Pages: 81-97

This is the first publication of findings accumulated through many years of archaeological and palaeoecological research of the Chalcolithic layer on the Yunatsite tell (Bulgaria). The settlement was researched by a Russian-Bulgarian expedition between 1982—2001 and a Bulgarian-Greek expedition between 2002—2010. The top level of the final Chalcolithic is marked by ruins of burned adobe structures with human skeletons with traces of violent death. There was also a necropolis found, with 12 adult burials, all of them lying in crouched position on one side. According to our observations, the necropolis appeared here right after the destruction of the settlement: there are cases when the killed persons were buried under the ruins. Anthropological studies indicate that both those buried in the necropolis and those buried under the ruins had suffered fatal injuries. Complex palaeoecological studies showed that the latest Chalcolithic settlement lived through a growing aridization of climate. These accumulating environmental changes, inter alia, could have triggered the tragic events that terminated life on the Yunatsite settlement.

Keywords: Balkans, Tell Yunatsite, Chalcolithic, settlement, ruins of burned structures, necropolis, burial, fatal injuries, aridization of climate, environmental changes.

Information about author:

Vera Balabina (Moscow, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117036, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]
Tatiana Mishina (Moscow, Russian Federation). Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Dmitry Ulyanov St., 19, Moscow, 117036, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]