Overview

This volume presents the results of diachronic archaeological and palaeoecological research conducted in two study areas: the intermontane Kazanlak Valley along the Upper Tundzha River of central Bulgaria, and the Thracian Plain along the Middle Tundzha River south of the city of Yambol in southeastern Bulgaria. The Tundzha Regional Archaeology Project (TRAP), a cooperative effort including Australian, Bulgarian, and Czech investigators, undertook archaeological survey and environmental sampling between 2009-2011. Major field activities of the project included over 100 sq km of systematic pedestrian survey, legacy data verification and mapping, trial excavations, artefact processing, and environmental sampling in and around the study areas. Through this research, TRAP inventoried over 100 surface artefact concentrations and 800 burial mounds. At the heart of the volume is a geospatial analysis of settlement patterns derived from the survey dataset, which relates the footprint of past human activities to environmental and sociocultural drivers. We also present a range of associated studies conducted between 2009-2015: histories of archaeological research in both study areas, soil erosion and productivity modelling in the Kazanlak Valley, reconstruction of a 30,000-year environmental history based on samples from a wetland in the Thracian Plain north of Yambol, investigation of palaeodiet using isotope analysis of human remains from Bronze Age burials in the Yambol study area, exploration of shifting Roman occupation patterns based on trial excavations in the Yambol area, research into subsistence strategies based on palaeobotanical evidence recovered from one of the Yambol area trial excavations, analysis of trade and exchange based on the transport amphorae fragments recovered during Yambol-area survey, and epigraphic comparison and synthesis of Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman inscriptions from the two study areas. Finally, TRAP has produced a granular digital dataset of surface artefacts and features unparalleled in Bulgaria to promote reinterpretation of our results, encourage secondary studies, and foster comparative research.

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9781789250541

Table of Contents

Reviews

If reviews had to be completed in a single line, like a PhD in mathematics, the line for the present volume would be ‘This has never been done before in Bulgaria’… This is a milestone in Bulgarian field survey that hopefully will inspire many future applications. * Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society *

If reviews had to be completed in a single line, like a PhD in mathematics, the line for the present volume would be `This has never been done before in Bulgaria'... This is a milestone in Bulgarian field survey that hopefully will inspire many future applications. * Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society *

Author Information

Shawn Ross is a Professor in the Department of Ancient History, Maquarie University, Sydney. His research interests include the history and archaeology of pre-Classical Greece, oral tradition as history (especially Homer and Hesiod), the archaeology of prehistoric and ancient Thrace, Greece in its wider Mediterranean and Balkan context, and the application of information technology to the humanities. Adela Sobotkova is a Research Fellow in the Department of Ancient History, Maquarie University, Sydney researching socio-cultural evolution among the Ancient Thracians. Her research interests include the archaeology and history (both environmental and socio-cultural) of the Black Sea region and northern Balkans, with a special focus on local trajectories of (non-)state formation Julia Tzvetkova, of the Department of Ancient History, Thracian Studies and Medieval History, Sofia University ""St. Kliment Ohridski"" researches in the History of Geography, Cultural History and Historiography. Her research interests include the history of Ancient Greece and Thrace, ancient the Early Iron age and Classical archaeology and GIS in Archaeology and Ancient History Georgi Nekhrizov is an archaeologist at the National Archaeological Institute and Museum, Sofia, Bulgaria. His main scientific interests are in the field of Thracian culture. Dr Simon Connor is a research fellow and Academic Programs Manager at the University of Melbourne. His research focuses on the long-term interactions between humans and environments in the world's biodiversity hotspots.

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