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Tell-site of Drama-Merdzhumekya. 1 Lower Chalcolithic settlement layer. 2 Upper Chalcolithic settlement layer.
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Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... this paper, the Chalcolithic layers at the tell will be discussed. The lower layer was thought to coincide with the Karanovo V / Maritsa IV cultural phenomena ( fig. 1,1), whereas the upper layer seemed to belong to the beginning of the Karanovo VI period in Thrace ( fig. 1,2). 14 C and AMS dates recently re-evaluated have shown that this distinction cannot be so easily verified (cf. below), but for the sake of convenience, I will stick to it in this ...
Context 2
... this paper, the Chalcolithic layers at the tell will be discussed. The lower layer was thought to coincide with the Karanovo V / Maritsa IV cultural phenomena ( fig. 1,1), whereas the upper layer seemed to belong to the beginning of the Karanovo VI period in Thrace ( fig. 1,2). 14 C and AMS dates recently re-evaluated have shown that this distinction cannot be so easily verified (cf. below), but for the sake of convenience, I will stick to it in this ...
Context 3
... clay figurines ( fig. 2,1-3) The Neolithic and Chalcolithic of south-east Europe in general and especially Bulgaria abound with anthropomorphic clay figurines in varying sizes and shapes. It would go beyond the scope of this paper to discuss them in detail regarding types, sex, decoration, size, use, context and frag-mentation patterns, even just the comparably ...
Context 4
... sex, decoration, size, use, context and frag-mentation patterns, even just the comparably few examples mentioned here. Therefore, I will just outline some aspects important for this context. For a rough classification, two types of clay figurines occur at Drama-Merdzhumekya 4 . One type is characterized by a columnar and highly stylized body ( fig. 2,1-2), whereas the other type is depicted with arms and legs and seems more "natural" (fig. 2,3). Oddly enough, some representatives of this second type consist of single parts that were affixed to each other either with the help of small wooden pegs whose traces can still be seen in the clay, or the parts were just pressed together and then ...
Context 5
... resp. cult tables / miniature tables ( fig. 3,10) It was Vassil Nikolov who first dealt with Neolithic cult tables resp. altars from Bulgaria in summary, analysing form and decoration. Unfortunately, the same was not done for the Chalcolithic pieces, except for a catalogue which Vassil Nikolov provided in his book about the Neolithic altars, albeit without drawings or classification ...
Context 6
... potsherds / rounded and perforated potsherds ( fig. 3,1-2) A final group of artefacts from Merdzhumekya is made up of potsherds that were given a rounded shape, mostly through grinding. Some of these objects are perforated or spot-drilled, others are left without any perforation. If these two sub-types indeed belong to one artefact group, we can exclude any function that requires a ...
Context 7
... indicated above, the distribution of small finds in the houses of the settlement layers is not equal. Thus, I will now discuss their context using the example of three houses (houses 486, 715 and 101: fig. 1,1) from the lower Chalcolithic settlement layer, comparing quantity, variance and ...
Context 8
... houses (houses 244 and 137: fig. 1,2) have been selected for comparison, mostly due to the fact that they have been described in the preliminary ...
Context 9
... it is house 244 that allows some interesting observations regarding the position of the small finds. Whereas miniature vessels seem to be spread relatively evenly throughout the whole house, a dense concentration of small finds can be found around the oven. Most remarkably, a small pregnant figurine ( fig. 2,1), wholly preserved, was found in situ inside a crushed biconical vessel behind the oven. If the miniature vessels did not fall down from an upper floor, their position points to a deliberate layout and placement before the burning, because their original and regular position during everyday life could hardly have been arranged like ...
