Program > By author > Boyadziev Yavor

Superblades and the peculiarities of their production in the Eneolithic of Bulgaria have been the subject of numerous and diverse studies. Among them are special works on determining the physical qualities of flint raw materials, the deposits of which are located in in north-eastern Bulgaria; describing the methods of its extraction and subsequent knapping with the help of special devices, which made it possible to obtain high-quality blanks for tools; characterizing their production efficiency and ways of use. The territory of distribution of these items includes sites of Bulgaria, Romania, southwestern regions of Moldova and Ukraine. At a number of archaeological sites in this vast region, there are concentrations of such blades in the form of compact clusters. Such artefacts found in the materials of settlements, as a rule, are interpreted by researchers as blanks of tools (Gurova et al. 2016), preserved for future use and not having traces of use, and their finds outside the settlements and outside the cultural layer are considered hoards, possibly, of a votive nature. In this regard, the results of traceological studies of the concentration of superblades found on the territory of the Kamenevo burial ground in northeastern Bulgaria are of interest. This burial ground is located in the area of Dobrudzhian flint mining and processing in the workshops of the eponymous settlement of Kamenevo. The cluster consisted of 23 blades, 118-180 mm long, 15-28 mm wide. Judging by the size and shape, the blades were obtained with the help of an intermediate tool, some of them were from the same core. Triangular or trapezoidal in cross-section products have a slightly curved profile and trapezoidal or ellipsoidal faceted striking platforms. Traceological analysis made it possible to identify among the examined blades tools for cutting grass and meat. In addition, traces typical of tools used with handles of soft material were found on the back parts of some of them.
Thus, the concentration of flint artefacts found on the territory of the Kamenevo burial ground represents a unified type of superblades characteristic of the Bulgarian Eneolithic. Judging by their compact arrangement, they were all tied together or were in a bag, some of them were used as
tools, as indicated by use-wear traces. This fact forces us to reconsider the well-established idea that all such concentrations of blades represent unused blanks, which allows us to speak of the need for traceological analysis of such finds.