Découverte d’un site palafitte de l’âge du bronze ancien dans la lagune d’Alepou (municipalité de Sozopol, département de Burgas), Bulgarie

Abstract

A new pile-dwelling settlement has been discovered during coring investigations on the shores of the Alepu lagoon (municipality of Sozopol, department of Burgas), on the western Black Sea coast, in Bulgaria. A multi-disciplinary methodology was applied to analyze the archaeological dataset, composed of wood piles, abundant charcoals and wood fragments, seeds, fish and shell remains, a few small bone fragments, some lithic fragments and potsherds. The piles were trimmed from oak trees and sunk into lagoonal muds, and currently lie 5.8 to 6.8 m below mean sea level. It highlights a wooden building at the edge of Alepu palaeo-lagoon. Charcoal remains confirm the use of oak tree as a dominant timber resource, consistent with pollen data for this period. Palaeo-botanic remains highlight gathering activities and the consumption of wild grapes, raspberries and figs. The herbaceous assemblage evokes deforestation activities. Exploitation of coastal resources is well attested by the great density of fish remains, dominated by anchovy (61%), highlighting possible preservation of fish products. Five radiocarbon dates constrain the age of the site to between 3350 and 3000 cal. BC.The Alepu piles-dwelling settlement sheds new light on the very beginning of the Early Bronze Age in coastal Bulgaria. Adding fresh information to the local archaeological record, it completes the well-discussed issue of the protohistoric submerged settlements, revealing in turn the economic strategies of the societies at the end of the transitional period. Considerations about geomorphological settings of these sites underline the evolution of the regional settlement patterns, as well as the importance of lagoonal locations. Lagoon contexts not only offer abundant fish resources, as attested by our data from Alepu, but also good conditions for anchorage. These sites were later drowned, preserved and buried following the relative rise of the Black Sea level.