Balkan Flint and Neolithic Chipped-Stone Assemblages from Bulgaria: A Multifaceted Diachronic Overview

Abstract

This monograph presents analytical results from nearly three decades of research on Holocene chipped-stone assemblages, arising from the recognition that there is sufficient new knowledge to be shared. It is in fact the first comprehensive synthesis of long-term research on Neolithic flint assemblages, examined from multiple perspectives: the raw materials used for artefact production, and their techno-typological and functional characteristics. Of more than 40 assemblages investigated by the author, 26 – originating from systematically excavated sites – are presented. The assemblages are considered diachronically in their respective contexts. They are also compared with a further 12 sites studied and published by other scholars.

For many decades, in the Bulgarian specialized literature, flint assemblages have been treated as less informative than pottery styles and as less significant than other ‘social proxies’ in the mainstream literature on Neolithization. The Early Neolithic assemblages are presented in the book within their cultural and chronological framework and the broader theoretical discourse on the Neolithization of the Balkans. A critical re-evaluation is offered of several paradigms and scenarios related to this complex process, highlighting the role of flint as a raw material, and Balkan flint in particular, as well as the diagnostic artefacts made from it, within the historical dynamics of the spread of the new economy across the Balkans.

In a diachronic perspective, diagnostic artefact characteristics of Early and Late Neolithic assemblages are identified, and the flint industry is presented in its intrinsic evolution, transformation, and regression through examples, general observations, and conclusions.
The author aims to address key questions about the distribution of flint resources, agricultural toolkits, and community mobility during the Neolithic (6^th millennium BC). Ultimately, this research serves as a valuable reference for both Bulgarian archaeology and wider scholarly discourse on Balkan prehistory.