BALEY: New Discoveries

Abstract

The village of Baley, NW Bulgaria, is located on the Timok river, 3 km away from the Danube river. Rumen Katincharov (NAIM-BAS) and Anna Iotsova (RIM-Vidin) excavated a prehistoric settlement with remnants of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age between early 70's and the end of the 80's. In 2009 construction activities in a private property revealed fragments of ceramics. Those were carefully collected and 10 pots and a piece of clay anthropomorphic figurine - the subject of this message - have been restored. The ten vessels and the anthropomorphic statuette are classified into 4 groups depending on their shape and decoration (or lack thereof). After examining the analogies of ceramics, it can be assumed that the Baley cemetery presents chronologically a long period (covering the development of at least three ceramic styles) of the Late Bronze Age and the transition to the Early Iron Age (from the middle of 2 millennium BC to its end). Findings from these three chronological stages occur in the area of ​​the Iron Gates of the Danube.

Keywords

• baley
• late bronze age
• early iron age