Papers by Yavor Boyadzhiev
Science, 2021
Ancient DNA traces the history of hepatitis B Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections represent a worl... more Ancient DNA traces the history of hepatitis B Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infections represent a worldwide human health concern. To study the history of this pathogen, Kocher et al . identified 137 human remains with detectable levels of virus dating between 400 and 10,000 years ago. Sequencing and analyses of these ancient viruses suggested a common ancestor between 12,000 and 20,000 years ago. There is no evidence indicating that HBV was present in the earliest humans as they spread out of Africa; however, HBV was likely present in human populations before farming. Furthermore, the virus was present in the Americas by about 9000 years ago, representing a lineage sister to the viral strains found in Eurasia that diverged about 20,000 years ago. —LMZ
Journal of Archaeological Science, 2014
ABSTRACT The general aim of archaeomagnetism is to recover the behavior of the ancient geomagneti... more ABSTRACT The general aim of archaeomagnetism is to recover the behavior of the ancient geomagnetic field for a given territory using archaeological baked clay structures that have been well-dated by other independent methods. The Sofia Palaeomagnetic laboratory possesses a large data set for the three characteristic geomagnetic field parameters obtained from one and the same material and covering the last 8000 years. The database accumulated by the authors has been updated several times and the greatest difficulty arose for the prehistoric collections, most of which had no radiocarbon or other chronometric dates. Thus as well as methodological archaeomagnetism problems, the main difficulty concerning the construction of reference curves of the variation of the geomagnetic field is related to the distribution of the experimental results over the absolute time scale. This paper examines the similarity between the archaeomagnetic profiles obtained on multilevel tells from the same prehistoric epochs. It would seem that when 14C dates for multilayer tells are missing, the comparison of such archaeomagnetic stratigraphic profiles with the corresponding chrono-stratigraphic reference profile for the same epoch can be useful in verifying their assumed chronology. However, the described peculiarities connected with the multilevel sites results still show some difficulties for the overall estimation of geomagnetic field variations for a given territory.
Farming was first introduced to southeastern Europe in the mid-7thmillennium BCE – brought by mig... more Farming was first introduced to southeastern Europe in the mid-7thmillennium BCE – brought by migrants from Anatolia who settled in the region before spreading throughout Europe. To clarify the dynamics of the interaction between the first farmers and indigenous hunter-gatherers where they first met, we analyze genome-wide ancient DNA data from 223 individuals who lived in southeastern Europe and surrounding regions between 12,000 and 500 BCE. We document previously uncharacterized genetic structure, showing a West-East cline of ancestry in hunter-gatherers, and show that some Aegean farmers had ancestry from a different lineage than the northwestern Anatolian lineage that formed the overwhelming ancestry of other European farmers. We show that the first farmers of northern and western Europe passed through southeastern Europe with limited admixture with local hunter-gatherers, but that some groups mixed extensively, with relatively sex-balanced admixture compared to the male-biased...
Prehistoric Thrace Proceedings of the International Symposium in Stara Zagora 30 09 04 10 2003, 2004
Presentation of the site The site is located in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains, 10 km south of the... more Presentation of the site The site is located in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains, 10 km south of the town of Kardzhali, at the confluence of the Varbitsa and Diva Reka (or Chitak Dere) Rivers (41° 33’ 20” N, 25° 23’ 04” E; fig. 1). The Varbitsa River has its source near the modern Bulgarian-Greek state border, and is among the most torrential rivers in Bulgaria. With its numerous tributaries it drains an area of almost 1000 km2. During the whole Sub-Atlantic period the Varbitsa River has belonge..
The first in a series which aims to make more readily available the data for the early Neolithic ... more The first in a series which aims to make more readily available the data for the early Neolithic in Central/Southeast Europe, this volume deals with Bulgaria. It contains a catalogue of all known early Neolithic sites in Bulgaria, along with a review of the current state of research, and analysis of the development of settlement in the early Neolithic. It also contains specialist reports on lithic production, flint raw materials, and plant economy and vegetation.
The Human Face of Radiocarbon, 2016
The site and the research Tell Yunatsite (also known as “Ploskata Mogila”, which means “the Flat ... more The site and the research Tell Yunatsite (also known as “Ploskata Mogila”, which means “the Flat Mound” in Bulgarian) is situated in the Pazardzhik Field, i.e. the western part of the Thracian Plain, 8 km to the west of the modern town of Pazardzhik (42° 13’ 56” N, 24° 15’ 45” E). The Pazardzhik Field is a flat area slanting from west to east 300 to 100 m above sea level (fig. 1). It is enclosed by the Sredna Gora Mountain to the north and northwest, and the Rhodope Mountains to the south and..
Documenta Praehistorica
This article publishes a new series of radiocarbon dates from Tell Yunatsite, Southern Bulgaria. ... more This article publishes a new series of radiocarbon dates from Tell Yunatsite, Southern Bulgaria. Context-based excavations undertaken over a large surface area, as well as a small test trench, provided a long stratigraphic sequence (11 ‘building levels’) covering a large part of the Chalcolithic period in Thrace (5th millennium BCE). Bayesian statistics and Gaussian Monte Carlo Wiggle Matching were employed to achieve a fine chronology for the multilayered tell. Implications and problems on the application of the calibration curve for the Late and Final Chalcolithic in Bulgaria are also discussed.
A B S T R AC T The article compares the settlement organization and the building construction on ... more A B S T R AC T The article compares the settlement organization and the building construction on flat sites consisting of no more than 2-3 levels and on multilayered settlements with deposits that are above 0,50 m in thickness. The possible differences in the occupational stages of a given site are discussed-from the clearing of the terrain for its foundation to the characteristics of the archaeological record. The differences between the two types of settlements are due to the different bases on which they are founded-the former over a natural terrain, the latter over the remains of older settlements. The area for the newly established settlements needs to be cleared from vegetation-usually perennial trees whose removal leaves deep pits. The area of the multilayered settlements needs to cleared from destruction debris, namely through surface flattening. The role of the terrain is particularly important for the construction of the buildings. If they are founded on a solid base, it i...
Documenta Praehistorica, 2021
This article publishes a new series of radiocarbon dates from Tell Yunatsite, Southern Bulgaria. ... more This article publishes a new series of radiocarbon dates from Tell Yunatsite, Southern Bulgaria. Context-based excavations undertaken over a large surface area, as well as a small test trench, provided a long stratigraphic sequence (11 “building levels”) covering a large part of the Chalcolithic period in Thrace (5th millennium BCE). Bayesian statistics and Gaussian Monte Carlo Wiggle Matching were employed to achieve a fine chronology for the multilayered tell. Implications and problems on the application of the calibration curve for the Late and Final Chalcolithic in Bulgaria are here discussed.
The Human Face of Radiocarbon, 2016
Science
Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been infecting humans for millennia and remains a global health probl... more Hepatitis B virus (HBV) has been infecting humans for millennia and remains a global health problem, but its past diversity and dispersal routes are largely unknown. We generated HBV genomic data from 137 Eurasians and Native Americans dated between ~10,500 and ~400 years ago. We date the most recent common ancestor of all HBV lineages to between ~20,000 and 12,000 years ago, with the virus present in European and South American hunter-gatherers during the early Holocene. After the European Neolithic transition, Mesolithic HBV strains were replaced by a lineage likely disseminated by early farmers that prevailed throughout western Eurasia for ~4000 years, declining around the end of the 2nd millennium BCE. The only remnant of this prehistoric HBV diversity is the rare genotype G, which appears to have reemerged during the HIV pandemic.
Uniparentally-inherited markers on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the non-recombining regions of t... more Uniparentally-inherited markers on mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) and the non-recombining regions of the Y chromosome (NRY), have been used for the past 30 years to investigate the history of humans from a maternal and paternal perspective.Researchers have preferred mtDNA due to its abundance in the cells, and comparatively high substitution rate. Conversely, the NRY is less susceptible to back mutations and saturation, and is potentially more informative than mtDNA owing to its longer sequence length. However, due to comparatively poor NRY coverage via shotgun sequencing, and the relatively low and biased representation of Y-chromosome variants on capture arrays such as the 1240K, ancient DNA studies often fail to utilize the unique perspective that the NRY can yield.Here we introduce a new DNA enrichment assay, coined YMCA (Y-mappable capture assay), that targets the “mappable” regions of the NRY. We show that compared to low-coverage shotgun sequencing and 1240K capture, YMCA significantly improves the coverage and number of sites hit on the NRY, increasing the number of Y-haplogroup informative SNPs, and allowing for the identification of previously undiscovered variants.To illustrate the power of YMCA, we show that the analysis of ancient Y-chromosome lineages can help to resolve Y-chromosomal haplogroups. As a case study, we focus on H2, a haplogroup associated with a critical event in European human history: the Neolithic transition. By disentangling the evolutionary history of this haplogroup, we further elucidate the two separate paths by which early farmers expanded from Anatolia and the Near East to western Europe.
The Golden Fifth Millennium Thrace and Itsneighbour Areas in the Chalcolithic Proceedings of the International Symposium in Pazardzhik Yundola 26 30 10 2009 Sofia Niam Bas, 2011
The Golden Fifth Millennium Thrace and Itsneighbour Areas in the Chalcolithic Proceedings of the International Symposium in Pazardzhik Yundola 26 30 10 2009 Sofia Niam Bas, 2011
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors
Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors
Books by Yavor Boyadzhiev
VARHARI AND ORLITSA: TWO CHALCOLITHIC SETTLEMENTS IN THE EASTERN RHODOPE MOUNTAINS, 2022
The book presented includes the thorough publications of two sites: the settlements at Varhari an... more The book presented includes the thorough publications of two sites: the settlements at Varhari and Orlitsa. They are connected in many aspects. First, the sites present two consecutive chronological stages of the Copper age (Chalcolithic): the transition from Early to Late Chalcolithic and developed Late Chalcolithic. Second, both of them are located in the catchment area of the Varbitsa River, on the most suitable route connecting the Eastern Rhodope Mountains with the Aegean coast.
The sites also share similar history of research. Both of them were objects of rescue excavations as a part of large infrastructural project: the construction of route I–5 from Kardzhali (Bulgaria) to Komotini (Greece), through the Makaza pass. They were studied in two consecutive campaigns: 2003 – 2004 (Orlitsa) and 2007, 2009 – 2011 (Varhari).
The respective parts of the book present and analyze all aspects of these two settlements: location, settlement structure, architecture, pottery, small finds (chipped and ground stone tools, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, etc.), botanical remains, economic activities, relative and absolute chronology.
The book is in Bulgarian, with English summaries.
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Papers by Yavor Boyadzhiev
Books by Yavor Boyadzhiev
The sites also share similar history of research. Both of them were objects of rescue excavations as a part of large infrastructural project: the construction of route I–5 from Kardzhali (Bulgaria) to Komotini (Greece), through the Makaza pass. They were studied in two consecutive campaigns: 2003 – 2004 (Orlitsa) and 2007, 2009 – 2011 (Varhari).
The respective parts of the book present and analyze all aspects of these two settlements: location, settlement structure, architecture, pottery, small finds (chipped and ground stone tools, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, etc.), botanical remains, economic activities, relative and absolute chronology.
The book is in Bulgarian, with English summaries.
The sites also share similar history of research. Both of them were objects of rescue excavations as a part of large infrastructural project: the construction of route I–5 from Kardzhali (Bulgaria) to Komotini (Greece), through the Makaza pass. They were studied in two consecutive campaigns: 2003 – 2004 (Orlitsa) and 2007, 2009 – 2011 (Varhari).
The respective parts of the book present and analyze all aspects of these two settlements: location, settlement structure, architecture, pottery, small finds (chipped and ground stone tools, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, etc.), botanical remains, economic activities, relative and absolute chronology.
The book is in Bulgarian, with English summaries.