The Karanovo culture is a neolithic culture (Karanovo I-III ca. 62nd to 55th centuries BC) named for the Bulgarian village of Karanovo (Караново, Sliven Province ). The site at Karanovo itself was a hilltop settlement of 18 buildings, housing some 100 inhabitants. This site was inhabited more or less continuously from the early 7th to the early 2nd millennia BC.

The Gumelnita-Karanovo culture (Gumelnita is a site on the left (Romanian) bank of the Danube) is a chalcholithic (5th millennium) culture, extending along the Black Sea coast to central Bulgaria and into Thrace. The aggregate "Gumelnita-Karanovo VI-Kodjadermen" evolves out of the earlier Boian, Marita and Karanovo V cultures. It is supplanted by Cernavoda I in the early 4th millennium.

Timeline

The layers at Karanovo are employed as a chronological system for Balkans prehistory:

• Karanovo I-II: Early Neolithic (6th millennium BC)
• Karanovo III-IV: Late Neolithic (5th millennium BC)
• Karanovo V-VI: Chalcolithic (4th millennium BC)
• Karanovo VII: Early Bronze Age (3300-2700 BC)

Literature

• Stefan Hiller, Vassil Nikolov (eds.), Karanovo III. Beiträge zum Neolithikum in Südosteuropa Österreichisch-Bulgarische Ausgrabungen und Forschungen in Karanovo, Band III, Vienna (2000), ISBN 3-901232-19-2.

Notes

External links

• http://www.bulgariatravel.org/eng/sights.php?id=15
• http://www.worldmuseumofman.org/balkanneolithic1.htm
• http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/harsova/en/dobro3.htm