Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Pottery in the Upper Thracian Plain, Tundzha Valley and the Burgas Lowland, Bulgaria – Diversity, Technology and Distribution

The main purpose of this article is to present Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age pottery of the not so known Upper Thracian Plain, Tundzha Valley and the Burgas Lowland in Bulgaria, with an emphasis on ceramic diversity, technology, distribution, and use of vessels in archaeological contexts. The investigation shows that the ceramic of both periods consists of wares for serving, cooking, storage, and transportation. The classes of cups, jugs, plates, bowls, kantharoi -like vessels, amphora -like vessels, jars, storage vessels, and pyraunoi had been in widespread use until the 8th century BC, when a new pottery class – pithoi with a ‘wide stamp’ – was added. The general transformations, which occurred during the beginning of the Early Iron Age, included modification of the above -mentioned pottery classes to a flattened spherical form; the treatment of the surface through burnishing with the effect of polishing; decoration with a combination of flutes and knobs and firing in reduced atmosphere with control of the process to achieve the desired uniform dark colour. However, absence of major changes in the morphology of Early Iron Age ceramics probably illustrate permanently established eating habits. According to ethnographic models, each change in the pottery production which included a stylistic variation of the vessels realized without marked changes in energy investment on the part of the craftsman, such as the introduction of new decorative motifs, new ways of arranging existing motifs and even some small changes in vessel forms, points to a horizontal differentiation of the society and increased numbers of equivalently ranked groups in a given society – a change that occurred in our study area in the Early Iron Age.