The region of Neamt in Northeastern Romania is one of
\nMoldavia and Romania’s best-known regions, since here, the landscape invites
\nyou to start outings in a region boasting a rich historical heritage, replete
\nwith monuments and monasteries. Yet it is not only the political and religious
\nhistory we have in mind, but also the literary history, as Neamt is the county
\nwhere the great Romanian prose writer Ion Creanga was born. Many of the
\nregion’s landscapes and sites are recurrent in his works. <\/p>\n
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Neamt also boasts
\nan asset which although is less known to the public, bears great scientific
\nimportance. In the county seat Piatra Neamt and its surroundings important
\narchaeological evidence has been unearthed, belonging to the
\nCucuteni-Trypillian pre-historic civilisation. Quite a few of these
\narchaeological items are on display at the Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum in
\nPiatra Neamt. The Cucuteni civilisation stands out mainly because of its arts
\nand crafts, ceramics in particular, an art that to a great extent earned the
\nCucuteni civilisation the label of the most important European pre-historic
\ncivilisation. Constantin Preoteasa is a researcher with the Cucuteni Culture
\nInternational Research Centre. He will now be giving us details about the
\nCucuteni culture.<\/p>\n
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It is the last Neo-Eneolithic civilisation in this part of Europe and
\nalso the last pre-Indo-European population in the region. Between 5000 and 3500
\nBC, when reportedly this exceptional culture gained momentum on the continent,
\nhuman settlements on the present-day territory of Romania, that is an area
\nstretching between the Transylvanian segment of Olt and Prut River, were
\npractically the dominant culture across Europe in terms of living standards. Of
\ncourse, this civilisation spread on a much larger area, including part of
\ntoday’s Republic of Moldova and Ukraine, stretching between the Transylvanian
\nsegment of Olt river and the Dnepr. The main characteristic, interesting for both
\nspecialists and the general public, turning the Cucuteni civilisation into the
\nmost intensely researched and the most widely exhibited civilisation ever to
\nhave been encountered on Romania’s present-day territory, is the exquisite
\nquality and the significant volume of its archaeological evidence. No other
\ncivilisation from any other historical era on Romania’s present-day territory
\ncan match the Cucutenti culture, for the reasons we have just mentioned.<\/p>\n
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In Moldavia’s Bacau
\nand Neamt Counties the most relevant archaeological evidence of the Cucuteni
\nCulture has been unearthed, with most of the items being exhibited and
\nscientifically registered with the Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum in Piatra
\nNeamt. Here is researcher Constantin Preoteasa once again:<\/p>\n
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At the moment, we store in Piatra Neamt about 70% of the Cucuteni
\ncultural heritage discovered on Romania’s present-day territory. The Cucuteni
\nEneolithic Art Museum in Piatra Neamt is the only one of its kind in the world.
\nAt present, here we have the most important collection of Cucuteni art around
\nthe world and the most important collection of pre-historic art in Eastern
\nEurope. The vast majority of our heritage has been unearthed in Moldavia’s
\nsub-Carpathian region. The Cucuteni cultural heritage that we have consists of
\nseveral tens of thousands of art items that have already been restored,
\npreserved and completed, which can be capitalised on both as exhibition and
\npublishable items. They stand out as a distinct part of the Cucuteni decorative
\nart, particularly four categories of pots, iconic for this civilisation: the
\ncrown pots, coaster pots, binocular pots as well as round-dance pots, such as
\nthe famous Frumusica round dance pot discovered near the city of Piatra Neamt
\nby the founders of the city’s present archaeology and history museum, Father
\nConstantin Matasa, who practically laid the foundation of the museum with his
\nown collection of Cucuteni artefacts, more than 80 years ago.<\/p>\n
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The Cucuteni
\ncivilisation’s figurative art is not as beautiful and spectacular, since the
\nanthropomorphic statues, on display also in Piatra Neamt, had a rather
\nreligious purpose. The figures symbolising fertility can be seen on the
\npremises of Piatra the Neamt city centre, in a building erected between 1928
\nand 1930, by entrepreneur Carol Zany, taking up on a project drawn by
\nBucharest’s former chief architect Roger Bolomey. Between 1930 and 1948, the
\nbuilding played host to Piatra Neamt’s first private bank, while today it is
\nthe building hosting the Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum in Piatra Neamt.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Evidence has been unearthed in Neamt county belonging to the Cucuteni-Trypillian pre-historic civilisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":168401,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[42722,35865],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-168400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-cucuteni","tag-piatra-neamt"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n