"Vaxevo – Prehistoric Settlements" is the second monographic work of Stefan Chohadzhiev, after "Slatino – Prehistoric Settlements" published in 1997, continuing the approach to explore the prehistoric remains in the microregion. The new book includes the results of six years excavations in the region of Vaxevo, Kyustendil District, in Southwest Bulgaria. Veneta Genadieva, Maria Gjurova, Tzvetana Popova and Lazar Ninov contribute in the book as well.

The book consists of 253 pages (60/84/8), 94 of them text. Illustrations are divided into three categories: figures (38 photographs); drawings (119 figures of pottery, tools, figurines and small finds), images (11 maps, field plans and profiles). Ten tables provide additional information.

The Introduction (p. 8) deals with the location of the village of Vaxevo, highlighting its position between the rivers of Struma and Vardar.

Chapter I (pp. 8-13) is about the history of the excavations in the Studena Voda locality, the location and stratigraphy of the site discovered there. After 3 trenches excavated, 824 sq. meters in total, the author recognizes seven building levels, distributed in three layers: two (first and second) in the lower (brown) layer are from the Early Neolithic, characterized by the white-painted pottery. Two (third and fourth) in the middle (gray) layer are from the final of the Early Neolithic, characterized by the brown-painted pottery and from the Middle Neolithic, characterized by the black polished pottery. Three levels (fifth, sixth and seventh) belong respectively to the Late Chalkolithic, the final of the Late Chalkolithic and to Early Bronze Age, in the upper (gray-brown) layer. S. Chohadzhiev supposes at least one more level from the EBA (completely destroyed) in the plugging zone. The prehistoric layers were interrupted by activities from the Late Antiquity and the Early Medieval (9th-10th century), traces of which sometimes reach 1 meter deep, as well by the modern agriculture.

In Chapter II (pp. 14-21) the author discusses the architectural and defensive structures in the site of Studena Voda (Stúdena Vóda). The houses during the Early Neolithic are constructed by planted in the ground posts and a wattle plastered with clay. All of them are orientated NW/SE. The walls are comparatively wide – from 0,45 to 0,84 m. The author also describes the discovered kilns and large deposit vessels. He interprets the two almost parallel ditches as part of one defensive construction that existed during the Early Neolithic settlement. Special attention is given to the burned house from the 6th horizon which, according to him, belongs to what he calls Post-Chalkolithic period and has similar character and orientation with the dwellings from the preceding horizons.

Chapter III (pp. 22-32) is devoted to some aspects of the economy in the settlements in Studena Voda.

The analyses of the flint assemble done by Marija Gjurova covers 67 flint artifacts (pp. 22-27). Because they originate from the all seven building levels but are not enough representative that author limits the survey only to the comparative conclusions. She defines the following typological groups: end-scrapers, perforators, straight truncated blades, combined tool, retouched blades, retouched flakes. The use-ware analysis confirms the following tools: sickle elements, knives for plants (reed), tools for scraping wood and fur, knives for cutting meat and fresh skin, pottery making instruments. 16 raw materials have been defined, with peculiar temporal characteristics.

The description of the stone tools covers 209 artifacts (pp. 27-30). They are distributed in the following groups: adzes (65,17 %) chisels (23,03 %), mattocks (1,45 %), wedges (1,45%), pestles (6,37 %), weights, mace and not definable. S. Chohadzhiev provides a typology of every group and gives the percentage distribution by horizons for every type.

The author describes four kinds of clay tools (p. 30) – loom-weights, clay "distributors", whorls and the so-called "sling bullets". The analysis of the loom-weights (the total of 80) is very appropriate, highlighting the collective finds. The weight varies between 340 – 900 gr.

The author pays special attention to the copper wedge discovered in the 5th building level (p. 31). He is impressed by the almost full coincidence with the size and shape of the wedge from Dyakovo, which is chronologically earlier. The strong corrosion of the Vaxevo wedge reduced its weight (235 gr.) and because of this the difference in the weight of the two wedges is about 20 gr. The similarities in the two wedges, discovered in asynchronous settlements, is a reason S. Chohadzhiev to suppose that in the region there had been a certain standardization of the production of copper wedges. The high contents of arsenic in the copper he considers as a result of the exhaustion of the pure copper on the surface and need occurred to extract the copper in depth.

Short but important is the paleobothanic survey, done by Tsvetana Popova (pp. 31-32). Among the carbonized corn samples she recognizes the following species: barley (Hordeum vulgare var.vulgare) the samples of which predominated, wheat (Tritikum monococcum; Tritikum dicoccum; Tritikum compactum), and rye (Secale cereale). In one of the specimens that author found two pieces of carbonized oak. From the small size of the corns, Ts. Popova derives the conclusion that either there were no favorable preconditions in the region for agriculture, or the bigger corns were specially selected for seeding and the finds represent the provisions only.

The archaeolozoological survey deed by the German-Bulgarian team that included H-P. Uerpmann, M. Uerpmann and L. Ninov is presented in the book by Lazar Ninov (pp. 32-36). The investigation identifies the following five domesticated spices: cattle, sheep, pig, goat and dog. The following represents the wild animals nine spices: aurochs, deer, roe, wild swine, fox, badger, otter, beaver and hare. The correlation between the bones of wild and domesticated animals is well represented in detailed tables for every layer (4:1 in total), as the preferred bones for tool production (5:1). Very important are the conclusions connected with the preferences for bones and parts of bones for tool making presented in Tables 9 and 10 (pp. 49-50). The tools are divided into the groups of awls, polishers, chisels most of which were used for working leather, spoons etc. Among the animal bone tools L. Ninov found one owl made from human fibula, but this important find remains somehow neglected. Very important for the bone/antler tool assemble of Studena Voda sites is the absence of agricultural inventory as sickles, mattocks etc. Comparing this with the weak soils in the region, that author supposes that the stockbreeding was more significant the diet rather than the agricultural products. The use-ware traces on the bone spoons for meal scraping show that most of their users were right-handers.

The characteristics of the pottery from Studena Voda levels are the subject of Chapter IV (pp. 51-160). The author presents one very detailed analysis (technology, shape and decoration) of the assembles from each building level.

The earliest two levels are characterized only by white painted decoration. The author divides the pottery into two main categories – rough and fine, according to the polishing of the surface. Nine groups, based on form represent the fine ware. Successful and proper is the detaching a separate typology for the fragments. The analysis of the decoration is very detailed. The author recognizes only crusted and painted fine pottery in the early Neolithic. The white is painted mostly on red ground, with several exclusions – on black, on beige and on auburn. S. Chohadzhiev divides the white painted decoration into 17 motive combinations. With very concrete materials he proves the hypothetically supposed by Mikhail Chohadzhiev phase Ia of the Early Neolithic in the Struma basin. S. Chohadzhiev points to numerous analogies of the shapes and the decoration from the early Neolithic sites from the Struma river basin and the neighbor regions – from the Carpathians to the Vardar basin and Eastern Albania. The author stresses on the great number of analogies with Kovaèevo Ia and Ib and insists that the Kovaèevo’s earliest two levels belong to the West Bulgarian Painted Culture.

The 3rd building level is characterized only by the brown painted decoration. The fine pottery is analyzed by fragments, with special attention given to the bases. Because of the fragmentary character of the fine pottery complex, the groups of forms are only five and very common there. The author separates painted fine pottery only, giving no other information for other decorative techniques. The paint is only brown mostly on red, but sometimes on beige ground. It is positive, and only in one case negative. S. Chohadzhiev mentions 9 groups of motive combinations. According to him, during this phase the area of Western Bulgaria completely felt under the influence of the Starèevo culture. The research of a "clean" brown painted pottery level is one contribution to the inner division of the early Neolithic stage with dark painted decoration.

The pottery complex of the fourth level is analyzed in accordance with the same methods. The complex lacks the painted decoration and the black or gray-black burnished ware gives its characteristic outlook. The author discovers early Neolithic shapes together with decorations, that document developing the tendencies of the late Neolithic stages. Very important is the discovery of one shred with polychrome painted decoration. The author insists that it is possible Vaxevo IV to be earlier than Sapareva Banja IV. After the precise analysis and the given analogies, he argues the possibility for establishing Middle Neolithic period, synchronous to the polychrome decoration stage in North Western Bulgaria and Karanovo II-III in Trace.

The pottery from the fifth level complex is not numerous and because of this, the author does not divide it into rough and fine. But he mentions that almost all the earthenware is well polished. He considers 12 formal groups, and again gives attention to some specific fragments. The decoration is divided into relief and graphite ornamented. The graphite ornamentation dominates in the level. S. Chohadzhiev again considers the motives, stressing on the lack of variety. The relief decoration is subdivided into pricked, incised and modeled. The author detaches the combine decoration – graphite and red painted; graphite and relief finger pinches; incisions and pricks. Having in mind the analogies of the complex, he points out that the fifth level is later than the sites of Slatino and Djakovo, and earlier than Vaxevo - Skaleto. So he puts it in the first phase of the Late Chalkolithic in the Struma River catching area.

According to the author, the pottery complex of the sixth level is new, unknown for the Struma basin phenomenon. Part of this pottery he had discovered in a burned house. An innovation for the region he sees in the adding of pounded mollusk shells to the clay. The ware is not well fired, the surface is rough and easy turns to powder. S. Chohadzhiev again uses formal groups – 10 in count, and considers the features of the specific shreds – rims, handles and bases, stressing that there are no vertical handles starting from the rim. Decoration he divides into 9 groups pointing that only the relief decoration is used – pricked, incised, drawn, finger imprints, channeled, modeled and scratched. Again attention is given to the combined decorating – pricked and scratched; incised and pricked; incised and drawn with fingers.

All these features and the complete deficiency of the painted decoration make the author to suppose that this level is marking the third phase of the Late Chalkolithic in the Struma River catching zone. He characterizes the phase with the degradation and decline of the late Chalkolithic culture. The phase is the last stage of the existing of the Chalkolithic tradition. Most of the analogies he finds in the settlement of Kolarovo. The position of the level – after the Late Chalkolithic one and before the earliest Early Bronze Age levels is very properly explained by the author as an indication for the final of the Copper age. He detaches it as Post-Chalkolithic, but insists on its Chalkolithic character, and in this way avoiding the contradictory "Transitional Period".

Veneta Genadieva provides the analysis of the pottery from the seventh level. Because of the fact that the layer is damaged by agricultural activities, she divides the ware into two basic groups, probably having different chronological position in the frames of the EBA – the later one is from a completely destroyed horizon. V. Genadieva uses different methods for the formal analysis. She separates the following forms – A. plates (3 types); B. bowls (6 types); C. deep vessels (6 types). She considers the handles as a group – D (with 4 types). In the decoration analysis, she uses the same method as Chohadzhiev. According to that author, the two phases of EBA have their analogies in the following stages: Boleraz (Baden I) – Èernavoda III – Sitagroi IV, and Baden III-IV - Coþofeni II– Bubanj Hum II – Sitagroi Va1 respectively.

Some aspects of the spiritual life in the Studena Voda Site are the objectives of Chapter V (pp. 160-192). Special attention S. Chohadzhiev pays to a three-fingered anthropomorphic depiction incised on the bottom of a vessel from fifth level, and to a relief depiction of three-fingered hand from the I level. The author also reviews the clay anthropomorphic figurines discovered at Vaxevo. The earliest of them originate from the levels with the white-painted pottery. He characterizes them with steatopigia, flat upper half, incised or pricked (with nail or instrument) decoration. For the period with dark painted pottery he points to the "long headed" figurines, which have a tendency of depicting a flat pate. With the appearance of the black and gray-black burnished ware (the fourth level), according to the author, begins the production of the "beak-like" figurines, sculptures with flat head and hands aside, along with their derivative – the "bell-like" hollow figurines. The last group has its own development, but not represented at Vaxevo. The late Chalkolithic figurine with incised decoration similar to the decoration typical for the Early Chalkolithic is discovered in the fifth level. In the sixth level the author discovered two figurines - very compact and without decoration.

Reviewing the animal figurines S. Chohadzhiev insists that in comparison with the other sites in the region they are very weak represented – in quantity and in typology.

He discovers 75 pieces of so-called tripods ("altars") and only one completely preserved. Under these circumstances more attention the author gives to the typical for each level decorating patterns. He also discuses the so-called small finds – two clay "labrets" (amulets, tokens), clay ring, clay stamp seal and a bone bed – all from the white painted pottery levels and some finds with unknown utility.

Special place the author gives for the burial ritual and human bone remains. In the trenches 1 and 3 he discovered bones from totally 10 human individuals, all from the Early Neolithic. He points two groups of tendencies in the funeral customs – individual inhumation in a grave pit with inventory and group partial inhumation intra murum. The generalized taxonomically analysis of the preserved skeleton presents its belonging to the rude Mediterranean racial type.

Chapter VI is devoted to another prehistoric settlement named Slánets after the gulch next to it (pp. 193-194). It is situated about 200 m southwest from the site in Studena Voda Locality. The cultural layer is about 0.80 m thick. S. Chohadzhiev refers this site to the first stage of the Early Chalkolithic in the Struma basin although the quantity of the pottery is very insufficient.

Chapter VII deals with the topography, excavations and stratigraphy of the site in the Skaléto locality southwest from the village of Vaxevo (pp. 195-197). The author describes the prehistoric cultural layer as 0.30-0.50 m thick, consisting of one level where no structures had been found. Above this layer, the author had excavated Late Medieval necropolis (XV-XVII century).

Chapter VIII presents the pottery complex from Skaléto (pp. 197-208). S. Chohadzhiev uses the same methods by analyzing the complex. The specific shreds – handles, rims, bases and relief buds are reviewed separately. Forms are divided into 13 groups, and the decoration into three main categories – painted, relief and combined. The painted one is subdivided into graphite ornamented, with red paint and mixed. The author stresses that the red paint presents in all of the variations combined with: white contours; yellow paint; white paint and graphite; graphite and yellow paint; graphite and white incrustation; graphite and yellow incrustation. The relief decoration is divided in 7 groups. S. Chohadzhiev distinguishes two decorative patterns that combine different techniques- incised lines, combined with pricks and red paint; and incised lines, forming fields filled with rows of small pits.

The discovered four anthropomorphic figurines from Skaléto and the other small finds S. Chohadzhiev presents in the Chapter IX (pp. 209-210). The human figurines are straight, with hands aside, the legs tight and faces schematic, decorated with incisions. The author finds exact analogies in the sites of Šuplevac and Crnobuki. The animal figurines are only two, so more attention he gives to the so-called handles, with two or three drilled holes. This finds, typical of the Late Chalkolithic in Western Bulgaria, S. Chohadzhiev interprets as distributive loom-weights or devices for tightening bundles. The last one is fresh and reasonable idea. The author compares the Skaleto settlement complex with those of Reburkovo I, Galatin I, Teliš III, Krivodol III-IV and Kolarovo I (in Bulgaria); Šuplevac I and Crnobuki I-II (in Pelagonija- Macedonia). Based on the found analogies he insists that the site belongs to the end of the Late Chalkolithic (what he called the second stage), chronologically later than the fifth and earlier than the sixth levels at Studena Voda.

In the Conclusions (pp. 211-212) S. Chohadzhiev highlights again the most important results from the excavations around Vaxevo. According to him the permitting natural conditions in the valley gave chance for continuos inhibiting during the prehistoric times, so there are well illustrated cultural processes and changes. At the same time, these sites represent the connection between the areas of the synchronous prehistoric cultures from the Struma and Vardar regions.

"Vaxevo – Prehistoric settlements" is almost full publication of the discoveries in the three prehistoric sites around the village of Vaxevo, excavated between 1989 and 1995 by the author, Stefan Chohadzhiev. In my modest opinion, his wish to turn Vaxevo into one of the exemplary sites for investigation of Balkan prehistory, is very close to realization, with publishing this book.