The Ezero culture, 3300—2700 BC, was a Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

 archaeological culture

Archaeological culture

An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of artifacts from a specific time and place, which are thought to constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between the artifacts is based on archaeologists' understanding and interpretation and...

 occupying most of present-day Bulgaria

Bulgaria

Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...

. It takes its name from the Tell

Tell

A tell or tel, is a type of archaeological mound created by human occupation and abandonment of a geographical site over many centuries. A classic tell looks like a low, truncated cone with a flat top and sloping sides.-Archaeology:A tell is a hill created by different civilizations living and...

-settlement of Ezero.

Ezero follows the copper age cultures of the area (Karanovo VI culture, Gumelniţa culture

Karanovo culture

The Karanovo culture is a neolithic culture named for the Bulgarian village of Karanovo . The site at Karanovo itself was a hilltop settlement of 18 buildings, housing some 100 inhabitants....

, Kodzadjemen culture and Varna culture

Varna culture

The Varna culture belongs to the late Eneolithic of northern Bulgaria. It is conventionally dated between 4400-4100 BC cal, that is, contemporary with Karanovo in the South...

), after a settlement hiatus in Northern Bulgaria. It bears some relationship to the earlier Cernavodă III culture

Cernavoda culture

Cernavodă culture, ca. 4000—3200 BC, a late copper age archaeological culture of the lower Eastern Bug River and Danube located along the coast of the Black Sea and somewhat inland...

  to the north. Some settlements were fortified.

The Ezero culture is interpreted as part of a larger Balkan-Danubian early Bronze Age complex, a horizon reaching from Troy

Troy

Troy was a city, both factual and legendary, located in northwest Anatolia in what is now Turkey, southeast of the Dardanelles and beside Mount Ida...

 Id-IIc into Central Europe, encompassing the Baden

Baden culture

Baden culture, ca 3600 BC-ca 2800 BC, an eneolithic culture found in central Europe. It is known from Moravia, Hungary, Slovakia and Eastern Austria...

 of the Carpathian Basin and the Coţofeni culture

Coțofeni culture

The Coţofeni culture is a Chalcolithic to Early Bronze Age culture that existed for over 700 years in the south-eastern part of Central Europe....

 of Romania

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

. According to Parzinger, there are also typological connections to Poliochni

Poliochni

Poliochni is a settlement in the Greek island of Limnos near Livadochori, it is in the municipal unit of Nea Koutali. Its 2001 population was 264 for the settlement.-History:...

 IIa-b and Sitagroi

Sitagroi

Sitagroi is a village and a former municipality in the Drama peripheral unit, East Macedonia and Thrace, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Prosotsani, of which it is a municipal unit. Population 5,266 . The seat of the municipality was in Fotolivos...

 IV.

Economy

Agriculture is in evidence, along with domestic livestock. There is evidence of grape cultivation. Metallurgy was practiced.

Interpretation

Within the context of the Kurgan

Kurgan

Kurgan is the Turkic term for a tumulus; mound of earth and stones raised over a grave or graves, originating with its use in Soviet archaeology, now widely used for tumuli in the context of Eastern European and Central Asian archaeology....

 hypothesis, it would represent a fusion of native "Old European culture" and intrusive "Kurgan culture" elements. It could also represent an Anatolian-influenced culture, either coming from Anatolia (in Renfrew's hypothesis

Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn

Andrew Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, Ph.D., FBA, FSA, HonFSAScot is a prominent British archaeologist and highly regarded academic, noted for his work on radiocarbon dating, the prehistory of languages, archaeogenetics, and the prevention of looting at archaeological sites...

), or heading to Asia Minor.

Sources

• G.Il. Georgiev et al. (eds.), Ezero, rannobronzovoto selishte. Sofii︠a︡ : Izd-vo na Bŭlgarskata akademii︠a︡ na naukite, Arkheologicheski institut 1979 (excavation report of Tell Ezero).
• J. P. Mallory, "Ezero Culture", Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture
  Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture
  The Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture is an encyclopedia of Indo-European studies and the Proto-Indo-Europeans. The encyclopedia was edited by J. P. Mallory and Douglas Q. Adams and published in 1997 by Fitzroy Dearborn...
  
  , Fitzroy Dearborn, 1997.