Early Neolithic Village OVCHAROVO-FOREST

This is the only fully studied early Neolithic settlement in Bulgaria. The village is located east of the town of Targovishte, between the villages of Ovcharovo and a Ruets and only a kilometer west of the famous Ovcharovo mound. First of the residents lived in dugouts. Later they began to build terrestrial housing. They had a rectangular shape and a double roof maintained by walls shaped by vertical stakes and clay-fired hedge. In every apartment there was a furnace. In excavations are found cannons of stone and bone, fragments of vessels, zoomorphic figurines and others. Impressive is the collection of anthropomorphic clay figurines - one of the largest in Bulgaria - 157. Multiple are etc. cult tables - shallow clay triangular or quadrangular shape, respectively three or four legs. According to some scientists, they have had a cult and have served as sacrifices. According to other hypotheses, the vessels are used for lamps. Findings are distinguished by characteristic local peculiarities and, at the same time, some of them speak of the presence of contacts between the residents of the village with communities north of the Danube. Today, the finds from the Neolithic Village of Ovcharovo-forest are kept in the Regional History Museum in Targovishte ..