National Archaeological Museum and the National Museum of History, both located in Sofia, have the most significant collections of antiquities, but many other historical and archaeological museums in the country also contain important collections. The main periodicals being currently published are Archeologija (in Bulgarian with French abstracts), Archaeologia Bulgarica (mainly in English with some papers in French or German), and Archaeological Novelties (bilingual in English and Bulgarian), and several regional annual volumes (in Bulgarian) are also published by local museums, although with some breaks.

Research on the Paleolithic period (ca. 130,000–15,000 b.c.) in Bulgaria began about 1950 and by the end of the 1970s, more than thirty caves and open settlements had been studied through excavation and drilling. The most important Paleolithic sites investigated during the last years are the Bacho Kiro cave, a Middle Paleolithic site excavated by a Bulgarian-Polish team (Kozlowski 1982), and another synchronous site, the Temnata Dupka cave, where Bulgarian, Polish, and French scholars have worked together (Kozlowski, Laville, Sirakov, and Ginter 1992). The best-investigated regions in Bulgaria now are the west and central Balkan Mountains and the western Rhodope Mountains, and various sites that date from the Paleolithic and Mesolithic periods (ca. 15,000– 6300 or 6100 b.c.) are known so far (Bailey and Panayotov 1995).

Study of the Neolithic (6300 or 6100–4900 or 4850 b.c.) and the Eneolithic (4900 or 4850–4100 or 3800 b.c.) periods and the transition period (3850–3200 b.c.) in Bulgaria have produced significant results. The Karanovo tell has been the most important site for Bulgarian prehistory, and now excavations are being resumed by a Bulgarian-Austrian team (Hiller and Nikolov 1997). On the basis of the excavation results, the Karanovo chronology system was introduced: Karanovo I-IV, Neolithic; Karanovo V-VI, Eneolithic; and Karanovo VII, early Bronze Age (Georgiev 1961).

More than 500 prehistoric tells (from the Neolithic, Eneolithic, and Bronze Age) are registered in Bulgaria today; around 10 percent of them are being investigated, and several sites have been completely excavated. Some of the most important Neolithic sites are located at Samovodene, Slatina, Ovcharovo, and Hotnitsa; for the Eneolithic period, important sites are Ovcharovo, Poljanitsa, Vinitsa, Durankulak, Goljamo Delchevo, and Krivodol. These tells have thick cultural layers and create the background for the study of both periods. A number of cemeteries located near the settlements are also being investigated, the most important being the Varna cemetery, which has an impressive wealth of material (gold, copper, bone, and pottery) and clearly shows the social ranking in the Eneolithic society (Fol and Lichardus 1988). Special attention has also been paid to the copper metalwork from the Eneolithic period (Todorova 1981). The results of intensive excavation works gave the opportunity for publishing some general studies and articles devoted to the problems of the Neolithic, Eneolithic, and transition periods in Bulgaria (Bailey and Panayotov 1995; Leshtakov 1997; Nikolov 1998; Nikolova 1999; Stefanovich, Todorova, and Hauptmann 1998; Todorova 1979; Todorova and Vaissov 1993).

Investigations of the Bronze Age (divided in three periods: early, 3500 or 3200–2100 b.c.; middle, 2100–1600 or 1500 b.c.; and late, 1600 or 1500–1100 or 1050 b.c.) in Bulgaria have significantly increased since 1970. Owing to the gradual adoption of the stratigraphic method in archaeological excavations, the relative chronology of the Bronze Age was established. Moreover, materials threw additional light upon the problems of synchronization between Europe and northwestern Asia Minor by clarifying the chronological position of the Bronze Age in Troy in relation to European prehistory. Some of the most important settlement sites (usually multilayer tells that were inhabited in earlier periods) are located at Ezero, Junatsite, Djadovo (excavated by a Bulgarian-Japanese team), and Drama (investigated by a Bulgarian-German expedition). Other sites that have produced important results are near Gulubovo, Mihalich, Balei, Assenovets, and Kamenska Chuka at Blagoevgrad, the last excavated by a Bulgarian-American team.

Along with settlement investigations, the study of mortuary practices has been significantly