Ancient Thracian Horse Burial, ‘Half a Skeleton’ Human Burial from Early Iron Age Found near Bulgaria’s Polski Trambesh
An Ancient Thracian horse burial from the Early Iron Age in which the animal was buried together with an iron rein, has been discovered in a diverse newly found archaeological site near Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria. Photo: Archaeologist Zhivko Uzunov, Official catalog and poster for the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition
An Ancient Thracian burial of a horse and a human burial containing only the upper half of a person’s body from the Early Iron Age (ca 1,000 – 500 BC) have been discovered by archaeologists near Orlovets and Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria, in a newly discovered diverse archaeological site also containing prehistoric remains from the Copper Age (Chalcolithic) and the Bronze Age.
The prehistoric and Antiquity findings in question have been in rescue excavations for the laying of a new natural gas pipeline by Bulgaria’s state-run gas operator Bulgartransgaz Jsc.
The Copper Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age finds and discoveries from the rescue excavations near Orlovets and Polski Trambesh have been presented in 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition opened in February 2021.
The annual exhibition at the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia traditionally showcases the most interesting archaeological research in Bulgaria from the preceding year.
The Ancient Thracian horse burial and the human burial with the upper half of a skeleton, together with the wide range of other structures and artifacts from the Copper Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age have been discovered by a team led by archaeologists Vanya Petrova and Nadezhda Todorova from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski” and Zhivko Uzunov from New Bulgarian University in Sofia.
What is described as a newly discovered multilayered archaeological site is located in an area called Papaz Cheshma ([Ottoman] Turkish for “Priest’s Fountain]) near the town of Orlovets, Polski Trambesh Municipality, Veliko Tarnovo District, in Central North Bulgaria, 4.7 kilometers east of the Yantra River.
The entire archaeological site has an area of about 70 decares (app. 17 acres). The archaeologists have excavated a total of 13 decares (3.2 acres) from it in rescue excavations as part of the expansion of the natural gas transit network of Bulgartransgaz Jsc.
The archaeological site, which was inhabited by people in the Prehistory and in the more recent time of Ancient Thrace is located on a terrace turned to the south and southwest, and surrounded by a deep gully.
An Ancient Thracian burial from the Early Iron Age (1,000 – 500 BC) containing only the upper half of a human skeleton has been discovered in a diverse newly found archaeological site near Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria. Photo: Archaeologist Zhivko Uzunov, Official catalog and poster for the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition
A partly dug-in storage vessel with carved and encrusted decoration discovered in the newly found archaeological site near Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria. Photo: Archaeologist Nadezhda Todorova, Official catalog and poster for the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition
The earliest evidence of human settlement on the site are from the Early Chalcolithic (Aeneolithic, Copper Age), namely, the first half of the 5th millennium BC.
From that prehistoric period, the archaeologists have unearthed a semi-dugout destroyed in a fire, a series out large and individual pits, and entire storage vessels, some of them with carved and encrusted decoration.
“In the lower part of the site, we have established remains from a settlement from the first half of the 4th millennium BC. Its dwellings have a dugout section and thermal facilities which were restructured multiple times,” the archaeological team informs in the official catalog and poster for the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition.
“The rich pottery inventory includes artifacts with technological and decorative characteristics which are typical of the steppe regions dominated by a cord decoration of the “caterpillar” type,” the researchers explain.
From that period, they have also found “a set of flint arrows [tips] with a concave base.”
An aerial shot from the south of the excavated section of the newly found archaeological site near Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria. Photo: Archaeologist Alexander Chohadziev, Official catalog and poster for the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition
Pottery with cord decoration from the “caterpillar” type
discovered in the newly found archaeological site near Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria. Photo: Archaeologist Nadezhda Todorova, Official catalog and poster for the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition
The archaeologists note that traces from the inhabiting of the site near Bulgaria’s Polski Trambesh in the 2nd – 1st millennium BC, in the Middle and Late Bronze Age have been affected by erosion.
“[We] have found materials from the Middle and Late Bronze Age all over the place including redeposited in later pits,” they reveal with respect to what is also the early period of Ancient Thrace.
From the Late Bronze Age, the archaeologists have discovered a dugout with an impressive siz, about 2 meters in depth, which was used in at least two stages.
Its filling contained a large amount of pottery, animal bones, bone artifacts, flint artifacts, and metal artifacts.
Seemingly the most numerous finds from the site are from the Iron Age, especially the Early Iron Age, or the first half of the 1st millennium BC, which also include the horse burial and the burial of the upper half of a skeleton.
“Structures from the 1st millennium BC have been found all over the excavated area, and suggest that the place was continuously inhabited from the Early Iron Age to the beginning of the Late Iron Age,” the archaeological team states.
The archaeologists inform further that they have excavated more than (Ancient Thracian) 110 pits from the Early Iron Age which have varied greatly in size, shape, and function.
“In one of them, we have found the upper part of an articulated human skeleton,” the researchers say.
“In another one [of the Ancient Thracian Early Iron Age pits], we have found a full horse skeleton with an iron rein,” they add.
Artifacts discovered in the newly found archaeological site near Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria, as displayed in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition. Photo: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com
Artifacts discovered in the newly found archaeological site near Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria, as displayed in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition. Photo: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com
A pottery vessel from the Final Chalcolithic (Aeneolithic, Copper Age) period, i.e. the 4th millenium BC, discovered in the newly found archaeological site near Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria, as displayed in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition. Photo: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com
A pottery artifact from the Final Chalcolithic (Aeneolithic, Copper Age) period, i.e. the 4th millenium BC, discovered in the newly found archaeological site near Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria, as displayed in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition. Photo: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com
An Ancient Thracian pottery vessel from the Early Iron Age (i.e. the first half of the 1st millenium BC), discovered in the newly found archaeological site near Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria, as displayed in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition. Photo: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com
An Ancient Thracian pottery vessel from the Early Iron Age (i.e. the first half of the 1st millenium BC), discovered in the newly found archaeological site near Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria, as displayed in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition. Photo: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com
Ancient Thracian pottery vessels from the Early Iron Age (i.e. the first half of the 1st millenium BC), discovered in the newly found archaeological site near Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria, as displayed in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition. Photo: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com
An Ancient Thracian ceramic stamp for decoration from the Early Iron Age (i.e. the first half of the 1st millenium BC), discovered in the newly found archaeological site near Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria, as displayed in the 2020 Bulgarian Archaeology Exhibition. Photo: ArchaeologyinBulgaria.com
Location of the diverse newly found archaeological site near Polski Trambesh in Central North Bulgaria. Map: Google Maps
The archaeological team explains the latest pits from the site contained a numerous number pottery typical of the 6th – 5th century BC.
“In the most recent pits, there is a strong presence of monochrome pottery made with a potter’s wheel from the Late Archaic and Early Classical Age (6th – beginning of the 5th century BC),” the archaeologists say, using a time period classification that is typically employed of Ancient Greece.
Other Thracian graves from the Early Iron Age the archaeologists have found in the newly discovered prehistoric and ancient site near Bulgaria’s Polski Trambesh are two human burials in the extended position, and two cremations in an urn on the bottom of a pit.
Also check out these stories about recent Iron Age, Bronze Age, and Copper Age discoveries in Bulgaria:
Ancient Settlement Adjacent to Philipopolis Discovered in Bulgaria’s Plovdiv in Rescue Digs
Archaeologists Find 3,000-Year-Old Likely Thracian Child Burial in Bulgaria’s Rahovets Fortress
Archaeologists Unearth ‘Dancing Priestess’ Figurine in Neolithic Settlement in Bulgaria’s Varbitsa
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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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