http://www.iianthropology.org/zagreb2005

IntEraCtions and CoIntEraCtions and CoMMpleXity in pleXity in EARLY BRONZE AGE in EARLY BRONZE AGE in

WeWesstern Thracetern ThraceLLolita Nikolova (USA-Bulgaria) & olita Nikolova (USA-Bulgaria) &

Tanya Dzhanfezova (Bulgaria)Tanya Dzhanfezova (Bulgaria)

During the last decades increased the evidence for the social and political systems in the Balkan Later Prehistory. If for a long period Vučedol culture had been the symbol of the prosperity during the Early Bronze Age, the new evidence and especially the

settlement and burial data from the Yunatsite Culture (Western Thrace) allow to create models of the

earliest incipient chiefdoms in different parts of the Balkans

YUNATSITE CULTURE YUNATSITE CULTURE (LATER FOURTH – THIRD (LATER FOURTH – THIRD MILLENNIUM BCE)MILLENNIUM BCE)

CRITERIA OF COMPLEXITY IN WESTERN THRACE

Settlement Structure Microregionl central places

– Yunatsite and Ognyanovo; Plovdiv-Nebet Tepe and Manole; Dubene-Sarovka

Possible Central Political Place – Plovdiv-Nebet Tepe

DUBENE

YUNATSITE PLOVDIV

DUBENE

Maritsa

Stryama

CRITERIA OF COMPLEXITY IN WESTERN THRACE

Metallurgy Lead bronze. Dubene-

Sarovka as a newly discovered place of production of bronze objects

A metal shaft-hole axe at Yuantsote (Early Bronze III)

Moulds for bronze objects (Ognyanovo & Dubene-Sarovka)

Newly discovered gold objects from Tumulus Cemetery near Dubene-Sarovka

Yunatsite axe

Ceramic production Multidirectional active contacts

East – Ezero culture South – Sitagroi – Dikili Tash

culture West – Pernik North – Coţofeni

Burial customs Settlement burials – Yunatsite

and Ognyanovo Tumulus burials – Dubene-

Sarovka neighborhood

Social stratification Settlement data: houses and

house complexes Burial data: burials with silver

and golden adornments

CRITERIA OF COMPLEXITY IN WESTERN THRACE

• There are two periods of possible incipient chiefdoms in the Balkans – Late Copper Age and Early Bronze Age

• Late Copper Age C. Renfrew believes Varna cemetery indicates

the existence of chiefdom. • Problem:

– Tribes and tribe unions also could have chiefs (Big men) but without hereditary political power. The rich burials may indicate such systems of treasuring of the wealth because of the non-existed deep roots of the hereditary wealth together with rise of a crisis and opportunity to sacrifice the gold as a gift to the Mother-Earth.

Early Bronze Age Early Bronze Age I – Balkan channel pottery.

No data about advanced archaic political organization Early Bronze II-III

The infrastructures, social and superstructures support incipient chiefdoms at least in

Northeastern Thrace (the Ezero Culture), Western Thrace (the Yunatsite culture), the Northern Aegean (the Sitagroi-Dikili Tash culture), the Struma Valley (Pernik group) and Northwest Serbia (Vučedol culture).

INCIPIENT CHIEFDOMS IN THE BALKANS

EBA IEBA I