E-Learning from Nature

NAME OF THE LOCAL AREA
Archaeological site of Cucuteni

COUNTRY
Romania

CITY
Iasi

THEMATIC AREA
Geography, Geology

WEB SITE
http://www.monumenteiasi.ro/pagina.php?v=muzeu_cucuteni

DESCRIPTION OF THE LOCAL AREA
The Cucuteni-Trypillian culture is a Neolithic–Eneolithic archaeological culture (ca. 6000 to 3500 BC) in Eastern Europe.
It extends from the Carpathian Mountains to the Dniester and Dnieper regions, centered on modern-day Moldova and covering substantial parts of western Ukraine and northeastern Romania, encompassing an area of some 350,000 km2 (140,000 sq mi), with a diameter of some 500 km (300 mi; roughly from Kyiv in the northeast to Brasov in the southwest).
The majority of Cucuteni-Trypillian settlements consisted of high-density, small settlements (spaced 3 to 4 kilometers apart), concentrated mainly in the Siret, Prut, and Dniester river valleys. During the Middle Trypillia phase (ca. 4000 to 3500 BC), populations belonging to the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture built the largest settlements in Neolithic Europe, some of which contained as many as 1,600 structures.
The culture was initially named after the village of Cucuteni in Iaşi County, Romania. In 1884, Teodor T. Burada, after having seen ceramic fragments in the gravel used to maintain the road from Târgu Frumos to Iași, investigated the quarry in Cucuteni from where the material was mined, where he found fragments of pottery and terracotta figurines.


	Cucuteni village, Gosan hill	Cucuteni village and manor are located nearby the railway station in Târgu Frumos in the hillside region of Moldavia, At the bottom of Gosan hill, which used to be called “the Hill of the Kings”, visitors are welcomed by a range of wood sculptures, vestiges of annual craft work camps, symbols of an imaginary dialogue between past-present, present-past.
	Cucuteni site	Construction in situ protection of a princely tomb dating from IV - III centuries BC., Houses and elements of local history and showcases of the original archaeological pieces dating from the Cucuteni culture.
	Cucuteni Tomb	At the top of Gosan hill, in the place called “Pietrarie”, there is the defence brickwork of the Getic-Dacian princely tomb dating back to the IV cen.BC. The Getic-Dacian necropolis – 3,3 meters high and 35 meters in diameter – is a round stone enclosure with a south-est entrance. Inside the necropolis four tombs were found.
	Cucuteni pottery	Inside the main tomb archaeologists discovered ritually broken pottery, leaf shaped pendentives made og gilded pottery, beads, adornments for women. Within the larger historical perspective, this tomb relates to our recent history. In order to get to what we today call the Cucuteni culture, we need to take an imaginary leap 4,000 years back from the world of the Getae-Dacians.
	Cucuteni pottery	The Cucuteni culture is the most valuable heritage from the people of those times is their pottery. Historians say that more then 6,000 years ago a prosperous civilisation inhabited an area of more than 350,000 square kilometres.
	Cucuteni culture location	Historians say that more than 6000 years ago a prosperous civilisation inhabited an area of more than 350.000 square kilometres, over the nowadays south-east of Transylvania and north-east of Vallachia, stretching across the whole of Moldavia and Basarabia, all the way to nowadays western Ukraine. Archaeologists called it Cucuteni after the name of the village near Iasi where, in 1884, they discovered the first vestiges of this culture.
	Examples of the technique of painting vessels	Culture A: 1, painted with red, polished and then painted over with white-yellowish; 2-3, polychrome painted versions Culture B: 4-8 variants with white secondary 9 picture in red and black


Cucuteni village and surroundings The video shows the Cucuteni village and surroundings, located nearby the railway station in Targu Frumos in the hillside region of Moldavia. Video presents also the Gosan hill, which used to be called “the Hill of the Kings”, visitors are welcomed by a range of wood sculptures, “vestiges” of annual craft work camps, symbol of an imaginary dialogue between pas-present, present-past. And on Gosan hill we can find the Museum of history and archeology Cucuteni.
Cucuteni Tomb The video shows the defence brickwork of a Getic-Dacian princely tomb dating back to the IV century BC. The Getic-Dacian necropolis – 3.3 meters high and 35 meters in diameter – is a round stone enclosure with a south-east entrance. Inside the necropolis four tombs were found: a main one – for which the tumulus was raised – and three secondary tombs.
Archaeological discoveries in the Cucuteni Tomb The video shows the archaeological discoveries of the main Cucuteni Tomb: ritually broken pottery, leaf shaped pendentives made of gilded pottery, beads, and adornments for women.

Geographical Areas