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36-557: The village lies on an elevation of 26 metres above mean sea level , on the E87 littoral road, 6 kilometres south of the Romanian border. Durankulak lies 100 km from Varna , 68 km from Dobrich and 60 km from Constanţa . The coastal Lake Durankulak is located to the southeast and the Durankulak Swamp or Eagles' Swamp (Орлово блато, Orlovo blato ) is to the northeast, towards

72-521: A Bulgar settlement from the 9th–10th century AD. Because of its age and importance, the archaeological complex has been dubbed the "Bulgarian Troy ". Elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid , a mathematical model of the Earth 's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § Vertical datum ). The term elevation

108-643: A "constant" number of 32 facets – 16+16 on both sides on the elongation of the bead, which is considered probably the earliest in Chalcolithic complex faceting on such a hard mineral (hardness of chalcedony is 6.5–7 on the Mohs scale). In the hole of a single carnelian bead was found a gold mini-cylinder (~2x2 mm). The gold artifacts from the Varna Chalcolithic necropolis are assumed to be the "oldest gold of mankind" according to their total volume and quantity. Analysis of

144-508: A few Bulgarians . The bulk of Durankulak's residents were, however, settlers from the eastern Balkan Mountains who arrived in the early 19th century. After the Liberation of Bulgaria in 1878, it became part of the Principality of Bulgaria and, as the largest village in the region, was a municipal centre of 12 villages. On 1 June 1900, the village was the centre of an peasant revolt against

180-466: A library. There are several monuments dedicated to the peasant revolt of 1900 built in the 1970s and 1980s. The local Bulgarian Orthodox church was built in 1942. The Durankulak settlement commenced on a small island approximately 7000 BC and lasted for a thousand years. The first inhabitants were the Hamangia culture , dated from the middle of the 6th millennium to the middle of 5th millennium BC, and were

216-400: A plan that was repeated over successive generations of house reconstructions. Buildings were rectilinear and large, narrow paths separated individual houses, which stood alone or abutted by other buildings. The structures were robust and made of large wooden posts sunk into foundation trenches and joined with wooden planks or branches covered with mud or clay. In all building horizons, except for

252-416: Is a burial site in the western industrial zone of Varna (approximately half a kilometre from Lake Varna and 4 km from the city centre), internationally considered one of the key archaeological sites in world prehistory. The oldest gold treasure and jewelry in the world, dating from 4,600 BC to 4,200 BC, was discovered at the site. Several prehistoric Bulgarian finds are considered no less old –

288-499: Is developing a 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) to keep up with growing needs for high quality topographic data. 3DEP is a collection of enhanced elevation data in the form of high quality LiDAR data over the conterminous United States, Hawaii, and the U.S. territories. There are three bare earth DEM layers in 3DEP which are nationally seamless at the resolution of 1/3, 1, and 2 arcseconds. Varna Necropolis The Varna Necropolis ( Bulgarian : Варненски некропол ), or Varna Cemetery ,

324-486: Is mainly used when referring to points on the Earth's surface, while altitude or geopotential height is used for points above the surface, such as an aircraft in flight or a spacecraft in orbit, and depth is used for points below the surface. Elevation is not to be confused with the distance from the center of the Earth. Due to the equatorial bulge , the summits of Mount Everest and Chimborazo have, respectively,

360-532: Is no evidence in the second half of the 5th millennium B.C.). Direct evidence of the incursion of horse-riding warriors is found, not only in single burials of males under barrows, but in the emergence of a whole complex of Kurgan cultural traits." According to J. Chapman, "Once upon a time, not so very long ago, it was widely accepted that steppe nomads from the North Pontic zone invaded the Balkans, putting an end to

396-621: Is separated from the Black Sea by sand dunes and a beach strip, it has an area of around 4 square kilometres and features two islands in its western part, the Big Island (0.02 km) and the Small Island (0.0053 km). As the habitat of 260 rare and endangered species , the lake is one of the most important and well-preserved coastal wetlands in Bulgaria. Among the important birds in the area are

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432-509: The Black Sea — the two are connected by an artificial but overgrown marshy canal . To the northeast of the village is also the Anna Maria beach that continues up to Sivriburun and the border. There is another beach south of the village which extends to Krapets . The village has a cultural centre ( chitalishte ) with a big hall and a small hall, a museum of local history, a small art gallery and

468-512: The Chalcolithic Varna culture , which is the local variant of the KGKVI . There are crouched and straight inhumations. Some graves do not contain a skeleton, but grave gifts ( cenotaphs ). These symbolic (empty) graves are the richest in gold artifacts. Three thousand gold artifacts have been found, with a weight of approximately six kilograms. Grave 43 contained more gold than has been found in

504-672: The Varna Archaeological Museum and at the National Historical Museum in Sofia. In 2006, some gold objects were included in a major and broadly advertised national exhibition of antique gold treasures in both Sofia and Varna. The Varna gold started touring the world in 1973; it was included in "The Gold of the Thracian Horseman" national exhibition, shown at many of the world's leading museums and exhibition venues in

540-443: The little bittern , ferruginous duck , mute swan , western marsh harrier , paddyfield warbler . The greater white-fronted goose , red-breasted goose and mallard spend the winter there, and there are large populations of the pygmy cormorant and great white pelican . The lake is also an archaeologically important area. Pithouses of the oldest known inhabitants of Dobruja , dating to 5100–4700 BC, have been unearthed near

576-631: The 1970s. In 1982, it was exhibited for 7 months in Japan as "The Oldest Gold in the World – The First European Civilization" with massive publicity, including two full length TV documentaries. In the 1980s and 1990s it was also shown in Canada, Germany, France, Italy, and Israel, among others, and featured in a cover story by the National Geographic Magazine . The Varna necropolis artifacts were shown for

612-509: The Climax Copper Age society that produced the apogee of tell living, autonomous copper metallurgy and, as the grandest climax, the Varna cemetery with its stunning early goldwork . Now the boot is very much on the other foot and it is the Varna complex and its associated communities that are held responsible for stimulating the onset of prestige goods-dominated steppe mortuary practice following

648-636: The Varna culture had trade relations with distant lands (possibly including the lower Volga and the Cyclades ), perhaps exporting metal goods and salt from the Provadiya rock salt mine — Solnitsata . The copper ore used in the artifacts originated from a Sredna Gora mine near Stara Zagora , and Mediterranean Spondylus shells found in the graves may have served as primitive currency. The culture had sophisticated religious beliefs about afterlife and had developed hierarchical status differences. The site offers

684-458: The artifacts were made largely by local craftspeople. Gimbutas (1991) asserted: "The discontinuity of the Varna , Karanovo , Vinča and Lengyel cultures in their main territories and the large scale population shifts to the north and northwest are indirect evidence of a catastrophe of such proportions that cannot be explained by possible climatic change, land exhaustion, or epidemics (for which there

720-537: The earliest ones, buildings were internally divided into separate, mainly rectilinear, rooms. Stone structures and bases from the houses are well preserved and there is a cave and some cisterns to see. Durankulak is one of the few monuments left from early farming societies in Europe and tells us about daily life. The excavation in Durankulak took part between 1974 and 1997 when 1204 prehistoric burials were carefully recorded and

756-428: The entire rest of the world for that epoch. It was initially identified as the grave of a prince, but is now thought to be that of a smith . Three symbolic graves contained masks of unbaked clay. "Varna is the oldest cemetery yet found where humans were buried with abundant golden ornaments. … The weight and the number of gold finds in the Varna cemetery exceeds by several times the combined weight and number of all of

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792-403: The estimated necropolis area is still not excavated. A total of 294 graves have been found in the necropolis, many containing sophisticated examples of metallurgy (gold and copper), pottery (about 600 pieces, including gold-painted ones), high-quality flint and obsidian blades, beads, and shells. The graves have been dated to 4569–4340 BCE by radiocarbon dating in 2006 and belong to

828-508: The expansion of farming." Among the metallic (gold and copper) and non-metallic (minerals, rocks, pottery, pigments, biofacts ) artifacts in the graves from the Varna Chalcolithic site are numerous beads of a chalcedony (carnelian) and agate composition. Three main morphological types of beads are described: type 1 – elongated barrel-shaped; type 2 – elongated with trapezohedral facets; type 3 – short cylindrical (Kostov, 2007; Kostov, Pelevina, 2008). The carnelian and related beads of type 2 have

864-578: The first manifestation of the Neolithic life in Dobruzha. Hamangia people were small-scale cultivators and plant collectors who built houses made pottery and herded and hunted animals. Around 4700/4600 BC stone architecture was already in general use and became a characteristic phenomenon that was unique in Europe. The settlement in Durankulak was a well-organized aggregation of buildings of substantial size with several rooms. They were coherently laid out according to

900-445: The gold artifacts found in all excavated sites of the same millenium, 5000-4000 BC, from all over the world, including Mesopotamia and Egypt. … Three graves contained gold objects that together accounted for more than half of the total weight of all gold grave goods yielded by the cemetery. A scepter, symbol of a supreme secular or religious authority, was discovered in each of these three graves." (Slavchev 2010) The findings showed that

936-580: The golden treasures of Hotnitsa, Durankulak , artifacts from the Kurgan settlement of Yunatsite near Pazardzhik , the golden treasure Sakar, as well as beads and gold jewelry found in the Kurgan settlement of Provadia – Solnitsata (“salt pit”). However, Varna gold is most often called the oldest since this treasure is the largest and most diverse. The site was accidentally discovered in October 1972 by excavator operator Raycho Marinov. The first person to value

972-493: The government of Todor Ivanchov and as a result, 90 people were killed by the national cavalry. Between 1913 and 1940, it was under Romanian rule along with all of Southern Dobruja and was renamed to Răcari , but it was returned to Bulgaria according to the Treaty of Craiova . According to the terms of that treaty, the native Bulgarian population of Northern Dobruja was exchanged with the Romanian and Aromanian colonists sent in

1008-579: The landscape at different scales. Tools inside the GIS allow for manipulation of data for spatial analysis or cartography. A topographical map is the main type of map used to depict elevation, often through contour lines . In a Geographic Information System (GIS), digital elevation models (DEM) are commonly used to represent the surface (topography) of a place, through a raster (grid) dataset of elevations. Digital terrain models are another way to represent terrain in GIS. USGS (United States Geologic Survey)

1044-617: The largest elevation and the largest geocentric distance. In aviation, the term elevation or aerodrome elevation is defined by the ICAO as the highest point of the landing area. It is often measured in feet and can be found in approach charts of the aerodrome. It is not to be confused with terms such as the altitude or height. GIS or geographic information system is a computer system that allows for visualizing, manipulating, capturing, and storage of data with associated attributes. GIS offers better understanding of patterns and relationships of

1080-435: The measured weight of the different types of gold artеfacts (beads, appliqués, rings, bracelets, pectorals and diadems) revealed a weight system with at least two minimal weight units of ~0.14 and ~0.40 g among both mineral and gold beads (Kostov, 2004; 2007). The second one (=2 carats) was suggested as a basic "Chalcolithic unit" with the name van (from the first letters of Varna necropolis). The artifacts can be seen at

1116-454: The oldest known burial evidence of an elite man. ( Marija Gimbutas claims that the end of the fifth millennium BC is the time that the development to male dominance began in Europe.) The high status man buried with the most remarkable amount of gold held a war adze or mace and wore a gold penis sheath or likely a Belt Tip made of gold. Bull-shaped gold platelets might also have venerated virility, instinctual force, and warfare. Gimbutas holds that

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1152-433: The remains of 21 houses were found. The oldest attested village in the area was the small village of Kartalii to the northeast of modern Durankulak. It was abandoned in the middle of the 19th century and had around 200–300 residents, but its location meant the danger of malaria made it unsuitable for living in the summer. Some of the population of Kartalii founded Durankulak, which used to be an Ottoman farm inhabited by

1188-521: The revolt of 1900. The name is of ancient origin meaning the place where the taurus knocked with his fist (hoof) and gushed water surrounded the two isles in the lake. It's like a legend of the chosen land forever giving life and prosperity. The barelefs and golden ornamentations of tauruses were found in Thracian tombs, Romans burial barelefs, and in Varna Necropolis The freshwater Lake Durankulak

1224-563: The significant historical meaning was Dimitar Zlatarski, the creator of the Dalgopol Historical Museum, when he was called by the locals to examine what they had found earlier that day. He realized how important the finding was, so he contacted the Varna Historical Museum and, after signing government papers, he handed over the research to the direction of Mihail Lazarov (1972–1976) and Ivan Ivanov (1972–1991). About 30% of

1260-476: The south during the period of Romanian rule. As a result, some Northern Dobrujan Bulgarian refugees (преселци, preseltsi ) settled in Durankulak. Most of them were from Nuntaşi not far from the Danube Delta and today form around half of the village's population. From its return to Bulgaria to 1963, the village was known as Blatnitsa (Блатница, "marshy place"), but its historic name was reinstated to commemorate

1296-413: The west shore, as well as 3500–3400 BC mound burials and a Sarmatian necropolis from Late Antiquity . The Big Island of Lake Durankulak is particularly important, as it is the site of an Eneolithic settlement of 4600–4200 BC, a cultural monument of national importance. The island also features a 1300–1200 BC fortified settlement, a Hellenistic rock-hewn cave sanctuary of Cybele (3rd century BC) and

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