The Lords of Salt. Provadia-Solnitsata 5600 - 4350 BC

Provadia-Solnitsata is a very large prehistoric сomplex located near the modern-day town of Provadia in Northeastern Bulgaria and not far from the key port city of Varna. It was created and inhabited by the earliest producers of table salt in Europe in the 6th and 5th millennia ВС. Almost throughout the entire late prehistory these people held a monopoly over across a vast region from the Danube to the Aegean Sea and from the Black Sea to the Central Balkans. And since without salt life of any animal system, including the human system is impossible, salt producers were very wealthy thanks to the long-distance trade. The specialized production of table salt prompted significant social changes, including a clear hierarchization of society in the region adjacent to the lower course of the Provadiyska River and Varna lakes, an expression of which is the Varna "gold" necropolis. In fact, current data suggests that this is the region whеге a complex prehistoric society developed for the first time in Europe and Provadia-Solnitsata emerged as the first prehistoric urban center on the continent. Therefore, this archaeological complex with an area of about 30 hectares is of particular significance for the early history of agriculture.

The edition presents the artifacts from the exhibition in honour of the 20 years anniversary of the beginning of archaeological researches at the complex.

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Contents

Salt creates civilization (Provadia-Solnitsata: 5600-4350 BC)

Provadia-Solnitsata: from an unknown site to a widely recognized prehistoric monument

Catalogue of the moveable cultural artifacts in the exhibition

- Late Neolithic

- Salt production during the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic

- Trade

- Middle Chalcolithic

- Defense stone walls

- Late Chalcolithic

- Cemeteries and individual graves

- Memorial rites in the Late Chalcolithic cemetery

- Late Iron Age, Roman Age and Late Antiquity