7,000 year old wall unearthed in Bulgaria:

7,000 year old wall unearthed in Bulgaria Posted by TANNArchaeoHeritage, Archaeology, Breakingnews, Bulgaria, Europe, Southern Europe 6:00 PM During this year's excavation in Europe's oldest salt mines near Provadia, eastern Bulgaria, archaeologists discovered a wall from the fifth millennium BCE. The 7,000 year old wall discovered near Provadia in eastern Bulgaria [Credit: BGNES] According to the head of the expedition, Vasil Nikolov, quoted by the Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), the new discovery suggests that mining activities in the area were much more significant than previously thought. “This was a fluke, as many archaeological discoveries are,” Nikolov told BNR. “We found this wall, which in some parts is more than a metre high, but the rest was destroyed by an earthquake. I cannot yet say how tall it really was, but in its base it is more than three metres thick. But there are other walls in the area, which are almost four metres high. Just imagine – this is from the middle of the fifth millennium BCE and there were no fortresses in Europe back then.” This year's archaeological season in Provadia also revealed 10 burials in the necropolis.

archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.jp...

That's all the info they have for now but I think describing the wall as a fluke is a bit off and what's special about building a wall given that there was a relatively advance culture in the area,look at some items produced by these miners.

The Middle Eneolithic Age (4500–4000 BC) is illustrated by findings from the settlement near Suvorovo, the settlement in the locality “Batareyata” near Vinitsa, from settlements near the villages of Levski, Golyamo Delchevo and Sava.Among the ceramics findings dated this age are found many hollow stands in form of four angled parallelepiped, standing on high legs bowls with bended outside edges and many similar. Most frequently the utensils are decorated with stamped ornaments, applied by seals made of mussels with broken angles.

Specific place have three tombs excavated in the north shore of the Varna lake and containing valuable artifacts about initial social differentiation among local populace. In one of these tombs have been found about 1 000 objects, among which 31 golden pieces of necklace, representing the oldest worked gold pieces on earth up to present day.

www.archaeo.museumvarna.com...
klik^for much more.

a reply to: Spider879

I don't think they were describing the wall as a fluke but rather the discovery of the wall. Awesome stuff though! If I'm not mistaken, the Lake Varna gold artifacts are the oldest accurately dated gold artifacts in the world. Judging by the amount of bling in that grave, I think it's safe to say that individual was quite the early Bronze Age baller!

originally posted by: theantediluvian
a reply to: Spider879

I don't think they were describing the wall as a fluke but rather the discovery of the wall. Awesome stuff though! If I'm not mistaken, the Lake Varna gold artifacts are the oldest accurately dated gold artifacts in the world. Judging by the amount of bling in that grave, I think it's safe to say that individual was quite the early Bronze Age baller!

I just noticed something look at his dingaling the dude is sporting gold on his man meat, yup the original baller

a reply to: Spider879

I noticed that too. I'm gonna go with gold penis extension.

The other thing that caught my eye was the scepter/wand/pick or whatever he is holding in his hand. It looks as if the shaft of it is glass.
Or is that just something they put there to hold the gold pieces in place so you can see what the object was?

Nice find. Learning more about cultures of that age and area, would assume then it's a Scythian/Sarmatian grave.

a reply to: ShadowLink
I think it was some sorta staff of office,if the archaeologist placed it in there like that then published it as is that would be irresponsible.

originally posted by: dreamingawake
Nice find. Learning more about cultures of that age and area, would assume then it's a Scythian/Sarmatian grave.

Not so sure about that for one thing these folks seemed to be a settled community,the Scythian/Samatians were nomadic plus I don't see much horses in their work...but who knows.

Yes, there is so much stuff that comes out of those lands and there is much more that is still hidden underground, because of luck of funding... The cultures who lived in these lands predate the Egyptian one and that is something!

As a Bulgarian, I am really excited about that!

originally posted by: dreamingawake
Nice find. Learning more about cultures of that age and area, would assume then it's a Scythian/Sarmatian grave.

I think the Scythians and Sarmatians came to these lands later. The people living there before were the Thracians (Spartacus, Orpheus, etc.)...

a reply to: ilian51378

The cultures who lived in these lands predate the Egyptian one and that is something!

I disagree about predating Nile valley cultures,but I do agree there is much more to find and that your ancient culture was awesome.

Let me know if you guys need any translation on Bulgarian text for further information.

This is not the oldest discovery made in Bulgaria. Last year they discovered a little village near the town of Vratsa, dating almost 10.000 years back, questioning the official "story" of Europe's evolution itself. The current area of Bulgaria was a crossing point of many civilisations in the past, and historians know the saying that "civilisation in Europe started in Bulgaria".

Several years ago, when I was living still in Bulgaria, I've got a metal detector because I was searching for a lost ring of a relative (lost over 50 years ago) in the backyard of my fathers house. While I couldn't find the ring, I dig up several roman coins, 2 gold rings, one very old necklace and part of a shield. I started to dig deeper and it turned out that there is a wall underneath the area I was digging. Soon I've found a second wall, a third one and so on. In my freakin' backyard.

While I love space exploration, I believe it is far more important that archeology gets more funds. We just scratched the surface of our earth - imagine how many interesting sites we will find below the earth, as well as the oceans.

g.

originally posted by: Spider879

a reply to: ilian51378

The cultures who lived in these lands predate the Egyptian one and that is something!

I disagree about predating Nile valley cultures,but I do agree there is much more to find and that your ancient culture was awesome.

I am sorry, I didn't mean that people lived there before people lived in Africa, but that settled communities who built cities, worked with gold, made pottery and so forth. For example, my city,Plovdiv, is over 8,000 years old (oldest in Europe and 6th oldest in the world) based on the layers of soil found during excavations, and there is way more that hasn't been tapped into yet, so they may find even older culture when they dig later... Maybe I am still wrong so don't hold me accountable...

Right on Spider,
Thanks for posting.
This region was a focal point for very early
metal working. In fact you can trace this early tradition eastward till it meets the Mesopotamian tradition making it's way north and west.

a reply to: Spider879

That is an amazing amount of highly worked gold in a ritual burial complete with adornments and tools, personal items and look at the teeth on this person!

What an amazing amount of information must be associated with the finds in this burial.

a reply to: antoinemarionette

You know looking at the grave goods,they were very proud of their occupation as miners,if I were to re-title this thread I would called it Lord Of The Mines, he is buried with more than one pick axes the very implement he is holding is a pick ax which might be his symbol of office and not a wand as I thought he doesn't seemed to be buried with typical instruments of war as we would expect from kings or chiefs.

a reply to: Spider879

That's quite a find, a 7000 yr old mine. Also, notice the gold discs around his head. Do you know what they are? I ask because similar ones have been found in Ireland and Orkney too, I think, but from much later on (2-3000 years old). I wonder if he wore them in his hair, or if they were meant to represent the sun's rays around his head - a hope for rebirth, maybe?

Fascinating stuff, cheers Spider.

originally posted by: beansidhe
a reply to: Spider879

That's quite a find, a 7000 yr old mine. Also, notice the gold discs around his head. Do you know what they are? I ask because similar ones have been found in Ireland and Orkney too, I think, but from much later on (2-3000 years old). I wonder if he wore them in his hair, or if they were meant to represent the sun's rays around his head - a hope for rebirth, maybe?

Fascinating stuff, cheers Spider.

I could only guess but being that he is wearing a lot of gold I would not rule out hair/head adornment,btw what do the Orkney finds looked like do you have a link.

a reply to: Spider879

I do indeed!

Here are some found at Co. Monaghan, Ireland from about 2000BC, with the 'sun cross' on them:



The website 100 Objects has some very beautiful items, found all over Ireland - a good read if you get a spare 5 minutes!

Here are the Orkney ones, not so beautiful now but wonderful in their day:



These came from Orkneyjar and were found at the Knowes o' Trotty.

I can't be sure if they even have the same meaning or relationship as your ones, and there is a huge gap in time between the sites, but they do look very similar and therefore intriguing!

a reply to: beansidhe
Kool much thanks

a reply to: Spider879

Now I know what to ask for for Christmas!