Rasho Rashev Introduction Рашо Рашев Увод н и дум и Christina Angelova, Mark. Stefanovich Henrieta Todorova Христина Ангелова, Марк Стефанович Хенриета Тодорова Кратка биография

In 1988 the zoologist Georgi Ribarov in passing mentioned in his paper at the Interna­tional Symposium Thracia-Pontica a "spoon of deer's horn", whose handle was representing a "horse head". The find was among those discov­ered during the underwater excavations of the submerged Eneolithic settlement in the Sozopol harbor. Ribarov did not present any photograph or drawing of the spoon and so nobody paid attention to the report about the "horse head" figure (Ribarov 1991, 115—116). The prelimi-nary excavation report for 1987 by V. Popov is extremely frugal and the bone spoon is not at all mentioned there (flonoB/kathhmapob 1988, 39). Nothing is said about the "horse headed" spoon also in subsequent publications conse-crated to the Sozopol Eneolithic settlement (Ahpeaoba et al. 1993; Ahieaoba et al. 1995; Draganov 1995; Draganov 1998).

I carne across the spoon bearing an animal head figure at its handle in the beginning of2003 during a review of the ceramics from the archae­ological site in question stored in the Center of Underwater Archaeology in Sozopol. The figure being directly related to the stone zoomorphic scepters problem and the Fourth millennium discussion, studied as well by my highly esteemed tutor Prof. Todorova, I am presenting here in more detail this exceptional find.

Object description

The spoon is made of a solid bone witness-ing a highly skilled workmanship. Two distinct parts can be discerned: shovel and handle.

All surfaces are polished. Ribarov's alléga­tion that the spoon's material is a deer's horn cannot be sustained. All the external indica­tions and particularly the lack of the charac-teristic horn texture, lead to the conclusion that the material is bone and not horn. The size itself and the flatness of the spoon tend to show as origin a long bone of a big herbivorous animal. A horse bone is not to be excluded, but this is to be only considered as a spéculation connected about the figure itself being a horse head (Fig. 1).

The object overall length is 16 cm while the maximum width is 3.8 cm. The shovel is wide with a drop like shape and is very slightly bent. By a smooth transition it modifies into a long and lean handle, with an oval, nearly circular, cross-section. The handle is minimum 0.6 cm thick. The shovel's minimum thickness is about 0.2 cm.

A three-dimensional miniature figure of an animal's head is sculptured at the end of the handle. The head overall length is hardly 2.3 cm. Despite the small size, ali the détails are represented very skilUully by deeply carved and exceptionally thin lines. Most probably they

0 3 cm

Fig. 1. Bone spoon with zoomorphic handle, Sozopol, Submerged Final Chacolithic Settlement (pholo: K. Dimitrov, scale 3:1; drawings G. Kazarov)

I I I I I I I I I I I

0 3 cm

Fig. 2. Details of the zoomorphic sporn handle, Sozopol, typological index 18 (photos: K. Dimitrov, scale 1:1; drawings G. Kazarov)

have been eut by a fine and sharp flint instru­ment. The figure is slightly f lattened symmetri-cally at both sides of the spoon handle — the right-hand side profile at the upper side and the left-hand side profile at the dovvn side ofthe spoon (Fig. 1 a; Fig. 2).

The basic shape in this zoomorphic figure is a muffle, in which a mouth, eyes and jaw are discerned.

The muffle is rounded and lifted in the nose part. Its surface is partially eroded, but up left cari be noted two small parallel indentations can be noted up left marking a nostril. Most prob-ably fbrmerly they have been four. The mouth is depicted at both head sides by a long straight line sunk tili the eyes level. At the upper side it is limited by two short indentations under cer­tain angle. Curiously enough the mouth line is

interruptecl at the mutile front side. The eyes are not just drawn but are three dimensionally sculptured. Although their surface is partially eroded, further détails can be perceived — most probably pupils.

The lower jaw is represented by Symmetrie low relief arcs at both head sides behind the eyes. Marks from a repeated passing of a fine cutter are conserved at the lower head side. The ears are shown at the upper side ofthe head as a smooth and slightly protruded continuation of both jaws arcs.

I have dealt in detail with the features of the miniatine zoomorphic head from Sozopol so that demonstrating its parallels becomes clearer and better grounded (Fig. 2).

There is no doubt the ncarest similar figures are to be searched among the zoomorphic scept-ers, although they are made of stone and have con-siderably larger size (Getov 1980, 91; Tojopoba 1986, 221-227). Few years ago Bl. Govedarica and E. Kaiser published a special study dedi-cated to these finds (Govedarica/ Kaiser 1996). It discusses 14 objects from South East Europe, so far ail the known ofthe zoomorphic type, and offers a typology (Fig. 3; Table 1). Adding a new object, a new zoomorphic figure in our case, cré­âtes a good chance for verifying the objectivity of the typology proposed by them for this kind of finds. A better vision on the "ideal prototype" of the zoomorphic figures could be expected from the compai ison between the stone scepters and the Sozopol bone représentation.

The first attempi to indicate directly the best parallel met certain difficulty. Il turned

A. Sviali fìat villi nail décoration

B. Biconic vessel villi nail impressed décoration

C. Fragment afa biconic vessel villi incised décoration

Fig. 6. Ceramics from the Submerged Final Chacolithic Seulement Sozopol (photos: K. Dimitrov, scale 1:2)

ont that the various features of the Sozopol figure: the muffle, the eyes, the lower jaw, the ears, the proportions as well as the détails and the work technique find similarity, but each in a différent zoomorphic scepters, i.e. not regularly in the saine one. I had therefore to introduce some kind of évaluation method and accord-ingly adopted index by values from 3 to 1 the iconographie features of every scepter: 3 for maximum similarity with the Sozopol zoomor­phic figure and 1 for minimum. The muffle

indexing takes into account the general shape and the way of representing the nostrils; the mouth indexing — its shape and the technique of exécution; the eyes indexing — the general shape, the location and the détails; the jaws and ears indexing — their shape.

A separate indexing is used for the propor­tions.

Scepters having détails which are missing in the Sozopol figure are negatively indexée!: from -3 to -l.¹ This way every scepter was indexed

in Function of its iconographie similarity with the Sozopol figure. The results from 10 stone figures are reflected in Table 1.

The indexes analysis shows that none of the stone seepters is completely identical with the Sozopol figure. The nearest turn out to be chose from Drama, Räzevo, Fedele§eni and Säleuta - all of them type A in the Govedarica/Kaiser classification.

Some additional similarities with the So­zopol find, besides the pure iconographie ones, could be mentioned too:

— The Fedele§eni and Säleuta finds are also from Settlements;

— The Drama, Räzevo, Fedeleseni and Säleuta objects are from the zone of the large Late Eneolithic farming cultures complex Kodzadermen-Gumelnita-Karanovo VI —Tri-polie/Cucuteni.

Unfortunately the Drama and Räzevo seept­ers have no clear archaeological context (Gftov 1980, 92).

Notes on the stratigraphy of the find from Sozopol, its dating and its cultural connection

It was already made clear in the beginning that the exact stratigraphie position of the So­zopol spoon is not well documented, since no detailed publication on the 1987 excavation is available. Nevertheless some clues about this case exist: Ribarov's note about its origin from the Sozopol Eneolithic settlement and the fact that in 2003 the object was "discovered" within the mass Eneolithic ceramic material from the Sozopol harbor. From thèse two facts the con­clusion about the bone spoon origin is quite cer­tain — from the underwater excavations in the Sozopol harbor.

It is known that there are in this site only two prehistoric cultural layers: Eneolithic and from the early Bronze Age (Draganov 1995, 233— 235; Draganov 1998, 212—216, fig. 1). The EBA settlement is linked to the Mihalic phase of Ezero culture or the ЕВА II according to its ceramics characteristics (Лешаков 1995, 21, 82; Draganov 1998, 218; Георгиев et ali 1979, 249; Мерперт/Георгиев 1973). This chronological position, supported by ^,4C calibrateci dates, leads positively to a dating around the beginning of the third millennium ВС (Бояджиев 1992; Boyadzif.v 1995, 173—177; Gorsijorf/Bojauziev

1996, 140—141). Such a date is loo late for a fig­ure of the zoomorphic type seepters. Then we have to accept that the Sozopol spoon with the zoomorphic figure should be related certainly to the Eneolithic settlement.

V. Draganov assumes that it could be dat­eci to the final Eneolithic age and indicates as nearest parallels the ceramics from the Ja-godinska cave I horizon, Telis-Redutite — III horizon, the late Krivodol phases (Abpamoba 1992; Абрамова 1992a, 244-246; Вайсов 1992; Ганецовски 1993, 87-90; Гергов 1987, 44-48, обр. 3-5; Гергов 1992; Гергов 1992а, 350-353). We could invoke also the stratigraphie observa­tions and the published ceramic material from the Sozopol excavations in 1990 and 1993 (Dra­ganov 1995, 233-236, fig. 7, 8, 9; Draganov 1998, fig. 2-4).

The full treatment of the mass material from Sozopol harbor being carried out and will be published separately. Неге I can draw the at­tention to some preliminary notes, characteris-tic for this ceramics complex (Fig. 4-8):

— The ceramics color is dark, mostly gray, dark gray or black. Seldom some vessels and fragments are brown and light beige (Fig. 6c);

— Most vessels are well shaped from fine clay and with good surface finish;

— The basic clay temper is inorganic — fine sand and very seldom crushed pottery (grob). In the clay of some vessels are found traces from a fine organic temper — probably animai dung. There are single vessels and fragments with more organic temper and finely crushed shells;

— The basic shapes are typical with sharp edged profiles;

Some cups and pots have a rounded wid-est body part, the lower vessel third having a roughed surface, limited on the top by a "false edge"(Fig. 5; Fig. 7e; Fig. 8e). Often these false edges are stressed upon by nail punctures or finger pinches;

— Présent are ring shaped small handles, most often at the false edge, anyway within the lower vessel half. Small tong-shaped handles are more often to be seen on dishes and pots, also on the false edge. Absent are shapes of am-phora type with large vertical handles fixed at the mouth and the false edge. No horizontal handles are observed also on the vessels Shoul­ders. Only small ring shaped handles at the

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