Evidence has been unearthed in Neamt county belonging to the Cucuteni-Trypillian pre-historic civilisation.
The region of Neamt in Northeastern Romania is one of Moldavia and Romania's best-known regions, since here, the landscape invites you to start outings in a region boasting a rich historical heritage, replete with monuments and monasteries. Yet it is not only the political and religious history we have in mind, but also the literary history, as Neamt is the county where the great Romanian prose writer Ion Creanga was born. Many of the region's landscapes and sites are recurrent in his works.
Neamt also boasts an asset which although is less known to the public, bears great scientific importance. In the county seat Piatra Neamt and its surroundings important archaeological evidence has been unearthed, belonging to the Cucuteni-Trypillian pre-historic civilisation. Quite a few of these archaeological items are on display at the Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum in Piatra Neamt. The Cucuteni civilisation stands out mainly because of its arts and crafts, ceramics in particular, an art that to a great extent earned the Cucuteni civilisation the label of the most important European pre-historic civilisation. Constantin Preoteasa is a researcher with the Cucuteni Culture International Research Centre. He will now be giving us details about the Cucuteni culture.
"It is the last Neo-Eneolithic civilisation in this part of Europe and also the last pre-Indo-European population in the region. Between 5000 and 3500 BC, when reportedly this exceptional culture gained momentum on the continent, human settlements on the present-day territory of Romania, that is an area stretching between the Transylvanian segment of Olt and Prut River, were practically the dominant culture across Europe in terms of living standards. Of course, this civilisation spread on a much larger area, including part of today's Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, stretching between the Transylvanian segment of Olt river and the Dnepr. The main characteristic, interesting for both specialists and the general public, turning the Cucuteni civilisation into the most intensely researched and the most widely exhibited civilisation ever to have been encountered on Romania's present-day territory, is the exquisite quality and the significant volume of its archaeological evidence. No other civilisation from any other historical era on Romania's present-day territory can match the Cucutenti culture, for the reasons we have just mentioned."
In Moldavia's Bacau and Neamt Counties the most relevant archaeological evidence of the Cucuteni Culture has been unearthed, with most of the items being exhibited and scientifically registered with the Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum in Piatra Neamt. Here is researcher Constantin Preoteasa once again:
"At the moment, we store in Piatra Neamt about 70% of the Cucuteni cultural heritage discovered on Romania's present-day territory. The Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum in Piatra Neamt is the only one of its kind in the world. At present, here we have the most important collection of Cucuteni art around the world and the most important collection of pre-historic art in Eastern Europe. The vast majority of our heritage has been unearthed in Moldavia's sub-Carpathian region. The Cucuteni cultural heritage that we have consists of several tens of thousands of art items that have already been restored, preserved and completed, which can be capitalised on both as exhibition and publishable items. They stand out as a distinct part of the Cucuteni decorative art, particularly four categories of pots, iconic for this civilisation: the crown pots, coaster pots, binocular pots as well as round-dance pots, such as the famous Frumusica round dance pot discovered near the city of Piatra Neamt by the founders of the city's present archaeology and history museum, Father Constantin Matasa, who practically laid the foundation of the museum with his own collection of Cucuteni artefacts, more than 80 years ago."
The Cucuteni civilisation's figurative art is not as beautiful and spectacular, since the anthropomorphic statues, on display also in Piatra Neamt, had a rather religious purpose. The figures symbolising fertility can be seen on the premises of Piatra the Neamt city centre, in a building erected between 1928 and 1930, by entrepreneur Carol Zany, taking up on a project drawn by Bucharest's former chief architect Roger Bolomey. Between 1930 and 1948, the building played host to Piatra Neamt's first private bank, while today it is the building hosting the Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum in Piatra Neamt.
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