7,000-Year-Old Ritual Table with ‘Horned Animal’, First Bulgarian Empire Settlement Found near Varna in Rescue Digs
The 7,000-year-old zoomorphic ritual table decorated with a “horned animal”, perhaps a ram, found near Bulgaria’s Tsonevo and Dalgopol, as displayed in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition at the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia. Photo: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com
An archaeological site containing structures from both the Neolithic, with a “horned animal” ritual table as especially intriguing find, and the time of the First Bulgarian Empire in the Early Middle Ages, has been discovered by chance near the Black Sea city of Varna in Northeast Bulgaria during the construction of an overhead power line.
The precise location of the prehistoric and medieval discoveries is near the town of Tsonevo, Dalgopol Municipality, Varna District, to the southwest of the city of Varna, in the valley of the Kamchiya River, the largest river in Bulgaria to flow directly into the Black Sea (rather than by way of the Danube River).
As construction workers stumbled upon archaeological structures during the building of a new overhead power line between the Black Sea cities of Burgas and Varna in Eastern Bulgaria, archaeologists from the Varna Museum of Archaeology (home of the world’s oldest and largest prehistoric gold treasure) were called up to carry out rescue excavations.
The results from the digs near Tsonevo and Dalgopol in Bulgaria’s Varna District have been presented in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition, with the 7,000-year-old prehistoric ritual table with decorated with a “horned animal” being one of the most intriguing exhibits.
The annual exhibition at the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia, which was opened in February 2021, traditionally presents the most interesting archaeological discoveries made in Bulgaria over the preceding year.
The newly found prehistoric and medieval archaeological site near Tsonevo and Dalgopol was excavated by archaeologists Alexander Manev and Vladimir Slavchev from the Varna Museum of Archaeology (Varna Regional Museum of History).
The newly discovered archaeological structures from both the Neolithic (New Stone Age) and the Early Middle Ages had been previously unknown.
The rescue archaeological excavations conducted have led to the discovery of a settlement from the Early Middle Ages, more specifically from 9th – 10th century, i.e. the height of the First Bulgarian Empire (632/680 – 1018 AD), the archaeological team informs in the official catalog and poster for the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition.
The archaeologists have also found that the same site was inhabited in the Late Neolithic (New Stone Age) period, more precisely at the end of the 6th millennium BC (in the centuries before 5,000 BC).
The 7,000-year-old zoomorphic ritual table decorated with a “horned animal”, perhaps a ram, found near Bulgaria’s Tsonevo and Dalgopol, as displayed in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition at the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia. Photo: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com
The 7,000-year-old zoomorphic ritual table decorated with a “horned animal”, perhaps a ram, found near Bulgaria’s Tsonevo and Dalgopol, as displayed in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition at the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia. Photo: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com
The 7,000-year-old zoomorphic ritual table decorated with a “horned animal”, perhaps a ram, found near Bulgaria’s Tsonevo and Dalgopol, at the time of its discovery. Photo: Archaeological Team via Paralel43
The 7,000-year-old zoomorphic ritual table decorated with a “horned animal”, perhaps a ram, found near Bulgaria’s Tsonevo and Dalgopol, at the time of its discovery. Photo: Archaeological Team, official poster for the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition
The 7,000-year-old zoomorphic ritual table decorated with a “horned animal”, perhaps a ram, found near Bulgaria’s Tsonevo and Dalgopol, at the time of its discovery. Photo: Archaeological Team, official poster for the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition
The 7,000-year-old zoomorphic ritual table decorated with a “horned animal”, perhaps a ram, found near Bulgaria’s Tsonevo and Dalgopol, at the time of its discovery. Photo: Archaeological Team, official poster for the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition
“From the Late Neolithic [we] have found two pits containing an abundance of fragmented ceramic materials, flint artifacts, animal bones, and pieces from charred clay plaster,” the archaeologists reveal.
They point out that the structures in question were probably dug up into the periphery of a prehistoric Neolithic settlement located near the meanders of the Kamchiya River.
In their words, judging by the appearance and condition of the discovered finds, the pits were probably used to dispose of household waste and/or construction refuse.
“In one of the pits [we] have found an almost fully intact “cult table” (i.e. ritual table – editor’s note) with engraved decoration. One of its corners is shaped like a horned animal head,” the archaeological team explains.
The official account from the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition does not specify the species of the horned animal whose head decorates one of the corners of the prehistoric zoomorphic ritual table.
However, in an earlier interview for a local news media, Parallel 43, archaeologist Vladimir Slavchev had mentioned it as a ram head. After its presentation at the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia, the 7,000-year-old “horned animal head” ritual table will become part of the permanent collection of the Varna Museum of Archaeology.
The structures from the Late Neolithic settlement near Bulgaria’s Tsonevo and Dalgopol. Photo: Archaeological Team, official poster for the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition, also via Paralel43
The 7,000-year-old zoomorphic ritual table decorated with a “horned animal”, perhaps a ram, and flint blades and scrapers found near Bulgaria’s Tsonevo and Dalgopol, as displayed in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition at the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia. Photo: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com
Flint blades and scrapers found in the Late Neolithic settlement near Bulgaria’s Tsonevo and Dalgopol, as displayed in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition at the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia. Photo: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com
Flint blades and scrapers found in the Late Neolithic settlement near Bulgaria’s Tsonevo and Dalgopol, as displayed in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition at the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia. Photo: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com
“The excavated [Neolithic] structures are dated to the beginning phases of the Usoe Culture which inhabited the valley of the Kamchiya River at the end of the 6th millennium BC,” the archaeological team explains further.
The Usoe Culture was discovered and researched decades ago by local archaeologist Dimitar Zlatarski of the Dalgapol Museum of History, and by Prof. Henrieta Todorova.
The Usoe Culture was part of the wider sophisticated prehistoric civilization of the Danube – Black Sea region. Europe’s first civilization ever goes back the 6th – 5th millennium BC (Neolithic (New Stone Age) and Chalcolithic (Aeneolithic, Copper Age)), and is referred to by some Western scholars as “Old Europe”.
The discovery of the Neolithic site with the prehistoric zoomorphic ritual table near Tsonevo and Dalgopol is the first time in over 40 years in which archaeologists have found a new, previously unknown Neolithic site in the area.
The rescue excavations near Tsonevo and Dalgopol in Northeast Bulgaria, Varna District, have also led to the discovery of structures from a previously unknown settlement from the First Bulgarian Empire in the 9th – 10th century.
“At the time of the First Bulgarian Empire, the same site was occupied by a settlement. From it, [we] have excavated two dugout dwellings with a rectangular shape,” the archaeological team say.
The early medieval Ancient Bulgar dugouts in question are about 4 meters long and 3.5 meters wide each.
“In both of them, we have found a stone kiln in one of their corners. In one of the dugout dwellings, there is also a hearth in a corner adjacent to that of the respective kiln,” the archaeologists inform.
“Amid the ruins filled up with soil, [we] have found numerous pottery fragments and household artifacts. What stands out among those are the large number of identical awls made of animal bones,” they add.
The early medieval structures near Bulgaria’s Tsonevo and Dalgopol. Photo: Archaeological Team, via Paralel43
The early medieval structures near Bulgaria’s Tsonevo and Dalgopol. Photo: Archaeological Team, official poster for the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition
Location of the Late Neolithic / early medieval archaeological site discovered in rescue digs near Tsonevo and Dalgopol in Bulgaria’s Varna District, close to the Black Sea coast, in the valley of the Kamchiya River. Map: Google Maps
A map of the drainage basin of the Kamchiya River, the largest river in Bulgaria to flow directly into the Black Sea (and not as a Danube tributary), which in the Neolithic (New Stone Age) was inhabited by the Usoe Culture. Map: Space Research and Technologies Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
In his prior interview, archaeologist Vladimr Slavchev has pointed out that no such structures had been discovered in the region before.
Other artifacts from the newly found dugouts from the time of the First Bulgarian Empire southwest of Varna include spindle whorls, an iron arrow tip, and pottery fragments.
Not unlike the newly found archaeological site near Bulgaria’s Tsonevo and Dalgopol in the Varna District, settlements with dugouts from the time of the First Bulgarian Empire were discovered in several locations throughout Northern Bulgaria in 2020: in Brestnitsa and Debnevo in Lovech District; and in Gradishte and Belogradets in Shumen District.
Also check out these other stories about recent prehistory discoveries in Bulgaria:
Also check out these other stories about recent discoveries of dugout settlements from the time of the First Bulgarian Empire:
http://archaeologyinbulgaria.com/2021/04/20/medieval-metallurgical-center-at-dugout-settlement-from-height-of-first-bulgarian-empire-discovered-in-northwest-bulgaria/
80 Newly Found Dugouts Offer Glimpse into 9th Century Rural Life in First Bulgarian Empire
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Ivan Dikov, the founder of ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com, is the author of the book Plunder Paradise: How Brutal Treasure Hunters Are Obliterating World History and Archaeology in Post-Communist Bulgaria, among other books.
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