BALKAN PERSPECTIVES OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE CIRCUMPONTIC RESEARCH DESIGN DURING THE EARLY BRONZE AGE (LATER 4TH - 3RD MILLENNIUM CAL BCE)

Aim. To show the decisive importance of the Early Bronze Age in the development of Eurasian civilization as a system of interconnected, interdependent and intensely interacting societies that arose during the Early Bronze Age I (late 4th millennium BCЕ) and flourished during the Early Bronze Age II-III (3,000 BCЕ). The Balkans became one of the centers of the Circumpontic cultural system, integrated during the Early Bronze Age to varying degrees with the northwest of Anatolia and the northwest of the Black Sea, as well as with Central Europe and the Aegean cultures. Methodology. The cultural and social characteristics of the communities / chiefdoms of the Balkans of the Early Bronze Age are given from diachronic perspectives. Results. In the early Bronze Age, a system of equal partners emerged in the Balkans, based on a common economic platform, including the chiefdoms of Ezero, Yunatsite, Sitagroi in the south, as well as the conglomeration of dispersed sedentary and semi-mobile communities of Coţofeni without a clear centralized political power on the Lower Danube, the chiefdom Vucedol, etc. The presence of an exchange of prestigious items (jewelry from Dubenе-Balinov Gorum) controlled by the elite, together with the absence of archaeological traces of conflicts indicate the Early Bronze Age was a peaceful period in the Balkans. Research implications. It was found that the standards of the chiefdoms of the Western Circumpontic region corresponded to the benchmarks of the Trojan chiefdoms, although the material markers of these standards were different.

Early Bronze Age, Circumpontic cultural system, Balkan, Anatolia chiefdoms, Ezero, Yunatsite, Sitagroi, Coţofeni, Troy

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