Details
This volume presents the results of diachronic archaeological and palaeoecological research conducted in two study areas: the intermontane Kazanlak Valley along the Upper Tundzha River of central Bulgaria, and the Thracian Plain along the Middle Tundzha River south of the city of Yambol in southeastern Bulgaria. The Tundzha Regional Archaeology Project (TRAP), a cooperative effort including Australian, Bulgarian, and Czech investigators, undertook archaeological survey and environmental sampling between 2009-2011. Major field activities of the project included over 100 sq km of systematic pedestrian survey, legacy data verification and mapping, trial excavations, artefact processing, and environmental sampling in and around the study areas. Through this research, TRAP inventoried over 100 surface artefact concentrations and 800 burial mounds. At the heart of the volume is a geospatial analysis of settlement patterns derived from the survey dataset, which relates the footprint of past human activities to environmental and sociocultural drivers. We also present a range of associated studies conducted between 2009-2015: histories of archaeological research in both study areas, soil erosion and productivity modelling in the Kazanlak Valley, reconstruction of a 30,000-year environmental history based on samples from a wetland in the Thracian Plain north of Yambol, investigation of palaeodiet using isotope analysis of human remains from Bronze Age burials in the Yambol study area, exploration of shifting Roman occupation patterns based on trial excavations in the Yambol area, research into subsistence strategies based on palaeobotanical evidence recovered from one of the Yambol area trial excavations, analysis of trade and exchange based on the transport amphorae fragments recovered during Yambol-area survey, and epigraphic comparison and synthesis of Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman inscriptions from the two study areas. Finally, TRAP has produced a granular digital dataset of surface artefacts and features unparalleled in Bulgaria to promote reinterpretation of our results, encourage secondary studies, and foster comparative research.
Table of Contents
List of figures
List of tables
List of colour figures
Links to digital resources
List of Contributors
List of Participants
Absolute chronology
Acknowledgements
Abstract
Part I: Background and Methods
1. The Tundzha Regional Archaeology Project: history, aims, and outcomes
Shawn Ross, Adela Sobotkova, and Simon Connor
2. Surface surveys and the archaeological map of Bulgaria
Georgi Nekhrizov
3. Survey methodology
Adela Sobotkova and Shawn Ross
4. Archaeological sciences: approaches and methods
Simon Connor and Robbi Bishop-Taylor
Part II: Kazanlak Valley
5. Kazanlak Valley: topography and environment
Adela Sobotkova and Shawn Ross
6. A history of archaeological research in the Kazanlak Valley
Julia Tzvetkova, Nadezhda Kecheva, and Yulia Dimitrova
7. Surface soil survey in an archaeological context: the Kazanlak Geoscience Project
Robbi Bishop-Taylor, Karina L. Judd, Lauren Clear, and Lennard Martin
8. Kazanlak survey results
Adela Sobotkova and Shawn Ross
9. Assessing contemporaneity and uncertainty in the Kazanlak Valley survey datasets
Adela Sobotkova
10. Spatial variability in surface artefact distributions in the Kazanlak Valley
Adela Sobotkova
Part III: Yambol Study Areas
11. Yambol: topography and environment
Adela Sobotkova and Shawn Ross
12. A history of archaeological research in the Yambol province
Todor Valchev
13. Palaeoecology of the middle Tundzha Plain
Simon Connor, Andy Herries, and Scott Mooney
14 Yambol survey results
Adela Sobotkova, Shawn Ross, and Ilija K. Iliev
15. Assessing contemporaneity and uncertainty in the Yambol province datasets
Adela Sobotkova
16. Spatial variability in surface artefact distributions in the Yambol study areas
Adela Sobotkova
Part IV: Associated Studies
17 Excavation and palaeodietary analysis of Bronze Age human remains from Boyanovo, Yambol province
Karen Privat, Adela Sobotkova, Stefan Bakardzhiev, and Victoria Russeva
18. Excavations at the Roman site of Stroyno-Yurta, Yambol province (2014–2015): an interim report
Petra Tušlová, Barbora Weissová, and Stefan Bakardzhiev
19. Excavations at Dodoparon, Yambol province
Adela Sobotkova, Catherine Longford, and Stefan Bakardzhiev
20. Classical and Hellenistic transport amphorae from the Yambol province
Petra Tušlová and Barbora Weissová
21. Greek and Latin inscriptions from the Kazanlak and Yambol regions c. 500 BC to AD 300
Petra Janouchová
Bibliography
Index
Reviews & Quotes
"If reviews had to be completed in a single line, like a PhD in mathematics, the line for the present volume would be ‘This has never been done before in Bulgaria’… This is a milestone in Bulgarian field survey that hopefully will inspire many future applications."
Bisserka Gaydarska
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society
(30/01/2019)
