Footage continues from the film “The Mirror”

In search of historical data about the people who lived near the lakes of Varna since ancient times, the team of the film “The Mirror” met with Dr. Vladimir Slavchev – Senior Assistant in the Department of Archaeology of the Regional History Museum-Varna. The shores of today’s lake complex were inhabited as early as 4 400 years BC, said the prehistory specialist. These settlements were also the centre of the so-called Varna Culture, a flourishing civilisation that gave the world its oldest worked gold. It developed in the manner of Egypt and Mesopotamia near pools of water that provided flooding for agricultural areas during the spring high water. Archaeological finds show that the lakes played a key role not only for irrigation but also because of their direct connection to the sea.
Archaeologist Dr. Vladimir Slavchev: We have records of supplies of copper, various rare raw materials from southern Bulgaria and from the Aegean coast, which are not found here. Transportation – especially of copper ore, of copper raw materials – on foot, by land, is very laborious. It is much easier to do this by water, and we assume that this is the main reason why these settlements were inhabited in this way.

Ironically, today we have an abundance of archaeological finds from the Lake District thanks to industrialisation, which started the destruction of the Lake District as a unique place to live – the first artefacts from ancient settlements started coming to light when the first sea-lake canal was dug. To this day, there is much material for archaeological research along the shores and in the waters of the lake complex.