The Neolithic Age
The first regular archaeological studies in the field of The Neolithic Age were carried out in the 1960s and 1970s by Bogdan Nikolov. Neolithic settlements were excavated in the center of the village of Tlachene, in the Malo Pole and Lukanovo Darvo localities. A new Neolithic culture, “Gradeshnitsa-Karcha”, hitherto unknown, was discovered. During the recent years, particular interest has been raised by the findings from the excavations led by Georgi Ganetsovski in the Valoga locality. The material remains that were discovered there prove that the earliest agricultural societies originated in direct contact with the local Mesolithic cultural traditions at the end of the seventh millennium BC, and created the basis for the emergence of the first agricultural civilization in Bulgaria. Discoveries were made of a new neolithic culture, earlier than “Gradeshnitsa-Karcha”, as well as of intramural “hoker” tombs (tombs in which the body is in a fetal position) from the “Monochrome Neolith” Era.