In Hall 1 – Prehistory is traced chronologically and thematically the development of the Bulgarian lands in the prehistoric period – from the Neolithic period to the end of the Bronze Age.
In its central part are displayed some of the most representative finds of the period, which are part of the grave inventory in different eras. The objects found in Varna, Durankulak, Dobrich, Tabashka Cave in Lovech, Rupite, Petrich, Izvorovo, Harmanli and Chervenobrezhko illustrate the level of society and the idea of power of the ancient people.
During the first epoch represented, that of the New Stone Age (late 7th – early 5th millennium BC), the first centres of an economy based on agriculture and livestock breeding were formed and developed on the Balkan Peninsula. The transformation of land into a means of subsistence became a prerequisite for long-lasting settlements. The construction of permanent settlements begins. In some cases, long occupation leads to the accumulation of settlement mounds. In some of the settlements fortification with ditches and ramparts is used. The new stone tools with a smoothed surface have considerable efficiency. The production of pottery began. The early agricultural ritual-mythological system emerges, which includes the ideas of the Mother Goddess and the Sky God, the guardian spirits, and the associated with them cults of the forces of nature, the ancestors, the home and the domestic hearth, etc. Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic sculptures became quite common. During the Neolithic period the present-day Bulgarian lands were part of a large cultural zone that included Western Anatolia and a considerable part of the Balkans.
This is illustrated in showcase 2 in the hall, where ceramic vessels, tools, anthropomorphic sculptures, etc. from sites such as the Azmashka mound in Stara Zagora, settlements near Galabnik in Pernik, Hotnitsa in Veliko Tarnovo, Topolnitsa in Blagoevgrad and Kurilo in Sofia, etc., are exhibited.
