Aşağı Pınar Mound (Kırklareli)
Aşağı Pınar Mound is a prehistoric settlement mound located about 3 km south of Kırklareli city center, on the road to Asilbeyli village, in a transitional zone between the Istranca (Strandzha) Mountains and the Ergene Basin. The site lies close to fresh-water sources and the Haydardere stream, on a low, flat mound that blends into the surrounding topography.
(Source: Kırklareli Project – Aşağı Pınar
https://kirklareliprojesi.org/asagipinar/
TAY Project – Aşağı Pınar
https://www.tayproject.org/TAYmaster.fm%24Retrieve?YerlesmeNo=218&html=masterdetail.html&layout=web)
First identified by Mehmet Özdoğan in 1980, Aşağı Pınar has been excavated systematically since the early 1990s. Excavations have revealed nine cultural layers, spanning roughly from 6200 to 4400/4300 BC, covering the Late Neolithic to Early Chalcolithic. This sequence makes Aşağı Pınar one of the earliest and most completely excavated farming settlements in Eastern Thrace.
(Source: Vici.org – Asagi Pinar – Kirklareli Höyük
https://vici.org/vici/46172/?lang=en
JADER article on Aşağı Pınar prehistoric settlement
https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/pub/jader/issue/73495/1207499)
Aşağı Pınar is considered a key site for understanding the spread of the Neolithic “way of life” from Anatolia into Europe. The arrival of the first farming communities in Thrace and their adaptation to the local environment can be traced here, so the mound plays a central role in discussions of the Neolithic Revolution in the Balkans.
(Source: Green Corridors – “The excavation area of Aşağı Pınar”
https://greencorridors.burgas.bg/en/objects/view/80
“Continuity and Discontinuity in Eastern Thrace during the Neolithic Period”
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/6000-bc/continuity-and-discontinuity-in-eastern-thrace-during-the-neolithic-period/7DA1C1BD3EF3E27EE25EFFFDABA0D641)
Archaeological work has uncovered wattle-and-daub houses with rectangular or multi-room plans, ovens and hearths, storage pits, ditches and various ritual features. Together, these remains show how Neolithic households at Aşağı Pınar organized domestic space, food production and storage, and ritual practices through time.
(Source: Eylem Özdoğan – “Contextualising the Neolithic House: A View from Aşağı Pınar in Eastern Thrace”
https://www.academia.edu/44594897/
“Settlement Organization and Architecture in Aşağı Pınar”
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332100865_Settlement_Organization_and_Architecture_in_Asagi_Pinar_2011)
Today, part of the site is arranged as an open-air archaeological park under the “Aşağı Pınar Open-Air Museum Project”. Protective shelters cover sections of exposed Neolithic architecture, allowing visitors to walk among the remains and get a direct impression of one of the earliest farming villages of Thrace.
(Source: Aşağı Pınar Open-Air Museum Project – Kırklareli Project
https://kirklareliprojesi.org/toplum/asagi-pinar-acik-hava-muze-projesi/)