Nikolova, S. Archaeozoology in Bulgaria, a Historiographic Review

The following paper presents the first full review on the archeozoological studies conducted in Bulgaria. Archaeozoology is a highly regarded subdiscipline of archaeology, and with the growing development of physicochemical analysis animals remains are a key factor for absolute dating of materials, reconstruction of ancient diets, research of husbandry practices, and the overall relationship between humans and their animals. To carry out studies researchers rely on cross referencing all available regional and chronological data, which requires the incorporation of older studies. In Bulgaria osteological specialists form a small part of the archaeological and zoological community, and while many authors who are currently active upload their publications online, very little information is available on older publications. The materials from older excavations are not always available, as in the past many animal bones were disposed of, after their initial recording. Older publications tend to be spread across multiple conference proceedings, regional museum bulletins, and in the appendix of site monographs. Discovering the articles is problematic, even to active local specialists, as there is not a single place that you can find them referenced. Authors usually reference their own work, or the publication of a more famous site. To solve this problem, the following work presents the first fuller bibliography, which was compiled after personal communication with the active authors, reviews of the annual reports of the archaeological institute, review of library catalogues, and the scientific archive of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. The first part presents a short overview of published works, and biographical data on the main researchers.

zooarchaeology, historiography, bibliography, osteoarcheology, faunal remains, Bulgaria, subfossil, museum collections

Kanev, K. 1995, ‘Rafail Popov and the prehistoric science’, Arheologia 1, 1995, pp. 8–10. / [Кънев, К. 1995, ‘Рафаил Попов и праисторическата наука’, Археология 1, 1995, с. 8–10.]

Florova, V. 1963, ‘Archive of Rafail Popov (1876–1940) No 128’, Scientific Archive of the Bulgarian academy of sciences. / [Флорова, В. 1963, ‘Фонд на Рафаил Попов (1876–1940) № 128‘, Научен Архив на БАН.] http://archiv.cl.bas.bg/Participants/F.128k_Popov_Rafail.htm

Reese, D. 1994, ‘Recent work in Greek Zooarchaeology’, In: Kardulias, N. (ed.) Beyond the site: Regional studies in the Aegean Area, University press of America, pp. 191–223.

Bălăşescu, A., Udrescu, M., Radu, V. & Popovici, D. 2003, ‘Archéozoologie en Roumanie: Corpus de données’, Musée national d’histoire de Roumanie bibliothèque du Musée national série recherches pluridisciplinaires 5, Editura Cetatea de Scaun, Târgovişte.