Karanovo

a hill in southern Bulgaria, where the remains of ancient settlements have been found; its stratigraphy serves as the foundation for the periodization of the Neolithic and Aeneolithic periods in Bulgaria. Excavations were conducted at Karanovo by V. Mikov and G. Georgiev in 1936 and between 1947 and 1957. There are seven primary cultural levels (five according to V. Mikov) in a bed with an overall thickness of 13.5 m. The lowest level contained remains of an early Neolithic culture dating from the sixth-fifth millennium B.C.: pottery with white paintings on a red background, sickles made of horn with flint insets, grain mortars, and remains of large rectangular dwellings with stoves (Karanovo I). The third level yielded remains of the late Neolithic Veselinovo culture (middle of the fifth millennium B.C.). Black and gray glazed pottery and four-legged vessels are typical of this level. The fifth level (Maritsa culture, beginning of the fourth millennium B.C.) had gray pottery with incised ornamentation filled in with white paste. The sixth level belongs to the Bulgarian variation of the Gumelnija culture (middle of the fourth millennium B.C.). Among the discoveries in this level are houses with stoves, grain reserves, and pottery decorated with graffiti. The seventh level pertains to the early Bronze Age (third millennium B.C.). Typical remains of this level are houses with apses and black and brown pottery decorated with cord impressions.