Archaeological discoveries near Lovech unequivocally reveal the roots of European civilization in Bulgarian lands

published on 7/20/24 11:05 AM

Photo: BTA

Not far from the town of Lovech, between the villages of Doirentsi and Drenov, during the construction of the future route of the Hemus motorway, a seven-thousand-year-old pit sanctuary surrounded by a ritual ditch was discovered. Its exploration began two years ago with drilling and after some interruption, in May this year archaeologists resumed the excavations, which are led by prof. Vasil Nikolov and Assoc. Prof. Galina Samichkova, PhD, from the National Archaeological Institute and Museum of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. In front of the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) Prof. Nikolov said that the archaeological monument dates back to the Neolithic to Chalcolithic transition, which is more than 2,000 years before the beginning of the Egyptian civilization.

Archaeologists unearth 7-millenia-old sanctuary near Bulgaria's Lovech

This is one of the largest archaeological sites in this part of the highway, which is about 740 meters long and over 70 meters wide. The sanctuary itself, where 40 ritual pits have been uncovered, is about 196 meters wide. Its length, which remains in unexcavated ground, is thought to be even greater.

"This sanctuary, about 7,000 years old, is of the earliest farmers and cattle breeders in the Bulgarian lands - people who produced, settled in settlements with stable houses and already took very hard care of their crops related to specific rituals", said Acad. Vasil Nikolov. "For modern man it is difficult to understand the mentality of those people of 7,000 years ago, but for them the production of more grain, the fertility of animals and in the family were of the utmost importance."

Originally, fertility rites were done near the settlements. In the centuries that followed, however, these activities went beyond them - to the most fertile lands near a spring. According to Acad. Vasil Nikolov, there is no other such sanctuary found in present-day Northern Bulgaria with the exact outline of the ritual ditch that bounded the sacred area where people performed such rites and always had to be next to a spring. In fact, the culture represented by our ancestors in today's Bulgarian lands is the time of the first European civilization:

"The sixth and fifth millennia B.C. are the golden millennia of today's Bulgarian lands", notes Acad. Nikolov. "This particular sanctuary that we are now exploring is from the middle of this period. These people are the driving force of culture in Europe. This is where the roots of European civilization started, and this rich ritual that we are recording is proof of that."

Skeletal human remains have also been uncovered in the sanctuary, which are laid in the shallow ditch that surrounds it. This ritual, which archaeologists are recording for the first time in the Lower Danube region, is still subject to many analyses and conclusions. Remains of broken pottery have also been found in the same ditch as in the ritual pits. Those who performed the sacrificial offering would butcher the animal and prepare food for a common meal, some of which would be placed in the ritual pit.

"The ritual pit symbolizes the womb of the Mother Goddess", explains Acad. Nikolov. People put this food with the request that the goddess multiply what she receives in her womb, thus symbolically to give birth to the new harvest in the field, new generations of animals, and new generations in the home."

The sanctuary was used not only by the inhabitants of one village, but by the whole region, adds Acad. Vasil Nikolov. According to him, it was a community of people who performed the rituals together because they were in a strong social bond and the sacred place united them.

The team led by acad. Nikolov is planning to prepare a complete documentation with many drawings and photographs. The data from the study of the sanctuary will then be published in a monographic scientific work.