2 Prehistoric Artifacts from Bulgaria Included in ‘Earth as Heritage’ Exhibition in Lyon’s ‘Confluence Museum’ in France
This 6th millenium BC anthropomorphic ceramic figurine with painted decorations, which has been found in the famous prehistoric Karanovo Settlement Mound, Nova Zagora Municipality, in Southeast Bulgaria, is included in the “Earth as a Heritage” Exhibition in the Confluence Museum in Lyon, France. Photo: National Institute and Museum of Archaeology
Two prehistoric artifacts from Bulgaria from the 6th and 5th millennium BC have been included in an exhibition entitled “The Earth as a Heritage: From the Neolithic till Our Time” of the Confluence Museum (Musée des Confluences) in the French city of Lyon, Bulgaria’s National Institute and Museum of Archaeology has announced.
The Confluence Museum (Musée des Confluences) is a science center and anthropology museum in Lyon, Southern France, inaugurated in 2014. It features collections of natural science, earth sciences, and anthropology.
The exhibition “The Earth as a Heritage: From the Neolithic till Our Time” of the Confluence Museum in Lyon will be opened until January 30, 2022, and is prepared to receive visitors once the lockdown restrictions in France are lifted, Bulgaria’s National Institute and Museum of Archaeology says.
Both Bulgarian artifacts included in the exhibition in Lyon are part of the collection of the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia. What is more, they are part of its permanent display, the institution explains.
The first artifact of the two Bulgarian artifacts included in the French exhibition in Lyon’s Confluence Museum dates back to the Late Neolithic (New Stone Age) period, more specifically, the 2nd half of the 6th millennium BC.
It is an anthropomorphic ceramic figurine with painted decorations, which has been found in the famous prehistoric Karanovo Settlement Mound, Nova Zagora Municipality, in Southeast Bulgaria. It is classified as belonging to the Karanovo III Culture.
This 6th millenium BC anthropomorphic ceramic figurine with painted decorations, which has been found in the famous prehistoric Karanovo Settlement Mound, Nova Zagora Municipality, in Southeast Bulgaria, is included in the “Earth as a Heritage” Exhibition in the Confluence Museum in Lyon, France. Photo: National Institute and Museum of Archaeology
This 6th millenium BC anthropomorphic ceramic figurine with painted decorations, which has been found in the famous prehistoric Karanovo Settlement Mound, Nova Zagora Municipality, in Southeast Bulgaria, is included in the “Earth as a Heritage” Exhibition in the Confluence Museum in Lyon, France. Photo: National Institute and Museum of Archaeology
This 6th millenium BC anthropomorphic ceramic figurine with painted decorations, which has been found in the famous prehistoric Karanovo Settlement Mound, Nova Zagora Municipality, in Southeast Bulgaria, is included in the “Earth as a Heritage” Exhibition in the Confluence Museum in Lyon, France. Photo: National Institute and Museum of Archaeology
The second Bulgarian artifact featured in the “The Earth as a Heritage” exhibition in Lyon, France, is a ceramic model of a prehistoric home. It dates to the Late Chalcolithic (Aeneolithic, Copper Age), namely, the 2nd half of the 5th millennium BC.
The artifact in question was discovered in the Kodzhadermen Settlement Mound near the city of Shumen in Northeast Bulgaria.
Both prehistoric artifacts appear to be representative 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”.
This ceramic model of a prehistoric home from the Late Chalcolithic (Aeneolithic, Copper Age), namely, the 2nd half of the 5th millennium BC, discovered in the Kodzhadermen Settlement Mound near the city of Shumen in Northeast Bulgaria, is included in the “Earth as a Heritage” Exhibition in the Confluence Museum in Lyon, France. Photo: National Institute and Museum of Archaeology
The exhibition “The Earth as a Heritage: From the Neolithic till Our Time” of the Confluence Museum in Lyon was organized in collaboration with the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP).
“[The exhibition] has been designed to present the major modern-day challenges to the environment in light of a crucial period in our history, the Neolithic,” explains the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia.
“The exhibition reviews human effect on Earth at the beginning of the 21st century, whose beginning was set in the Neolithic Era. That is the period marking the use of natural resources, and defining our relationship with the natural world and the other human beings until today, and it was marked with the setting of new relations between humankind and nature,” the Museum in Sofia explains.
“That was the time when human communities started inhabit one and the same place and to provide for their living through agriculture and animal breeding. Subsequently, they gradually managed to establish a link of dominance over nature, and for the first time adopted a production economy. Ever since then, humankind has been quick to exploit nature and change its environment,” the institution elaborates with respect to the exhibition in the French city of Lyon.
Official poster for the “Earth as a Heritage” Exhibition of the Confluence Museum in Lyon, France. Photo: Confluence Museum
“The global growth of industrial culture based on fossil fuels has caused an unprecedented increase in our impact on the biosphere. Our history is already what is turning into a new geological age – the Anthropocene (the Age of Humans). What are the roads that have led to this situation? This is a long process, and the exhibition of the Musée des Confluences in Lyon is suggesting to show its beginning with a story about the Neolithic Age,” concludes Bulgaria’s National Institute and Museum of Archaeology about the “Earth as a Heritage” Exhibition in Lyon, France.
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Ivan Dikov, the founder of ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com, is the author of the book Ugly Bargain: How the European Union and Bulgaria’s Post-Communist Oligarchy Fit Together, among other books.
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