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TOMB 626
The four "idols" lying around the scull appear to be guards and companions. This is a female's burial. Maybe one of a priestess, since there are plenty of ornaments.
As a rule, body-laying is oriented along the four cardinal points. The heads point to the north. That is to say, they "look on to" the North. Males were buried in a straight position, lying on their backs, while females were laid sideways with their knees drawn up. Lake Town's inhabitants believed in after life. Their idols were not only symbols of fertility, as one can read in some books. They had a much larger "sphere of action". Had this not been the case, there must have been no reason for them to be found in a tomb.
The necropolis of Lake Town is one of the largest prehistoric necropolises in the world. As many as 1 204 tombs have been unearthed so far. The burial place had been in continuous use from the second half of the Neolith up to the late Neolithic-Chalcholithic Period (5 500 - 4 100 B.C.).
During the excavation and investigation work at the site some important evidence was discovered about the prehistoric cultures of Hamangia, Sava and Varna.
Todor Dimov:
"tomb No 626 containing idols in its inventory: late New Stone Age (the beginning of the 5th millennium B.C.) - culture Hamangia III."
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TOKENS OF CULT
This antler "axe" was found in one of the tombs. It was apparently used to distinguish the deceased person or denote the character of his death. It is among the symbols of the then practiced cult.
The "axe", which looks like a planting tool, a hoe, or a hammer, was not an instrument of labour. It must have been a scepter - used either as a magic-working wand or as a symbol of stately power, but maybe as both.
The "axe" is an evidence leading us to conclude that social organization and power were thought of as values in Lake Town.
Todor Dimov::
"a cult axe made of antler from tomb No 550 of the prehistoric necropolis on the west bank of the Durankulak Lake - Stone-Copper Age (5th millennium B.C.) - culture Varna I."
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THE INSCRIPTIONS
According to a widespread opinion, the people of Lake Town, their contemporaries and their descendants, who somewhere about two thousand years B.C. were to form the Thracian ethnos, did not have a writing system of their own. In my view, it would be more correct to say that:
no written monuments are known to date that could be identified as belonging to the Thracians, the Thracian tribes or their state-like formations.
It would be difficult to imagine that such a numerous people who possessed an extraordinary culture, who played (as evidenced by Homer) so important a role in the development of the ancient world and whose monuments to be found in the present-day Bulgarian lands are tens of thousands, did not use any kind of script.
Would no Thracian chief or just distinguished Thracian in the course of long centuries, with the invariable proximity of literate peoples as their neighbours, with the continuous mutual dealings requiring at least some give-and-take records, use the signs known to them in order to write down: I came to the throne, I conquered, I built...
That sounds quite strange.
I would like to draw your attention to a fragment of a statuette and ask a question: what are these scratches?
Todor Dimov: "female clay statuette with a copper bracelet on one arm, from tomb No 453 of the Durankulak necropolis - Stone-Copper Age (5th millennium B.C.) - culture Varna I.........................................................
These "scratches" are reminiscent of the much more recent tablets from Gradeshnitsa.
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STRING OF SHELL BEADS IN THE STYLE OF THE TUNIC
Todor Dimov: "clay vessels and a string made of dentalium - from different tombs of the necropolis at Durankulak - late New Stone - early Stone-Copper Ages (the beginning of the 5th millennium B.C.) - cultures of Hamangia IV - Varna I."
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THE BELT
We are going to use this belt to tie up our amateur narrative of Lake Town.
The pattern of this belt is the same as that of the tunic, but it is a separate part of the dress. The presence of style is among the most conspicuous features of Lake Town's inhabitants.
It is not possible that they had a perception of dressing style without being aware of style in all other sphere of life. What we are witnessing here are not the ruins of an eclectic primitive world, but rather the remains of a harmoniously developed society whose culture was perhaps part of something awesome and yet unknown. Most likely, in that society:
- the basic human needs were met (within the scope of the then existent standard);
- there was a high measure of division of labour;
- stone and wood were used as building materials;
- people had knowledge of settlement planning and building;
- there existed wall painting;
- people's beliefs were related with the cult of the Mother Goddess and, presumably, the cult of the Bull;
- the miniature pottery items found in the tombs are characteristic of Lake Town inhabitants' representations of After Life;
- present was the class of priests;
- judging by the available indisputable evidence, there existed a sign-system;
- the pottery decoration provides grounds for concluding there was a well-developed abstract thinking and a definite feeling for rhythm;
- Lake Town people knew and used the: number, straight line, plane, circle, sphere, triangle, square, rectangular, rectangular parallelepiped;
- they implied meaning in the notions of: similar, male-female, the four cardinal points, the lunar phases, the annual cycle;
- the miniaturized pottery, as well as the gold ornaments allow us to presume that in Lake Town the sense of detail was part of the understanding of harmony and style;
- the dress had both aesthetic and prestige value, which means the same held true of the dwelling;
- there were intensive trade relations with other human settlements...
If the hypothesis of Petko Dimitrov, and of Ryan and Pitman about the Flood as a Black Sea episode that took place some 5 500 years ago is true, then Lake Town must be the cultural and historical site where Noah and his family started from after leaving their Arc. It was they that founded Lake Town thus also laying the foundations of the building of modern civilization.
If this hypothesis is true, then the cultures of Hamangia and Varna represent the beginning of the World.
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