Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Archäologie des Mittelalters

Social dynamics and structural variations in the Neolithic settlement patterns in Bulgaria during the late sixth and early fifth millennia BC

Petar Zidarov

Large-scale processes of expansion and consolidation of several newly formed cultural entities mark the second half of the sixth millennium BC in Europe. 20th century narratives included two rather contrasting views regarding the direction and intensity of the formation processes of LBK and Vinča, including but not limited to (a) northwestward expansion of agricultural practices (and practitioners) from the Near Eastern towards the temperate zones of Central and Western Europe, matched by (b) a countercurrent of technological influence from Vinča core zone southeastwards towards Anatolia. Authoritative studies on house constructions, settlement patterns and burial practices from the late 1980-ies and 1990-ies stressed on structural discontinuities between the cultural development in Vinča and LBK zones, whereas recent interpretations indicate that both phenomena may have developed as distinct emancipatory social responses to outlived Starčevo traditions. In the context of this discourse, it is of considerable interest to consider what could have been the repercussions of these formative processes on the territory of the Eastern Balkans, where the trajectories of the two main suggested expansion axes should have possibly crossed. The paper will present some results of large-scale geophysical surveys and excavation projects in Bulgaria, which provide a wealth of new data illustrating much variated and regionalized social response along the Lower Danube, Dobrudzha, in Upper Thrace and Struma valley that should inform more refined and balanced interpretative frameworks.