The Neolithisation of the Eastern Balkan Peninsula and fluctuations of the Black Sea level

The Neolithic period of Bulgarian prehistory has been studied for a century. The investigation of the Black Sea coast, Longoza and Southern Dobrudzha has produced particularly interesting results. These regions had long remained unnoticed by scholars and their prehistory being studied during the past few decades. At the beginning of the Holocene, the Eastern Balkan Peninsula was almost completely uninhabited. Mesolithic sites are few, the only one from Bulgaria being located at the ancient sand dunes near Pobiti kamuni, west of Varna. The earliest habitation in the Longoz is situated in the place of Balkuzu near the town of Dalgopol, Varna district. This site, like the rest from the period (the Early Neolithic), is united at the Tzonevo culture. The special features of the Early Neolithic in the Longoz are typical only for this area but it is quite possible they will be characteristic of other Black Sea Neolithic settlements because closest analogies were found at the site Fikirtepe near Istanbul, Turkey. The Tzonevo culture corresponds chronologically to the Karanovo II culture in Thracia and the Kriş III culture in Romania. The initial stage of the Tzonevo culture, which has to correspond to the Karanovo I culture and the earlier phases of the Kriş culture, is not found till now. It is very much possible that such settlements existed. During investigation on the curve of the fluctuations of the Black Sea level during the designated period, we considered it to be vastly below present sea level. The deep and calm mouth of the Kamchiya River was closed, and the deposits covered eventual settlements along the river banks during the next transgression about some meters. We can suppose (future deep analysis in this direction will corroborate or reject this hypothesis) that during the Neolithic the landscape “Longoza” presented a deep and jutting-out sea bay inland. The assertion that the Neolithisation of the Bulgarian Black Sea region is delayed vastly besides Thracia or Northeastern Bulgaria is appropriate but our investigation on the Black Sea level during the Early and the Middle Holocene is under way to change these conceptions.