A flint deposit, a tell and a shaft: a lithic production complex at Ravno 3-Kamenovo? (Early Chalcolithic, North-East Bulgaria)

The socio-economic upheavals of the Chalcolithic are particularly evident in southeastern Europe within the zone of the Kodžadermen-Gumelnița-Karanovo VI cultural complex. In the lithic industry, they are accompanied by a specialized production of objects that are related to both identity and prestige. These are very long blades manufactured by the lever pressure technique. The zone of distribution of these very long blades coincides with that of graphite decorated pottery, defined as a Graphite Pottery Zone. While it is established that each village manufactured its own domestic tool kit - through laminar debitage by indirect percussion realized exclusively in place - the production sites of the very long blades are still poorly known. The raw materials exploited for both the domestic and specialized tool kits are Aptian and Barremian-Hauterivian flints from the Lower Cretaceous. These flints, which are abundant across the entire Moesian plateau of North-East Bulgaria, are often defined as "Pre-Balkan platform" flints. We have begun to understand the procurement strategies used to obtain nodules of a sufficient size and quality for the production of very long blades and the organization of the workshops relative to the settlements and raw material procurement sites. Archaeological and geological surveys and test-pits, realized in North-East Bulgaria between Kubrat and Razgrad, have contributed new information and research perspectives. The only known source with nodules adequate for the manufacturing of very long blades is located at Ravno, two kilometers from the Early Chalcolithic tell of Kamenovo, where test-pits revealed a local production realized by the lever pressure technique. This village manufactured in place both their domestic toolkit by indirect percussion and their specialized toolkit by pressure. The flint available at the foot of the tell was exploited for the domestic toolkit, but did not furnish nodules large enough for use with the lever pressure technique. We thus can propose the hypothesis that these large nodules were obtained at Ravno where they were roughed out or perhaps initially prepared, and then brought to Kamenovo in a more or less prepared state to be reduced. The lever pressure technique, which we cannot imagine being mobile due to the infrastructure it implies, required a high technical proficiency and probably a very long apprenticeship. While it is clear that these were specialists, there is no evidence indicating control over access to the flint source. The Ravno source also yielded the first flint exploitation shaft, whose dating remains problematic. The laminar debitage waste products, which constitute most of the fill of the shaft, are compatible with the indirect percussion debitage of the domestic tool kit identified in the settlements. If this shaft is indeed attributed to the Early Chalcolithic, the question is thus raised as to the intended destination of thus laminar production, usually realized in the villages themselves in all of North-East Bulgaria. A possible diffusion route would be the contemporary sites of Gumelnița located on the other side of the Danube, where this "Pre-Balkan" flint has been found.