Landscape analysis of the Early Bronze Age mounds in the Middle and Lower Tundzha River

Adéla Sobotkova, Todor Valchev

Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/proceedingBook chapterResearchpeer-review

Abstract

The second half of 4th and the first half of the 3rd millennium BC is one of the
most dynamic and interesting periods in the Balkan history. This is a period of
movement of people, ideas and innovations. During this time, the Tundzha River
valley sees the arrival of the steppe people – mainly the Yamnaya culture communities, which originally spread from the Ural Mountains to the Hungarian Plain. Their presence is attested by burial mounds, which represent a new way of depositing the dead within earthen monuments so as to facilitate the remembrance of venerated relatives and claims to land. This paper reviews the properties of ten excavated Early Bronze Age mounds in the Yambol Province (Bulgaria), showing that these mounds are substantial in size and tend towards high-prominence locations in the landscape. These attributes are then used to extract mounds of similar properties from a dataset of 1090 mounds registered in the Yambol Province since 2009. Two different sets of criteria produce two subsets of 52 potentially Early Bronze Age mounds, differing slightly in location.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMoving northward : Professor Volker Heyd's Festschrift as he turns 60
EditorsAnna-Kaisa Salmi
PublisherThe Archaeological Society of Finland
Publication dateSept 2023
Pages445-455
Chapter28
ISBN (Print)978-952-69942-3-9
ISBN (Electronic)978-952-69942-4-6
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2023
SeriesMonographs of the Archaeological Society of Finland
Volume11
ISSN1799-8611

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