A well preserved skeleton from the copper age has been discovered in Kozareva mound near Kableshkovo in Pomorie (Bulgaria). The discovery marks an exciting new development for the village that was also a centre for the pottery industry during the fifth century BCE. According to the head of the excavation, Professor Petya Georgieva, this is the first confirmed tomb from such an early period in southern Bulgaria.
     The tomb was apparently intact and the bones well preserved. It is still unclear whether the necropolis, in the Neolithic village, which was discovered five years ago, adheres to the first funeral rites characteristic of the Black Sea region.
     Scientists claimed in 2009 that the discovery of the oldest ceramic kiln in the Balkans had helped to shed light on the beginnings of civilisation on the Bulgarian coast. Archaeologists hope that the most recent find will help reveal what happened to the dead in the copper age. "In the mound we found products of human skulls such as the rondeli, a circle of skulls with drilled holes in them so they can be attached to the neck," says Georgieva.
     A separate neolithic tomb, discovered, near Burgas, is expected to provide clues regarding the ethnicity of Bulgarians of that era.

Edited from The Sofia Echo (28 July 2011)