where the neck would
have been. These amulets, associated with
pregnancy and childbirth, indicate that the
‘burials’ were those of
females. Further evidence of this is the
fact that there were
no battle-axes found in
these cenotaphs, but
each of them had a
copper pin, a flint knife
and a spindle whorl. Dr
Slavchev has explained
that these findings,
taken together, suggest
that these graves were
those of females – real
or deified. “A guess was
made that effigies of
the deities worshiped
by the local population
were buried in these
symbolic graves,” said
Dr Slavch