Bronze Age Gold Road of the Balkans – Ada Tepe Mining: Producers and Consumers

On the Ada Tepe hill in the Bulgarian Rhodopes a Bronze Age gold mine was exploited since the 15th century BCE, which makes it one of the oldest gold mines in the wider region of Europe. Since the site had been excavated by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and a joint Bulgarian-Austrian project investigated the findings from the site including the settlement, focusing on the reconstruction of life, work and wide ranging interregional connections of that Bronze Age community.

Ada Tepe (© OeAW-OeAI)

 

 

Publications

  • R. Jung, S. Alexandrov, E. Bozhinova, H. Mommsen (with an appendix by A. Hein and V. Kilikoglou), Mykenische Keramik in der Rhodopenregion. Herkunft, regionaler Kontext und sozioökonomische Grundlagen, Archaeologia Austriaca 101, 2017, 269–302.
  • B. Horejs, R. Jung, Kulturelle Einflüsse und Kontakte während des 3. Jahrtausends v. Chr., in: S. Haag,  B. Horejs,  H. Popov, G. Plattner (eds), Das erste Gold. Ada Tepe: das älteste Goldbergwerk Europas: eine Ausstellung des Kunsthistorischen Museums Wien in Kooperation mit dem Nationalen Archäologischen Institut mit Museum der Bulgarischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Sofia (NAIM), und dem Institut für Orientalische und Europäische Archäologie der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften (OREA) (Vienna 2017) 99–104.
  • B. Horejs, R. Jung, Networks and Cultural Contacts to the Aegean, in: H. Popov, Y. Dimitrova (eds), Gold and Bronze. Metals, technologies and networks in the Eastern Balkans during the Bronze Age (Sofia 2017) 77–82.

Lectures and poster presentations

[Translate to English:]

  • B. Horejs, L. Burkhardt, Selected House-Inventories of the Late Bronze Age (Mining-) Settlement at Ada Tepe – A Preliminary functional interpretation, 13th international congress of Thracology, Kazanlak 3.–7. Sept. 2017
  • R. Jung, H. Popov, K. Nikov, B. Weninger, Dating the early mining and stellement activities at Ada Tepe: The radiocarbon evidence, Searching for Gold Conference, 8–10 Juni, OREA Institut
  • B. Horejs, Connectivity and local practices of the Ada Tepe goldminers. A pottery approach, Searching for Gold Conference, 8–10 Juni, OREA Institut
  • H. Popov, Ada Tepe archaeological remains from ancient mining activities: an attempt for topographical, functional and chronological reconstruction of the chaîne opératoire, Searching for Gold Conference, 8–10 Juni, OREA Institut
  • E. Pernicka, Geochemical tools in the search for gold, Searching for Gold Conference, 8–10 Juni, OREA Institut
  • P. Penkova, M. Mehofer, The gold hoard from Vălčitrăn, Bulgaria – technological observations on the production techniques of precious artefacts

 

Posters

  • L. Burkhardt, Comparative examination of two house inventories of the northeastern settlement area at Ada Tepe, Bulgaria
  • St. Horvath, One assemblage (house 1) from the gold mining settlement of Ada Tepe, Bulgaria
  • L. Burkhardt, Regional connectivity and diversity in Late Bronze Age tableware assemblages. The Case Study Adatepe, SE Bulgaria
Principal investigator
Team
  • Stephanie Horvath
  • Sarina Molla Djafari
Collaborations
Duration

01/2016–07/2020

Funding

FWF [Projekt P 23619]