Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T06:24:07.848Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

AMS Dating of the Late Copper Age Varna Cemetery, Bulgaria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2018

Thomas Higham ,
Vladimir Slavchev ,
Bisserka Gaydarska  and
John Chapman
Thomas Higham*
Affiliation:
Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, United Kingdom
Vladimir Slavchev
Affiliation:
Varna Museum, Varna, Bulgaria
Bisserka Gaydarska
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom
John Chapman
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, University of Durham, Durham, United Kingdom
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The Varna I cemetery, on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast, is one of the most remarkable sites in European prehistory, with the world’s earliest large-scale assemblage of gold artifacts. Modeling of the first series of 14 accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dates yielded a duration of occupation at the site of ca. 150 years, ~4600–4450 cal BC. However, there were insufficient paired human–animal dates for a full consideration of the question of the marine reservoir effect. Here, a fuller set of 71 dates from 53 graves is presented. We identify a small reservoir effect in a number of individuals based on 14C, as well as carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes. We test the effect of this by building a series of different Bayesian models. Our favored model, including a correction for some of the human determinations, shows activity at the cemetery starting at 4596–4516 cal BC and ending 4427–4341 cal BC (at 95.4% probability). The overall span of activity covers ~120–260 years (93.6% prob.). The modeling shows that Varna I falls toward the beginning of the Bulgarian Late Copper Age.

Keywords

AMS datingBulgariaCopper Agemarine reservoir effectVarna cemetery
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 60 , Issue 2 , April 2018 , pp. 493 - 516
Copyright
© 2018 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arneborg, J, Heinemeier, J, Lynnerup, N, Nielsen, H, Rud, N, Sveinbjörnsdóttir, Á. 1999. Change of diet of the Greenland Vikings determined from stable carbon isotope analysis and 14C dating of their bones. Radiocarbon 41(2):157–168.Google Scholar
Bailey, D. 2000. Balkan Prehistory. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Borić, D. 2009. Absolute dating of metallurgical innovations in the Vinča culture of the Balkans. In: Kienlin T, Roberts B, editors. Metals and Societies. Studies in Honour of Barbara S. Ottaway, Universitätsforschungen zür Prähistorischen Archäologie Band 169. Bonn: Rudolf Habelt. p 191–245.Google Scholar
Boyadzhiev, Y. 1995. Chronology of prehistoric cultures in Bulgaria. In: Bailey DW, Panayotov I, editors. Prehistoric Bulgaria. Monographs in World Archaeology 22. Madison: Prehistory Press. p 149–192.Google Scholar
Boyadzhiev, Y. 2015. Tell Yunatsite: development and absolute chronology of the settlements from the beginning of the Chalcolithic to the Early Bronze Age. In: Hansen S, Raczky P, Anders A, Reingruber A, editors. Neolithic and Copper Age between the Carpathians and the Aegean Sea: Chronologies and Technologies from the 6th to the 4th Millennium BCE, International Workshop Budapest 2012. Bonn: Habelt. p 381–394.Google Scholar
Brock, F, Higham, T, Ditchfield, P, Bronk Ramsey, C. 2010. Current pretreatment methods for AMS radiocarbon dating at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit (ORAU). Radiocarbon 52(1):103–112.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009a. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51(1):337–360.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009b. Dealing with outliers and offsets in radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 51(3):1023–1045.Google Scholar
Chapman, J. 1991. The creation of social arenas in the Neolithic and Copper Age of South East Europe: the case of Varna. In: Garwood P, Jennings P, Skeates R, Toms J, editors. Sacred and Profane, Oxford Committee for Archaeology Monograph No. 32. Oxford: OCA. p 152–171.Google Scholar
Chapman, J. 2013. From Varna to Brittany via Csőszhalom – was there a ‘Varna effect’? In: Anders A, Kulcsár V, editors. Moments in Time. Papers presented to Pál Raczky on his 60th birthday. Budapest: L’Harmattan. p 323–336.Google Scholar
Chapman, J, Gaydarska, B. 2014. Spondylus gaederopus / Glycymeris exchange networks in the European Neolithic and Chalcolithic. In: Hofmann D, Fowler C, Harding J, editors. Handbook of the European Neolithic. London: Routledge. p 639–656.Google Scholar
Chapman, J, Higham, T, Slavchev, V, Gaydarska, B, Honch, N. 2007. The social context of the emergence, development and abandonment of the Varna cemetery, Bulgaria. European Journal of Archaeology 9/2–3:159–183.Google Scholar
Childe, VG. 1945. Directional changes in funerary practices during 50,000 years. Man 4:13–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, OE, Bondioli, L, Fattore, L, Higham, T, Hedges, R. 2013. Evaluating marine diets through radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analysis of victims of the AD79 eruption of Vesuvius. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 152/3:345–352.Google Scholar
DeNiro, MJ. 1985. Postmortem preservation and alteration of in vivo bone collagen isotope ratios in relation to palaeodietary reconstruction. Nature 317:806–809.Google Scholar
Gaydarska, B. 2011. Whither prehistory?–new AMS dates from Varna. In: Boyadzhiev Ya, Terziiska-Ignatova S, editors. The Golden Fifth Millennium. Thrace and its Neighbour Areas in the Chalcolithic. Sofia: NAIM. p 93–106.Google Scholar
Higham, T, Chapman, J, Slavchev, V, Gaydarska, B, Honch, N, Yordanov, Y, Dimitrova, B. 2007. New perspectives on the Varna cemetery (Bulgaria)—AMS dates and social implications. Antiquity 81:640–654.Google Scholar
Honch, N, Higham, T, Chapman, J, Gaydarska, B, Hedges, REM. 2006. A palaeodietary investigation of carbon (13C/12C) and nitrogen (15N/14N) in human and faunal bones from the Copper Age cemeteries of Varna I and Durankulak, Bulgaria. Journal of Archaeological Science 33:1493–1504.Google Scholar
Ivanov, I. 1978. Les fouilles archéologiques de la nécropole chalcolithique à Varna (1972–1975). Studia Praehistorica 1–2:13–26.Google Scholar
Ivanov, I. 1988. Die Ausgrabungen des Gräberfeldes von Varna. In: Fol A, Lichardus J, (Hrsg.). Macht, Herrscaft und Gold. Das Gräberfeld von Varna und die Anfänge einer neuen europäischen Zivilisation. Saarbrücken: Saarland Museum. p. 49–66.Google Scholar
Ivanov, I, Avramova, M. 2000. Varna Necropolis. The dawn of European Civilization. Sofia: Agató.Google Scholar
Kienlin, T. 2010. Traditions and transformations: approaches to Eneolithic (Copper Age) and Bronze Age metalworking and society in Eastern Central Europe and the Carpathian Basin, BAR International Series 2184. Oxford: BAR.Google Scholar
Krauß, R, Schmid, C, Ciobotaru, D, Slavchev, V. 2016. Varna und die Folgen – Überlegungen zu den Ockergräbern zwischen Karpatenbecken und der nördlichen Ägäis. In: Bartelheim M, Horejs B, Krauß R, editors. Von Baden bis Troia. Ressourcennetzung, Metallurgie und Wissenstransfer. Eine Jubiläumsschrift für Ernst Pernicka. Rahden/Westfal: Marie Leidorf. p. 273–316.Google Scholar
O’Shea, JM. 1996. Villagers of the Maros: a Portrait of an Early Bronze Age Society. New York & London: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Raduntcheva, A. 1989. La société dans les Balkans à l’âge du cuivre. Dossiers Histoire et Archéologie 137:46–55.Google Scholar
Reimer, PJ, Reimer, RW. 2001. A marine reservoir correction database and on-line interface. Radiocarbon 43(2A):461–63. (Software available at http://www.calib.org).Google Scholar
Reingruber, A. 2015. Absolute and relative chronologies in the lower Danube area during the 5th millennium BC. In: Hansen S, Raczky P, Anders A, Reingruber A, editors. Neolithic and Copper Age between the Carpathians and the Aegean Sea: Chronologies and Technologies from the 6th to the 4th Millennium BCE, International Workshop Budapest 2012. Bonn: Habelt. p 301–324.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1978. Varna and the social context of early metallurgy. Antiquity 52:199–203.Google Scholar
Raczky, P, Siklósi, Z. 2013. Reconsideration of the Copper Age chronology of the eastern Carpathian Basin: a Bayesian approach. Antiquity 87:555–573.Google Scholar
Schier, W, Draşovean, F, Bayliss, A, Gaydarska, B, Whittle, A. in prep. Scientific dating and chronological modeling. To appear in Project Monograph of Uivar-Gomila.Google Scholar
Slavchev, V. 2010. The Varna Eneolithic cemetery in the context of the Late Copper Age in the East Balkans. In: Anthony DW, Chi JY, editors. The Lost World of Old Europe. The Danube Valley, 5000–3500 BC. New York: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. p 192–211.Google Scholar
Slavchev, V. 2016. Die Komplexe 2, 3 und 15 mit Gesichtsdarstellungen aus dem kupferzeitlichen Gräberfeld von Varna I. In: Nikolov V, Schier W, editors. Der Schwarzmeerraum vom Neolithikum bis in die Früheisenzeit (6000-600 v. Chr.). Kulturelle Interferenzen in der zirkumpontischen Zone und Kontakte mit ihren Nachbargebieten, Prähistorische Archäologie in Südosteuropa 30. Rahden/Westf: Leidorf. p 141–164.Google Scholar
Tasić, N, Marić, M, Penezić, K, Filipović, D, Borojević, K, Borić, B, Cook, G, Reimer, P, Bayliss, A, Barclay, A, Gaydarska, B, Whittle, A. 2015. The end of the affair: formal chronological modeling for the top of the Neolithic tell of Vinča-Belo Brdo. Antiquity 89:1062–1084.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tasić, N, Marić, M, Bronk Ramsey, C, Kromer, B, Barclay, A, Bayliss, A, Beavan, N, Gaydarska, B, Whittle, A. 2016. Vinča-Belo Brdo, Serbia: the times of a tell. Germania 93:1–76.Google Scholar
Todorova, H. 1978. The Eneolithic Period in Bulgaria in the Fifth Millennium B.C, BAR International Series 49. Oxford: BAR.Google Scholar
Todorova, H. 1995. The Neolithic, Eneolithic and Transitional Period in Bulgarian prehistory. In: Bailey D, Panayotov I, editors. Prehistoric Bulgaria, Monographs in World Archaeology 22. Madison, WI: Prehistory Press. p 79–98.Google Scholar
Todorova, H (Hrsg.). 2002. Durankulak, B. II. Die prähistorischen Gräberfelder von Durankulak. Berlin-Sofia: Publ. House Anubis.Google Scholar
Tsirtsoni, Z. editor. 2016. The Human Face Of Radiocarbon. Reassessing Chronology in Prehistoric Greece and Bulgaria, 5000–3000 cal BC, TMO 69. Lyon: Travaux de la Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée.Google Scholar
Vergiev, S, Filipova-Marinova, M, Giosan, L, Pavlov, D, Slavchev, V. 2014. Pollen-based quantitative reconstruction of holocene vegetation in Varna Lake Area (Northeastern Bulgaria) using modeling and simulation approach. Dokladi na Bulgarskata akademia na naukite 67/6:831–834.Google Scholar
Vladár, J. 1973. Pohrebiská zo staršej doby bronzovej v Branči. Archaeologica Slovaca - Fontes 12. Bratislava: Slovak Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Whittle, A. 1996. Europe in the Neolithic. The Creation of New Worlds. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Whittle, A, Bayliss, A, Barclay, A, Gaydarska, B, Bánffy, E, Borić, D, Draşovean, F, Jakucs, J, Marić, M, Orton, D, Tasić, N, Schier, W, Vander Linden, M. 2016. A Vinča potscape: formal chronological models for Neolithic cultural development in south-east Europe. Documenta Praehistorica 43:1–60.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Higham et al. supplementary material

Higham et al. supplementary material 1

Download Higham et al. supplementary material(File)
File 93.8 KB