Archaeologists Discover 6,500-Year-Old Grave of Man Holding Stone Ax Scepter near Chalcolithic Flint Workshop in Bulgaria’s Kamenovo

2/3. The stone ax scepter held by the buried Chalcolithic man was never used as a tool or weapon, and was probably a symbol of power. Photo: archaeologist Dilen Dilov

A 6,500-year-old grave of a man holding in his hands a stone ax scepter has been discovered by archaeologists excavating a recently found necropolis from from the Chalcolithic (Aeneolithic, Copper Age) in the town of Kamenovo, Kubrat Municipality, Razgrad District, in Northeast Bulgaria.

A total of seven graves were found in the Chalcolithic necropolis in Kamenovo when it was first discovered back in September 2015. However, these were all graves of women and children (of the Mediterranean anthropological type), with the newly discovered grave being the first male grave to be found there to date, reports local news site Darik Razgrad.

Shortly before finding the necropolis, in the spring of 2015, the same archaeological team discovered in Kamenovo a 6,500-year-old Chalcolithic workshop for flint tools (still containing a large number of completed or unfinished flint tools).

Now the team led by Assoc. Prof. Yavor Boyadzhiev from the National Institute and Museum of Archaeology in Sofia and Dimitar Chernakov from the Ruse Regional Museum of History, and Dilen Dilov from the Razgrad Regional Museum of History as the deputy head of the expedition, have continued their excavations of the Chalcolithic necropolis in Kamenovo.

The new digs, which started on June 6, and are to be completed by June 25, are funded by the Razgrad Regional Museum of History. Further excavations are expected to be carried out in September 2016 with funding from Bulgaria’s Ministry of Culture.

The newly found grave of the male who was buried holding a stone ax dates back to 4,500-4,300 BC, reports local news site Top Novini Razgrad.

Inside the grave, the archaeologists also found a bead from the shell of the Spondylus mollusk which was harvested in the Mediterranean in prehistoric times. According to Boyadzhiev, the man might have worn the bead on his neck but the researchers are yet to figure out whether the adornment consisted of a single bead or more beads. [...] archaeologyinbulgaria.com


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