Corridor: Eastern Trans-Balkan Road
Country: Bulgaria, Stara Zagora
Type: Ancient Site
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Stara Zagora Is one of the oldest towns in Bulgaria and in South Eastern Europe. The earliest inhabitants of these lands were agricultural and stockbreeding communities, that settled at the end of 7th and beginning of 8th millennium BC – the New Stone Age. Their dwellings, inhabited in the course of two-three millenniums, are settlement mounds. There are findings from the period of the Neolithic and Chalcolithic Ages – vessels and ceramic idols, found in mounds in the region. In the outlines of the present town Stara Zagora are found five prehistoric settlements.
Of greatest interest are two dwellings from the early Neolithic Age (the new Stone Age) known in Thrace as culture Karanovo II. These two dwellings, dating back to the 6th c. BC, are ones of the best preserved in the world prehistoric dwellings. They are the bets preserved and with the richest household equipment Neolithic dwellings in Europe, revealing way of living and man’s evolution during that period. They were discovered on the territory of the most ancient village in the region, and after their conservation nowadays they are exhibited in a special protective building – the museum “Neolithic dwellings” part of the Historical Museum – Stara Zagora.
The two Neolithic dwellings were built at the same time, as twin-house, covered by one roof. The walls were made of hedge, plastered from inside and outside with clay, the floor and furniture were also of clay. They had an oven, a clay platform, bed, big clay granaries, altars, and a number of clay vessels, stone tools, grain mills. The Neolithic dwellings were built on the most convenient place – on the Eastern slope of the hill, lit by the sunrays, close to a fresh water spring. Suddenly they were deserted by their inhabitants, by the burning of the settlement around 5500 BC. The furniture was covered by the burned walls of the dwellings. In the museum “Neolithic dwellings” are exhibited not only findings from the household equipment and furniture - ovens, grain storage pots, primitive mill for grinding grain, pottery, tools, etc., the exhibition traces out prehistoric art from the whole region.

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