Middle Bronze Age Necropolis Near Baley, North-West Bulgaria

Abstract

In the article, thirty-two Middle Bronze Age cremation graves, containing thirty-four urns from the Bronze Age necropolis near Baley, north-west Bulgaria are discussed. All the Middle Bronze Age graves but one contained one urn only, usually an amphora-like vessel being used as a “container” for the bones. The grave inventory is relatively sparse, around 12% of the graves presenting grave goods – three bronze ornaments, a clay cup as well as one stone, and bone pendant. Based on the analyses of the pottery and bronze ornaments, the chronological position of the graves discussed is set in the first half of the second millennium BC. An AMS date from feature no. 160 secures the grave’s position in the 19th– 18th century cal. BC. The necropolis is related to the early phases of the Verbicioara phenomenon. The problems of the investigations of Middle Bronze Age Verbicioara mortuary practices and the cultural affiliations in the region of north-west Bulgaria during the first half of the second millennium BC are discussed as well.