Neolithic Dwellings Museum – Stara Zagora

The Neolithic Dwellings Museum contains finds that are extremely important for the history of mankind. It exhibits the two best-preserved Neolithic dwellings in Europe that date back to the 6th millennium BC. The two dwellings were destroyed by sudden fire millennia ago and this is the main reason why they are so well preserved today. The dwellings have one room each and are separated by a common partition wall. They also share a common roof made of straw and leaves and are built on wooden poles intertwined with thin wooden rods covered with a mixture of clay and straw. Scattered pottery vessels, charred grains of wheat, barley, vetch, and lentils, and a huge set of household utensils were also found on the site where the two dwellings were discovered in 1968. The Neolithic Dwellings Museum is located in situ, i.e. it is built on the archaeological site in order to protect the discovery. The Prehistoric Art in the Region of Stara Zagora Permanent Exhibition displays the best examples discovered during archaeological research conducted in this and other settlement mounds in the region of Stara Zagora. The museum also preserves the oldest marble statuette found on the territory of Bulgaria that dates back to the 6th millennium BC. It is a figure of a female with a massive lower body which is evidence of a cult to fertility and the Mother-Goddess. The models of span-roofed houses with windows from the Neolithic Age found during archaeological digs that provide extremely valuable data as to the structure and the appearance of ancient buildings can also be seen in the museum.