Yunatsite Tell — Pazardzhik Buried Balkans Tell
Yunatsite · Tell Yunatsite · Junacite Tell
Early Neolithic to EBA (5800–2200 BCE; ditch phase 4600 BCE)·Karanovo I–VI → Karanovo VI–Gumelniţa → Ezero·🇧🇬 Pazardzhik Province, Yunatsite village, Thracian plain, Bulgaria
About
About Yunatsite Tell — Pazardzhik Buried Balkans Tell
Yunatsite is a 11 m high Early Neolithic to Early Bronze flat tell (5800–2200 BCE) excavated by Rumen Katincharov and V. Matsanova since 1939, largest in western Thrace. Villages Karanovo I–VI, 4600 BCE double-ditched burnt massacre horizon with 30 skeletons with arrow/trauma (earliest massacre in Europe), Early Bronze Ezero culture shaft graves. Rescue after 1928 earthquake exposed Chalcolithic houses.
Why it mattersDocuments earliest European massacre (4600 BCE) proving systemic violence at Chalcolithic collapse, contemporaneous with Varna gold and Petras massacre.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Attackers steppe or neighbour Gumelniţa internecine?
Theories
- 01Boyadzhiev: Ezero hunter assault on Chalcolithic farmers
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.5800 BCE (Karanovo I early)
- Period
- Early Neolithic to EBA (5800–2200 BCE; ditch phase 4600 BCE)
- Culture
- Karanovo I–VI → Karanovo VI–Gumelniţa → Ezero
- Builders
- Thracian Neolithic to EBA miners
- Purpose
- Thracian plain agrarian town with copper metallurgy and ditch enclosure
- Abandoned
- c.2200 BCE (EBA crisis)
- Rediscovered
- 1928 earthquake rubble; 1939 university project
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
1939–
Katincharov ongoing; Balkani river section
c.4600 BCE
Double-ditch massacre with arrow perforated skulls
On the ground
Structures & features
42.2300° N · 24.2800° E · 225 m · 3 mapped features
Yunatsite Double Ditch Massacre
fortification3 m deep V-ditch with 30 traumatic skeletons
42.2306° N · 24.2805° EYunatsite Karanovo VI Burned Houses
habitationBurned wattle longehouses with Gumelniţa painted jars
42.2293° N · 24.2808° EYunatsite Ezero Shaft Graves
cemeteryEBA shaft cist pits cutting massacre ditch fill
42.2310° N · 24.2794° E