Papers by Ivan Babadzhanov
In 2015 year, during the rescue archaeological excavations on site 001 along the route of "Hemus"... more In 2015 year, during the rescue archaeological excavations on site 001 along the route of "Hemus" highway near the village of Belokopitovo (Shumen), was localized and partially explored Late Bronze Age village and later a settlement from the epoch of the early Middle Ages. The subject matter of this message is housing No 2, while the other structures of the Bronze Age, as well as pottery, are the subject of another study. The house was dug in sterile clay between 0.50 and 1.32 m. It has an oval shape measuring 7,50x4,80 m. The sterile base has been documented with the beds of three wooden ladders located along the longitudinal axis of the house, which most probably have maintained the base part of the roof. In the northwest part, had been researched deeper embedding, which can be interpreted as a basement or storage of products. There were another 11 pits in the house itself and around it. The basis of the extracted information it can be assumed that it is a terrestrial building with a basement.
In 2004 the Regional Historical Museum in Shumen received some very interesting silver jewelry. A... more In 2004 the Regional Historical Museum in Shumen received some very interesting silver jewelry. According to the information provided by the discoverers, the find was discovered accidentally, in a small mound on the Madara plateau, in the land of the village of Mogila. The jewelry consists of 8 items: 5 hollow silver tubes with a cylindrical shape, an applique with three holes for sewing, roughly decorated in repoussé style and two beads with a biconical shape, one of which is preserved in half. Although the jewelry appears incomplete, probably because parts of the find were not handed over to the museum, or the complete set was not found, the items are most likely components of a piece of jewelry. Although such ornaments are very rare, they are located in a wide chronological and geographical range from the Early Bronze Age to the 5 th century BC. According to these parallels, both from the Bulgarian lands and sites in Romania, Serbia and Greece, these ornaments date to the end of the Bronze Age or the beginning of the Early Iron Age.
In this current research paper, we present the results from the statistical investigation of the ... more In this current research paper, we present the results from the statistical investigation of the pottery from the Neolithic settlement near the town of Varbitsa, Shumen region (Fig. 1). The ceramic material originates from trench 1, which is located in the central part of the settlement. A 5 m thick cultural layer was investigated, containing materials from several archaeological periods-the Neolithic, the Chalcolithic and Late Antiquity. Through the profiles, we have defined 15 stratigraphic layers and separate phases, to which they belong (Fig. 2). The ceramic material from trench 1 was fully collected (12 968 fragments) and sorted according to stratigraphic layers. Out of it, the largest portion pertains to Neolithic pottery-97,02 % (12 582 fragments), which is present amongst all stratigraphic layers (Fig. 3). The number of ceramic fragments that date to the Late Antiquity is fairly small in proportion (349 fragments) and is mainly found in Stratigraphic layer I. Chalcolithic pottery is also scanty-37 fragments were identified, found in stratigraphic layer I, whereas separate fragments had been redeposited in layers IIA and IIB. This statistical investigation aimed to offer a detailed and credible description of the technological characteristics of the Neolithic ceramic assemblage and the changes, observed in the separate stratigraphic layers. To be able to offer comparability between the quantities of ceramic fragments, collected from stratigraphic layers that differ in size (Fig. 4), we have introduced correction coefficients, which have allowed us to extrapolate predictable quantities, with equalized volumes of the stratigraphic contexts (Fig. 5). To clarify the morphological characteristics of the pottery, the separate fragments were sorted according to the vessel's components: walls-73 %, rims-13,8 %, bases-11,2 %, handles-2 %, and also 9 complete vessels were selected (Fig. 6). Additionally, quantitative observations took place over the 3 types of bases-flat (69,3 %), annular (11,2 %) and concave (3 %) (Fig. 7 and 8), as well as the 3 types of handles-vertical strap-handles (201 fragments) loop handles (37 fragments) and cylindrical handles (9 fragments) (Fig. 9 and 10). The technological characteristics of the Neolithic ceramic assemblage were examined in terms of the following features: fragment thickness (Fig. 11), surface colour (Fig. 12), cross-section structure (Fig. 13), tempering agent, added to the clay (Fig. 14), level of surface smoothness (Fig. 15) and presence of engobe (Fig. 16) and they are quantitatively described and analyzed according to stratigraphic layers.
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Papers by Ivan Babadzhanov