Private Kırklareli Prehistory Experience
Ask us about a tailor-made archaeological journey combining Kanlıgeçit, Aşağıpınar and Kırklareli Museum with private transportation and specialist guiding arrangements.
Request a Custom TourThe prehistoric landscapes around modern Kırklareli preserve several settlements belonging to different periods. Nearby Aşağıpınar represents much earlier Neolithic and Chalcolithic farming communities, while Kanlıgeçit became important later, toward the end of the 4th millennium and during the Early Bronze Age.
The earliest substantial phases at Kanlıgeçit were connected with the cultural world of the Balkans. The settlement consisted largely of timber and wattle-built structures, and its pottery displayed strong similarities with prehistoric traditions north of the site.
During the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, however, Kanlıgeçit changed dramatically. The settlement was reorganized around a defended central area often described as an acropolis or citadel. Stone construction became much more important, and monumental rectangular buildings known as megara appeared inside the fortified center.
These architectural forms were not typical of contemporary Balkan villages. Instead, they closely recalled settlement traditions known from western Anatolia and the Troad, including sites such as Troy.
Kanlıgeçit therefore provides unusually clear evidence that the societies of Early Bronze Age Thrace were not isolated. People, technologies, objects and perhaps new social ideas were moving across the wider region between southeastern Europe and Anatolia.
The final occupation ended around the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. Archaeological evidence indicates that the settlement was destroyed in a major fire around 2050 BC, bringing the extraordinary Bronze Age sequence to an end.
