Prehistory of Transylvania

The Chalcolithic, Eneolithic or Copper Age (c. 4600/4500 – 3800/3700 BC) is characterized by an ever-increasing number of copper items, as well as the presence of stone, bone, horn and baked clay utensils. It marks the first production of heavy copper tools and moulds, (axes – chisels and axes), in close conjunction with the exploitation of copper deposits in Transylvania. Gold is used for ornaments and the fashioning of such idols as those at Moigrad in the Bodrogkeresztúr-Gornești culture. The craft of pottery reaches a peak, exemplified by the great number of exquisitely decorated pots.

Cultures typical for this period are the Cucuteni-Ariușd, Petrești, Tiszapolgár-Românești and Bodrogkeresztúr-Gornești. The first two cultures are among the numerous Eneolithic cultures with pottery painted in bi- and tri-chromatic patterns.

At Ariușd, Covasna County, in the east of Transylvania, the first systematic excavations were undertaken in what is considered the neo-Eneolithic epoch in Romania. The material discovered has been integrated into the greater painted pottery complex of Cucuteni-Ariușd-Tripolie.

Petrești culture

The Petrești culture diffused across almost all of Transylvania, is regarded as local in origin by some specialists, and as a migration originating from the southern areas of the Balkans, by others. It is primarily known for its painted decoration – patterns painted in red, brown-red, later brown, on a brick-red background, which testifies to the high standard of civilization of the bearers of this culture. The ornamental motifs consist in bands, rhombuses, squares, spirals, and windings. The typical forms are bowls, tureens, high stands. Plastic art is fairly scarce and so are brass items.

Decea Mureșului culture

The end of this culture ^[clarification needed] has been associated with the entry into central Transylvania by the bearers of the Decea Mureșului culture/horizon and the Gornești culture.

The graves at Decea Mureșului, according to some, are a continuation of the rituals of Iclod, whereas according to others, they are hard proof of the penetration of central Transylvania by a north-Pontic population. The presence of red ochre scattered over the skeletons, or laid at their feet in the form of little balls, as well as other ritual elements find better analogies, however, in the necropolis at Mariupol in south Ukraine.

Gornești culture

The Gornești culture, characterized by the occurrence of the so-called high-necked milk pots with two small protuberances pulled at the margin and drilled vertically, is a continuation of the [Românești] (featuring receptacles with bird bill protuberances and decorated with step^{[clarification needed]} or nettle incisions), in turn descended from the Tisa culture in the developed Neolithic period.

The settlements of the neo-Eneolithic cultures were located on the low or high river terraces, on hilltops or hillspurs and consisted in several dwellings whose positions sometimes observed particular rules. Recent research has tended to focus on the defense systems (ditches and scarps) of these sites. The culture strata are thick and superposed forming at times regular tells.

The dwellings of this period were of several types. The earth houses displayed an oval shaped hole, with a maximum of 5–6 metres (16–20 ft) and a minimum of 3 m (9.8 ft) in diameter. On one of the edges a simple fireplace was built out of a smoothed layer of clay. The thatched roof was conical or elongated and was supported by a

Copper was first used for fashioning small implements or ornaments (needles, awls, fishing hooks, pendants, etc.), while gold was used solely for aesthetic and decorative purposes. For a long time the items were produced by the technique of hammering, for the technique of the casting mould as well as that of "cire perdue" (lost wax) emerged much later. Although there is no proof of the provenance of the first metal items, they are seemingly local rather than imported products. That does not necessarily suggest that metallurgy was the invention of the local population, for it might have been introduced as a result of contact with regions where metal processing had started earlier (in the East or the Caucasus).

The Eneolithic marked a notable advancement in the development of metallurgy. Throughout this period copper artifacts are present in the settlements, in grave inventories or even in deposits (assemblies of whole or fragmentary objects concentrated in one, usually isolated, place). This period also marks a high incidence of flat axes, pins, simple or multi-spiral bracelets or necklaces. The most complex of all Eneolithic achievements is the axe. These weapon-implements are bound to^{[clarification needed]} the late phases of the Cucuteni, Decea Mureșului, and Bodrogkeresztúr-Gornești cultures. The gold Eneolithic items, outnumbered by the copper, actually constitute the beginning of goldsmithing in the Transylvanian lands. An outstanding artifact was the great gold pendant in the thesaurus of Moigrad, Sălaj County, which is 30 cm (12 in) in height and weighs 750 g (26 oz).

We know little about the racial types of the Transylvanian Neolithic population. The area of some of the cultures, for instance Cucuteni, lack funeral finds, for they are the expression of ritual practices that elude archeological methods. The little anthropological data available (

The role of the invasion of the

In conclusion, the Eneolithic was a period of stability, in which the sedentary populations created a spectacular civilization.

Bronze Age

(3200) 2700–1100

BC

)

As communities acquired the secrets of alloying brass and arsenic, tin, zinc, or lead, achieving the first items in bronze, the long period during which stone constituted the main raw material for fashioning implements and weapons was coming to an end. The emergence and development of bronze metallurgy is accompanied by numerous substantial changes in economic and social life, in the spiritual life, and in the arts. The ensemble of these modifications – archeologically identifiable especially midway in the Bronze Age, yet already prefigured early on in the transition period from the Eneolithic to the Bronze Age – indicates a civilization far more sophisticated than we had imagined.

Baden culture, Coțofeni culture

The first stage of the

Finally, the third stage is the least known, and is characterized by the use of ceramics with brush decorations and textile impressions.

Non-ferrous metallurgy in Early Bronze Age, given the substantial fall in production as compared to the Eneolithic, should be regarded as undergoing some sort of realignment, or repositioning, rather than indicating an acute decline. The causes of this phenomenon are many and diverse (exhaustion of the usual mineral sources, major technological changes, disturbing ethnic reshuffling, etc.). Significantly, the first bronze items (brass alloyed with arsenic, and later tin) now emerged.

The

This culture occupied the Middle and

The late period of the Bronze Age brings to Transylvania a marked process of cultural uniformity, whose direct manifestation is the local variety of the

Most remarkable in this context were the super-elevated handles, shaped into ram heads, of a large size receptacle found south of the Carpathians, at Sărata Monteoru, Buzău County. The motif is repeated in markedly stylized forms on numerous pot handles of the Wietenberg culture. They were abstract to the extent that an animal was represented by a single defining element, for example a ram's horns. The same culture exhibits two rare achievements: a fragment of a cult wagon, exquisitely decorated, with both extremities ending in protomes, shaped as sheep-goat heads, discovered at Lechința de Mureș, Mureș County, and a gold axe displaying a fine engraving of a human silhouette next to a bovine silhouette, whose provenance is the thesaurus of Țufalău, Covasna County.

Close scrutiny of the production technique of the more complex vessels—the perfect duct^{[clarification needed]} of some complex decoration patterns—strengthens the probability that the ceramics were produced by specialists. This does not exclude the possibility that other social groups, mainly children and adolescents, performed a secondary role. The transport of receptacles over long distances, in the absence of good roads, must have been an equally difficult operation, requiring itinerant craftsmen or special workshops near the more important centers.

The partial representations, the schematic physiognomies, as well as the faithful thematic rendering, though rare, all speak of a new symbolic expression that dominated the art of statuettes too. The moulding of the

The importance of the settlements, as a constructed and limited human space for the prehistoric population, is graphically suggested by Mircea Eliade,^{[citation needed]} when he interprets them as symbolic of the "centre of the world". The analyzed archeological sites evolved from simple groupings of lodges to complex urban facilities, directed towards maintaining collective lifestyle quality, ensuring the protection of life and goods, and meeting specific social, economic, defense and cultic needs.

Thus, there are central sites, with long-term developments, epicenters of a larger territory (

) revealed the use of notch weed and sorrel.

The animal economy of the Bronze Age, with the familiar local variations, was based on pig, sheep and goat breeding, with a decline in large horned cattle. Thus, the inhabitants of the Vatina and Otomani cultures seem to have focused on breeding swine, sheep, goats, and on intensive hunting; while among the Wietenberg and Noua communities cattle were most common, used both for food and for traction, followed by sheep, goats, swine and horses. Horses were constantly present and revolutionized transportation and communication. The wagon with big wheels, later with spikes, emerged and spread, either as a warring and hunting vehicle, or to symbolize social status.

Monteoru culture

The food provided by agriculture and animal breeding was supplemented by hunting and fishing. Their proportion within the economy varied among the communities of the

Mureș culture, 17.95%, in contrast to the area of the Noua culture where the percentage of hunting was, as a rule, much below 3%. Deer remained the most prized game in the Bronze Age, followed by wild boar and roebuck. A larger and more constant flow of the rivers, determined by an increasingly wet climate, is evident from the large fish bones found in many Bronze Age settlements

.

There is no clear indication whether agriculture or animal breeding predominated within Bronze Age communities, with research revealing that both were being practiced together within the same area. But as populations stabilized, they tended towards a pastoral East and a farm-dominated West.

Men became more economically productive, due to improved metallurgy and better animal husbandry, and the use of draught animals in agriculture. Men acquired a dominant position within the family and in society.

For the Bronze Age people, the mountains provided hunting,

Intra-Carpathian region. The Apuseni Mountains are especially rich, as are the ores in the Maramureș Mountains, or the copper in the Giurgeului Mountains and Baia de Aramă

. Metal outcrops are claimed to have been searched for by specialists, who perhaps then kept them secret. By washing gravel, or by digging pits for nuggets, the ore seekers satisfied the demand of local, prehistoric Europe, and even for the Mycenaean elites.

The unique direct proof of prehistoric exploitation of non-ferrous metals in Transylvania is the stone axe found in a gallery in

B. Roman at the middle of the last^{[clarification needed]} century, strongly suggesting that the mining of non-ferrous metals

was also performed underground.

Furthermore, the

Natural History Museum in Vienna preserves two hair rings with the caption 'Dealul Vulcoi (Roșia Montană), district Câmpeni, region Cluj'. The museum in Lupșa exhibits a miner's axe and a club, both having come from the Lupșa valley. These exhibits demonstrate the presence of prehistoric miners in the ore-rich Apuseni Mountains

.

Increasingly, traces of people involved in bronze-related activities are found. There are finished or semi-finished items,

Derșida

is well known.

The most complete and spectacular data related to metal processing workshops gathered so far, although partial, come from

kilns demonstrate that this operation was performed in the mining

areas.

The conversion of minerals to metal by means of fire was a process accompanied by rituals, magic formulas, and chanting to bring about the "birth of the metal". At the foundation of a kiln at

Palatca formed by a burnt out clay fireplace and several slabs of whetstone laid one on top of the other, probably round in shape, a clay vessel had been deposited. Close to the workshop, a large ritual area has been explored. Receptacles with offerings were placed in multiple hypostases next to ore-refining items (hand-mills, bronze items, ash, coal, etc.), underneath or on top of the whetstone slabs, head down or head up.^{[clarification needed}

]

The mass of the

Palatca

, and the female generating organ was not coincidental. Another unique discovery was the meteorite. Meteorites coming from the skies fell on Earth with a celestial sacred charge and were often associated with the blacksmiths' activity.

The scarcity of settlements with metallurgic activity also hints at the possible existence of itinerant

merchants, who exported the surplus produce. Through exchange, the Transylvanian and east-Hungarian type axes with spiked discs spread as far east as Bug, and to the north, to the Oder and Elbe region, Pomerania included, a phenomenon connected with The Great Amber Road and the exploitation of brass and tin

in the Elbe region. The metal artisans are not in power, but rather work under the control of an elite, which had seen the contingencies between metal and wealth, technology, war, and even the social and cultic structure.

The first level with gift depositaries^[

Intra-Carpathian warrior. The lance must have been yet another important weapon, but is a lesser find. The characteristics of the period are the bronze deposits at Apa, Satu Mare County (two swords, three war axes and a defense bracer^{[clarification needed]}), Ighiu, Alba County (two axes with spiked discs and four defense bracers) and at Săpânța, Maramureș County (a spiked disc axe of type A2, exquisitely decorated, older than all the other pieces, spiral bracers, arm bands, and cordiform pendants). In the following stage, undecorated bronze items (single-edged axe and spiked disc axe), were produced and stored in ever increasing quantities. Many continued in the earlier style, but were also new types. Among the best creations of Bronze Age metallurgy were the Mycenaean

type swords, whose dating is still debated.

Wietenberg culture

Main article: Wietenberg culture

The thesaurus found in 1840 at

Oarța de Sus, with accurate stratigraphy, in a ritual space belonging to the Wietenberg culture. Such thesauruses containing hundreds of pieces weighing several kilograms, such as those at Sarasău, Maramureș County) or Hinova, Mehedinți County

, are few and likely to represent the community treasure. They are outnumbered by those displaying fewer items which seem to have been the private property of some leaders.

Palatca

.

There certainly existed many wooden tools or receptacles, but they have not been preserved. Animal skin processing for fashioning clothing items, shields, harnesses, etc. must have been widespread.

The Bronze Age

Noua culture), the placing of offering-items alongside the deceased, all imply abstract thinking and belief in the afterlife

.

Archeological investigations alone are too few and disparate for a detailed reconstruction of the religions of the Bronze Age people. The solar symbols, dynamic or static in form, (continuing spirals, simple crosses or crosses with spirals, spiked wheels, rays, etc.) are so numerous that they could be illustrated in a separate volume, and speak clearly about the prevailing role of this cult.

cylindrical

clay stand. The other had nine clay weights in miniature, three curved stone knives and one cylindrical stand.

The symbolic value of the items and their number speak for themselves. The walls were decorated with

fetuses

around her basin and one between her inferior members – it could well be a mother and her infants.

All of these practices, judging by the archeological data mentioned above, as well as being based on other analogies, were accompanied by offerings,

sacrifices, with ceramics and bone, as well as with gold, silver or bronze. This wide variety of offerings, deposited in the course of grand religious ceremonies, indicate either an all-encompassing deity

, or else several deities all worshiped within the same space.

In the Wietenberg culture area at

dualism of creeds in the Bronze Age

.

The link between the

Mediterranean civilizations has often been the subject of debates, offering quite divergent opinions concerning their dating, direction, and significance. One of the main arguments concerns the bronze swords discovered on the territory of Romania. These long thrusting swords (symbols of dignity and power as well as formidable weapons) are obviously local products. The decorating motifs based on spirals and fine windings on bronze or gold weapons, on bone or horn items, are near to perfection, especially in the areas of the Wietenberg and Otomani cultures. If created independently of the Aegean

models, they cannot be too far apart in time.

The glass in the

Palatca copies the well-known Aegean model. The striking similarities between the Wietenberg ceramics and the Apennine culture in northern Italy

are difficult to explain. The assumption made long ago of a common generating center still stands, until final clarification.

In the same era, the metals produced on the slopes of the eastern arch of the

Cioclovina cave came from the Baltic Sea, while the Caucasian influences are indicated by the axe discovered at Larga, Maramureș County

.

The marked expansion of pan-European trade in middle and late Bronze Age created growing dependence between the different cultural groups, and an acceleration of uniformity in cultural values and produce. All of which sped up the general development of society and the passage to a new phase in historical evolution.

Noua culture

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The

Otomani culture

, both grafted onto the undoubted local experience, made Transylvania the most prolific metallurgic center in prehistoric Europe.

The differences identified between the deposits of the period speak not of unitary series,^[

Suciu de Sus culture. The deposits in the area of the post-Otomani groups (Igrița and Cehăluț) contain almost exclusively ornament items, mainly pendants and pins. Finally, in central and eastern Transylvania, in the area of the Noua culture, we encounter the third type of deposit with the prevailing Transylvanian type of socked axes and the sickle

.

Only a small number of bronze items were found in settlements and cemeteries. Most of them have a fortuitous appearance in what we call deposits. Romanian archaeology has interpreted their storage as a proof of troubled times, yet today a new interpretation is gaining ground: they are cultic deposits functioning as offerings, or at times, as the result of prestigious inter-community auctions of the "potlatch" type. The arguments in favour are strong: long periods of peaceful development, the location of the deposits (confluence of rivers, lakes, springs, clearings, mild slopes looking east, etc.), the number of items, the arrangements, their manipulations (fired, bent, fragmentation through bending, etc.), etc. Moreover, there is no logic in the locals burying their arms in the face of a military threat.

Uioara de Sus

, accidentally found in 1909. The hoard contains 5,827 items weighing approximately 1,100 kg (2,400 lb)

The multiplication of the offensive, in contrast to the defensive, fighting equipment (swords type Boiu – Sauerbrunn, battle axes with spiked disc, daggers, spearheads, arm bracers, all made of bronze), the development of settlements with man-made defenses, the existence of distinct warrior graves, gives the impression that the Bronze Age was a warring world. But there are numerous arguments that it was really a matter of parading rather than using force.

The extraordinary

Şpalnaca

II 1,000 paces away, in the year 1887, totaling a weight of 1,000 – 1,200 kg, was composed similarly of thousands of items. In addition to Șpalnaca I, Șpalnaca II, a deposit dated Hallstatt B1, was discovered a short distance away in the year 1881 and consisted of 120 bronze items.

The local

tumuli at Lăpuș

), a screen, a piece of woolen linen or even a sheep's fleece sufficed. The output was a few grams per day per worker.

Iron Age

(1100

BC – 150 AD

)

See also:

Celts in Transylvania, and Roman Dacia

The First

Hallstatt, Austria) covers the 10th to 5th centuries BC (1000-400 BC) and is divided into three periods: early (1000-700 BC), middle (700-600 BC) and late (600-400 BC). The Second Iron Age, also called La Tène

, generally covers the period between 450 BC and the peak of Roman Empire.

The defining phenomenon of the epoch is the use of iron with a paramount impact on humanity's subsequent evolution.

Geto-Dacians

Main articles: Dacians, Dacia, and Getae

National Museum of Romanian History

In contrast to the

Geto-Dacians, who are culturally distinguishable from the southern Thracians and the other neighboring peoples. We are told this by the father of history himself—Herodotus. Recounting the Persian king Darius' expedition to the mouth of the Danube in 514 BC he mentions the Getae, praising them for their valour.^{[dubious – discuss}

]

Over 600 sites are known so far across the territory of Transylvania from the First Iron Age. Most sites were occupied during all stages of this epoch. Twenty-six

fortifications

, some inhabited permanently, others used for refuge and defense in times of peril, are among the more remarkable.

The fortified settlements and the refuge fortifications were usually located on inaccessible elevations and close to water courses and fertile areas. Their sizes vary with the location and its possibilities. For instance, the

Ciceu-Corabia (Bistrița-Năsăud County) and Teleac (Alba County

), each measuring 30 hectares, count among the largest in Europe. The first Iron Age fortifications are also known in the county of Cluj, in Dej, Huedin and Someşul Rece.

sanctuaries at Sarmizegetusa Regia, the capital of ancient Dacia

The defense systems surrounding these regular

strongholds consisted of a ditch, rampart and palisade

, the last of which was designed as a wooden wall erected on the ridge of the rampart representing the most important part of the system. So designed, the fortifications generally measured 7–8 m in height, but could reach 10-12 making them difficult to conquer.

As tribal centers, the fortified settlements had multiple functions, the foremost of which was to ensure the defense of the community. The discovery of

tools indicates that the settlements housed skilled craft

activities, which included permanent exchange relations.

farming implements, scythes and grubbing hoes

, indicate notable progress in the agricultural practice.

The large quantity of bones discovered in the settlements, most originating from domestic animals, cattle, sheep,

swine—as well as game—indicate the importance of domestic animals to supplement hunting

, as well as the importance of meat in the daily diet.

Finally, besides some such crafts as metallurgy which imply special skill, members of every family engaged in a series of activities such as weaving, spinning, and leather dressing, shown by the discovery in the dwellings of spindle, spools, sewing needles, and scrapers for cleaning hide.

The occurrence of

geometric patterns

.

Religion was demonstrably a daily presence in prehistoric communities. Thus, besides the magic practice and the

chtonian and Urano-solar to become the characteristics of the Geto-Dacian

religion in the classical period.

During the First Iron Age, the local culture was influenced by neighboring areas. Midway through the epoch, on the middle course of the Mureș there arrived from Banat elements of a culture called Basarabi. Displaying ceramics with specific decorations (incised and impressed), the culture was assimilated by the autochthonous background.

Subsequently, at the beginning of the late period of this epoch (6th century BC), a group of

Geto-Dacians would attain a level of development that would lead them to form a state

.

For later events, see

Ancient history of Romania, Dacians, Domitian's Dacian War, Trajan's Dacian Wars, and Roman Dacia

.

See also

• Ancient history of Transylvania
• Bronze Age in Romania
• Celts in Transylvania
• Dacia
• History of Romania
• History of Transylvania
• La Tène culture
• List of cities in Thrace and Dacia
• List of tribes in Thrace and Dacia
• National Museum of Transylvanian History
• Prehistory of Europe
• Prehistory of Romania
• Rotbav Archaeological Site

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