AMS dating of the Late Copper Age Varna cemetery, Bulgaria

Journal article

The Varna I cemetery, Bulgarian Black Sea coast, is one of the most remarkable sites in European prehistory, with the world’s earliest large-scale assemblage of gold artefacts. Modeling of the first series of 14 AMS dates yielded a duration of c. 150 years, ~4600—4450 cal BC. However, there were insufficient paired human–animal dates for a full consideration of the question of the marine reservoir effect. Here, a fuller set of 71 dates from 53 graves is presented. We identify a small reservoir effect in a number of individuals based on 14C, carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes. We test the effect of this by building a series of different Bayesian models. Our favoured model, including a correction for some of the human determinations, shows activity at the cemetery starting at 4596—4516 cal BC (95.4%) and ending at 4427—4341 cal BC. The overall span of activity covers ~120-260 years (93.6% prob.). The modeling shows that Varna I falls towards the beginning of the Bulgarian Late Copper Age.

Authors: Higham, T; Slavchev, V; Gaydarska, B; Chapman, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Journal: Radiocarbon
• Volume: 60
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 493-516
• Publication date: 2018-03-01
• Acceptance date: 2017-11-16
• DOI: 10.1017/RDC.2018.9
• EISSN: 1945-5755
• ISSN: 0033-8222
• Keywords: Copper Age; Bulgaria; marine reservoir effect; AMS dating; Varna cemetery