Drama-Merdžumekja: A Southeast Bulgarian Monument of the European Culture Heritage and Its Publication

Abstract

The archaeologists, when excavating, find themselves in a dilemma: they have to dig up from above, but should understand from below. They discover the life cycle of a site always “downside up,” first the latest, and in the end the first. But understanding history means to recognize in the first the origins of the latest, in other words, to comprehend the causal relationships in order to be able to explain the reason why the one arose from the other. Understanding the life cycle of a site means, first of all, to chronologically divide the finds and features as accurately as possible. It is only on the basis of a reliable chronological sequence, progressively from one period to the other, that the causal, coherent developments can be described or, in a case they are lacking, the gaps in the cultural sequence. Many years or even decades may pass from the first spade cut, until the archaeologists find themselves in this position