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Geoarchaeology and Archaeomineralogy (Eds. R. I. Kostov, B. Gaydarska, M. Gurova). 2008. Proceedings of the International Conference, 29-30 October 2008 Sofia, Publishing House “St. Ivan Rilski”, Sofia, 51-54.

STONE TOOLS FROM THE EARLY NEOLITHIC SITE DOBROSLAVTSI, SOFIA REGION

Elka Anastassova

National Institute of Archaeology and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1000 Sofia; elka_anastasova@abv.bg

ABSTRACT. The village of Dobroslavtsi is situated 15 km to the North of Sofia, in the southern foothills of the Berkovitsa Mountain. The site is situated in the Mogilkata locality, 1.5 km to the North of the village centre. The pottery sherds are highly degraded but few fragments from bases and two small red slipped white painted fragments provide reasons to date the site back to the Early Neolithic. The paper discusses the study of 60 polished stone tools collected on the Tell surface – hammer-stones (3 pieces), broken/damaged tools of various types (6 pieces), pestles (1 piece), chisels (1 piece), cotters (1 piece), adzes (11 pieces), axes (?) (7 pieces), percussors (or punches) (2 pieces), semi-finished tools (2 pieces), lower grinding stones (2 pieces), upper grinding stones (2 pieces), multifunctional tools - pestle and upper grinding stone (9 pieces), mortars (2 pieces), pestles for mortars, conical stone artefacts (4 pieces). The artefacts were studied by the same methods of analysis as the stone tool collections from West Bulgaria (already published or in press). This way all collections can be easily compared and provide opportunities for complete study of the production and the use of stone tools in the Sofia basin and the Struma Valley in the Neolithic. Despite the fact that they have been found on the surface, the artefacts form a nice collection of Early Neolithic polished stone tools, which is worth publishing. It is highly probable that a centre for production of polished tools was functioning at the site based on the large number of artefacts and the local origin of their raw material.

Introduction The village of Dobroslavtsi is situated 15 km to the North of Sofia, in the Southern foothills of the Berkovitsa Mountain. On March 13, 2007, a small team of three archaeologists – Tatiana Stefanova, Elka Anastassova and Petar Leshtakov from the Department of Prehistory (National Institute of Archaeology and Museum, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia) visited the village to verify the information that numerous archaeological artefacts have been found on the surface of the plough land in the Mogilkata locality1. The team made a survey that aimed a preliminary definition of the cultural characteristics of the site2. The site is situated in the Mogilkata locality, 1.5 km to the North of the village centre and has been located for the first time in the 1930s by N. Petkov (1936, 408). It is situated on a low natural hill, on a low-grade South slope named Venkovata Niva by the local people, immediately to the East of the road to the village of Balsha (Fig. 1). The site is most probably a settlement mound (tell), ca. 2 m high and ca. 150 m in diameter (Еast-West). It is situated on the West bank of the

1The information about the site and the finds were provided by Luka Galabov, a former teacher in Bulgarian literature and currently a curator of the archaeological and ethnographic collection at Dobroslavtsi chitalishte and Grigor Kostov, a former accountant at the village co-operative farm. 2I am deeply indebted to Mr. Luka Galabov, who was very kind to give me the opportunity to study 60 stone tools from the surface of the tell, collected by him and kept in the collection of Dobroslavtsi chitalishte and to my colleague Tatiana Stefanova for giving me the right and the pleasure to publish these artefacts.

Gabrovitsa River, which does not run dry in the summer and flows along the Southern foothill of the tell.

Fig. 1. Topographic map of the region and the site location

Foundations of a building made of large stones were found at the lower part of the hill slope during land cultivation. A considerable amount of fired lumps of wall plaster as well as sherds were found on the upper part of the hill, with the highest concentration at the highest part of the tell and on its South and East sides. A large number of complete and fragmented stone tools as well as grinding stones were also discovered.

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The sherds are highly degraded but few fragments from bases and two small red slipped white painted fragments provide reasons to date the site to the Early Neolithic. Two flint artefacts have also been found; the first one is a proximal part of a small size flint blade with white patina and the second one is a medial part of a bladelet with fine marginal retouch on the distal dorsal part of the left edge. The bladelet was made from yellow flint with whitish inclusions. The geological setting of the region is as follows: Lower Cretaceous – sandstones, marls and limestones; Lower and Middle Jurassic – flint-bearing limestones, sandstones, gravellites and conglomerates; Triassic – breccia-conglomerates with aleurolites and argillites3. The paper discusses the study of 60 polished stone tools collected on the tell surface. Two lower grinding stones from the small archaeological and ethnographic collection at Dobroslavtsi chitalishte are also presented. Due to their large size it was not possible to move them together with the rest of the artefacts; they were photographed and studied on the spot. The artefacts are divided into the following typological groups: 1. Hammer-stones spheroid or oval in shape (the shape was

not intentional, naturally shaped stones had been used) – 3 pieces;

2. Broken/damaged tools of various types reused as hammer-stones – 6 pieces;

3. Pestles (tools for crushing, made of pebbles of hard rock); they were used for crushing various products (Antonovic, 2003, 60) – 1 piece;

4. Chisels. Elongated tools with thickness approximately equal to half of their width – 1 piece;

5. Cotters. Tools similar to the chisels but their thickness is approximately equal to their width – 1 piece;

6. Adzes. Tools, whose longitudinal section of the working edge is asymmetrical (Piel-Deruisseaux, 2002, 168-193) – 11 pieces;

7. Axes (?) – 7 pieces; 8. Percussors (or punches) – 2 pieces; 9. Semi-finished tools – 2 pieces; 10. Lower grinding stones – 2 pieces; 11. Upper grinding stones – 2 pieces; 12. Multi functional tools, pestle and upper grinding stone – 9

pieces; 13. Mortars – 2 pieces; 14. Pestles for mortars. Conical stone artefacts – 4 pieces. The artefacts were studied by the same methods of analysis as the stone tool collections from West Bulgaria (already published or in press). This way all collections can be easily compared and provide opportunities for complete study of the production and the use of stone tools in the Sofia basin and the Struma Valley in the Neolithic.

3The geological data of the region and the petrographic analysis of the artefacts were provided by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ruslan I. Kostov, Dept. of Mineralogy and Petrography, University of Mining and Geology “St. Ivan Rilski”, Sofia, to whom I express my genuine gratitude.

Hammer-stones and pestles Hammer-stones made of pebbles – 3 pieces. They are additionally shaped in order to make it easier to hold them. Two of the artefacts are made of acid to medium igneous rocks and one – of feldspar (from gravel). Hammer-stones made of reutilized tools – 6 pieces. Four pieces are made from argillite, 1 – of volcanic rock and 1 – from coarse-grained sandstone. The pestle is a fragmented artefact, oval in shape and with exploitation of the edge. It is made of a quartz pebble.

Chisels This typological unit is represented by an artefact quite large in size (Fig. 2-1) having a roughly finished surface. It produces a metallic clink when the surface is hit. The artefact was used and partially damaged by a hammer-stone at the working edge as well as the distal part. The tool is made from quartz.

Cotters There is only one middle size representative made of volcanic rock. The angle between the two planes, forming the working edge, is ca. 60º. The use wear on the working edge are perpendicular to the edge. The working edge is convex.

Adzes Three sub-types are defined within the tool assemblage: 1 – trapezoid adzes with ellipsoid or almost round cross-section – 4 pieces (Fig. 2-7). The artefacts are made from rocks bearing quartz and plagioclase; 2 – trapezoid adzes with planconvex cross-section – the ventral side of the tool is almost straight and the dorsal side is convex – 6 pieces (Fig. 2-4); 3 – trapezoid adzes with quadrangular cross-section – 1 piece. The length of the tools varies between 90 and 110 mm, the width – between 50 and 60 mm, and the thickness – between 20 and 30 mm. One of the tools is small in size (57 mm long, 36 mm wide and 12 mm thick); it is also made from a different raw material – a nephrite-bearing serpentinite rock (Fig. 2-4,8). Three artefacts have a straight working edge, 3 have oblique working edge, 1 has a convex working edge, 1 has an asymmetric convex working edge and 2 pieces have damaged working edges. The use-wear analysis provided information that 4 artefacts bear use-wear traces, which are perpendicular to the working edge, 4 bear use-wear traces, which are at a certain angle to the edge and 3 are unidentifiable. The most numerous (4 pieces) are the artefacts having an angle ca. 50º between the two planes forming the working edge. The angle of the rest of the artefacts varies between 25º and 60º. The petrographic analysis provided the information that 6 tools were made of argillite and single tools were made of a sedimentary rock, alleurolite or nephrite-bearing serpentinite.

Axes In this paper I use the term “axe” to define a new tool category. These are not the typical Neolithic axes but a category, which is closer to the adzes. The tools are asymmetrical but in contrast to the typical adzes, their asymmetry is not shaped by a sharply divided plane and the “edges” of the plane are smoothed and flow gradually to the middle of the tool (Fig. 2-5, 6). The length of these tools varies

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Fig. 2. Stone artefacts of the Early Neolithic site Dobroslavtsi: 1 – chisel; 2 – pestle for mortar; 3 – polyfunctional tool, pestle for mortar and upper grinding stone; 4, 7 – adzes; 5, 6 – “axes”; 4, 8 – adze from nephrite-bearing serpentinite – drawing, micro and macro photography

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between 60 and 80 mm, their width – between 42 and 60 mm and their thickness – between 19 and 22 mm. The working edge of 5 tools is convex. The use-wear traces are at an angle towards the working edge (3 artefacts), perpendicular (2 artefacts) and parallel (1 artefact). The angles between the planes forming the working edge vary between 35º and 60º. The number of the tools made from argillite is the highest, followed by single tools made from alleuroulite and volcanic rock. It is worth mentioning that Dobroslavtsi is the second site in West Bulgaria, where the typical axes were not common and were replaced by adze type or similar tools (Anastassova, 2008а; 2008b).

Lower grinding stones This category is represented by 2 artefacts of very large size and classic shape.

Upper grinding stones Two fragmented artefacts represent the typical upper grinding tools. They are made from coarse-grained sandstone and feldspar.

Mortars This category is also represented by 2 fragmented artefacts made from sandstone.

Pestles for mortars This category comprises 4 artefacts, 2 of which are made from volcanic rock and 2 – from gravellite or coarse-grained sandstone (Fig. 2-2).

Polyfunctional tool – pestle for mortar + upper grinding stone This group of polifunctional tools comprises 9 artefacts, one of them completely preserved (Fig. 2-3). Four tools are made of coarse-grained sandstone and the rest are made from red sandstone. The tools are conical or cylindrical in shape; they have traces of crushing in a mortar on one of the short sides and use-wear traces from grinding on the long side. A similar tool was found in the Late Neolithic house 5 at the Tell Provadia-Solnitsata as well (Anastassova, 2008c).

Punches or percussors This typological group comprises 2 artefacts; they are elongated in shape and their plane makes an angle at the working edge. The plane at the working edge bears traces of the flakes detached in the area in contact with the flint core and traces from strikes at the opposite end on which the strikes were made. The two artefacts are made from different raw materials – sandstone and alleurolite – and had been chosen because of their shape. They were used without any additional re-shaping.

Conclusion Despite the fact that they have been found on the surface, the above presented artefacts form a nice collection of Early Neolithic polished stone tools, which is worth publishing. It is highly probable that a centre for production of polished tools was functioning at the site based on the large number of artefacts and the local origin of their raw material.

References Anastassova, Е. 2008а. Stone tools from the prehistoric site

Bulgarchevo (Blagoevgrad region). – In: The Prehistoric Site Bulgarchevo, Blagoevgrad Region (in Bulgarian; in press).

Anastassova, Е. 2008b. Stone assemblages from the prehistoric site Bulgarchevo: typological and functional characteristics. – In: National Conference “Prehistoric Studies in Bulgaria: New Challenges” (Ed. M. Gurova), Peshtera, 26-29 April 2006, 92-95 (in Bulgarian).

Anastassova, Е. 2008c. House 5. Flint, stone and bone artefacts. – In: The Prehistoric Salt Producing Centre Provadia-Solnitsata. Excavations 2005-2007 (Ed. V. Nikolov), Sofia, 76-79 (in Bulgarian).

Antonović, D. 2003. Neolitska industrija glačanog kamena u Srbiji. Posebna izd. 37, Arheološki Institut, Beograd, 164 s.

Petkov, N. 1936. Prehistorical study of the Sofia field and its close environments. – Godishnik na Narodniya Muzei, 6, 403-423 (in Bulgarian).

Piel-Desruisseaux, J.-L. 2002. Outils préhistoriques. Du galet taillé au bistouri d’obsidienne. Paris.