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Excavation

  • Kozarnika Cave
  • Belogradchik
  •  
  • Bulgaria
  • Vidin
  • Belogradchik

Tools

Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • KOZARNIKA CAVE (Nikolai Sirakov – nikolaysirakov@gmail.com, Jean-Luc Guadelli) Stages from the Upper Paleolithic occupation were explored in Sectors DE7–10 in the entry hall of the cave: the late phases of Kozarnika Culture, particularly contact layer between Levels II and III and Level III (20 – 19 Ka BP) and the upper part of Level IVa (26 – 25 Ka BP). The flint assemblages of the late and the middle phases of Kozarnika Culture were featured with a developed production of fakes, mostly with local flint raw material. The typology of the retouched shapes and the functional tools indicated tendency towards production of hunting weapons, tools for cutting the killed animals and tools used in the jewelry workshop. The paleontological assemblages included bones from the hunted animals (mainly Late Pleistocene horses and bison) and from cave lions. The finds included raw material, production scrap and jewelry: beads, bracelets, brooches and appliqués for clothes. The jewelry was produced from snails and shells: Melanopsis sp., Pirenella sp., Potamides sp., Theodoxus sp., Duplicata sp., Granulolabium sp., Cerithium sp., Cyclope sp., Dentalium sp., Cardiidae, Plicatiforma praeplicata praeplicata, Veneridae/Tapes sp., Ammonoidea (juv.). Serpentinite was used for the production of jewelry as well. This is among the earliest jewelry discovered in Southeast Europe and related to Homo sapiens sapiens, dated from 39 to 19 Ka BP. The jewelry played role in the personal identification and the social status of the owners. The differences in the Upper Paleolithic assemblages of jewelry in Europe and the Middle East could reflect the appearance of ethno-linguistic groups in these regions.

  • Nikolai Sirakov - Archaeological Institute with Museum 
  • Jean-Luc Guadelli - PACEA/IPGQ–UMR CNRS 5199, Université Bordeaux I 

Director

Team

Research Body

  • Archaeological Institute with Museum
  • Université Bordeaux I

Funding Body

Images

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