlement, including the ruins of two-storey houses, fortification walls and parts of a gate, have been unearthed near the modern-day town of Provadia, close to the Black Sea resort of Varna.
It dates back to between 4,700 and 4,200BC – more than a millennium before the start of Greece's ancient civilisation.
Archaeologists found a site where salt was produced from nearby rock-salt deposits, some of the most extensive in southeast Europe.
The inhabitants of the settlement, in north-west Bulgaria, boiled brine from salt springs in kilns, then baked it into bricks and used it for trading.
Highly valued by surrounding tribes, it may explain why ancient caches of gold jewellery and ritual objects have been unearthed in the region.
A collection of 3,000 gold objects found 40 years ago at a necropolis near Varna represented the oldest trove of ancient gold treasure in the world.
"At a time when people did not know the wheel and cart, these people hauled huge rocks and built massive walls. Why? What did they hide behind them? The answer was salt," Vasil Nikolov, a researcher with Bulgaria's National Institute of Archeology, told AFP.
"Salt was an extremely valued commodity in ancient times, as it was both necessary for people's lives and was used as a method of trade and currency starting from the sixth millennium BC up to 600 BC," he said.
The "town", known as Provadia-Solnitsata, was small by modern standards and would have had around 350 inhabitants.
"We are not talking about a town like the Greek city-states, ancient Rome or medieval settlements, but about what archaeologists agree constituted a town in the fifth millennium BC," said Mr Nikolov.
The original article, with illustrations, is here:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hkVADtbQz6q1iAhdKd_jZFNtkknA?docId=CNG.78822e53fb7057035b6d8fedabe463e4.01
OCTOBER 9, 2012
Claim: oldest European 'city' in Bulgaria
According to the Sophia Globe (h/t Pileta), the oldest ever city in Europe would have been located at Provadia (Varna province, Bulgaria).
The city is defined as such by medieval standards because it is a settlement surrounded by a wall, a very thick and solid one. However only a few hundred people (300-350) lived inside them, always according to Prof. Vassil Nikolov.
Nikolov attributes the city an age of 4700-4200 BCE, belonging to the context of Varna culture and related to the relatively well known Varna necropolis, probably the first princely burial of the continent.
However such an early age places the Provadia-Solnitsata city almost two millennia before any other known European city (Greek islands, Southern Iberia) and even 1500 years before Troy I, traditionally considered a major influence in the urbanization and Bronze Age of Europe.
Not even Egypt's civilization is nearly as old; in all the wider region only some fortified cities from the Levant and Mesopotamia are as old and, excluding Jericho (c. 6800 BCE), none is significantly older. Even the oldest known Sumerian city, Eridu, was built only a few centuries before this Bulgarian city.
For more details, read the abstract (PDF) of Nikolov's study (to be published?, where?)
Looking for more information on the matter I also stumbled upon this webpage by Dr. L. Nikolova, which discusses the Provadia settlement as a salt-exporting site, something that also seems to be the leit motif of Nikolov's abstract.
Discussion
I am not really surprised by these findings because it has been known for some time that the area of Bulgaria was a very old center of civilization, comparable in age to Egypt (or, as it seems to be the case now, even quite older), probably evolving state and aristocracy structures first of all in Europe. It was probably the wealth of this realm and its successors which baited the Indoeuropean nomads into invasion later on (economic relations with the Volga are attested as early as this time).
The only thing that really puzzles me is the age because when I first learned on these matters the time-frame appeared to be a thousand years more recent, more in agreement with other urbanizing and social-complexity developments elsewhere in Europe (Aegean, Iberia), Western Anatolia (Troy) and also Africa (Egypt). But well... I have to accept the dates estimated by the researchers, I just wish I knew a bit more about how these have been produced.
The original article, with illustrations, is here:
http://forwhattheywereweare.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/claim-oldest-european-city-in-bulgaria.html
Claim: oldest European 'city' in Bulgaria
According to the Sophia Globe (h/t Pileta), the oldest ever city in Europe would have been located at Provadia (Varna province, Bulgaria).
The city is defined as such by medieval standards because it is a settlement surrounded by a wall, a very thick and solid one. However only a few hundred people (300-350) lived inside them, always according to Prof. Vassil Nikolov.
Nikolov attributes the city an age of 4700-4200 BCE, belonging to the context of Varna culture and related to the relatively well known Varna necropolis, probably the first princely burial of the continent.
However such an early age places the Provadia-Solnitsata city almost two millennia before any other known European city (Greek islands, Southern Iberia) and even 1500 years before Troy I, traditionally considered a major influence in the urbanization and Bronze Age of Europe.
Not even Egypt's civilization is nearly as old; in all the wider region only some fortified cities from the Levant and Mesopotamia are as old and, excluding Jericho (c. 6800 BCE), none is significantly older. Even the oldest known Sumerian city, Eridu, was built only a few centuries before this Bulgarian city.
For more details, read the abstract (PDF) of Nikolov's study (to be published?, where?)
Looking for more information on the matter I also stumbled upon this webpage by Dr. L. Nikolova, which discusses the Provadia settlement as a salt-exporting site, something that also seems to be the leit motif of Nikolov's abstract.
Discussion
I am not really surprised by these findings because it has been known for some time that the area of Bulgaria was a very old center of civilization, comparable in age to Egypt (or, as it seems to be the case now, even quite older), probably evolving state and aristocracy structures first of all in Europe. It was probably the wealth of this realm and its successors which baited the Indoeuropean nomads into invasion later on (economic relations with the Volga are attested as early as this time).
The only thing that really puzzles me is the age because when I first learned on these matters the time-frame appeared to be a thousand years more recent, more in agreement with other urbanizing and social-complexity developments elsewhere in Europe (Aegean, Iberia), Western Anatolia (Troy) and also Africa (Egypt). But well... I have to accept the dates estimated by the researchers, I just wish I knew a bit more about how these have been produced.
The original article, with illustrations, is here:
http://forwhattheywereweare.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/claim-oldest-european-city-in-bulgaria.html