Prehistoric Romania
Prehistoric Romania is the period in the human occupation (including early hominins) of
the geographical area encompassing present-day Romania, which extended through prehistory, and ended when the first written records appeared.
The Palaeolithic
The Romanian
Protopaleolithic
The Romanian Protopaleolithic (circa 1,000,000 - 700,000) is marked by the appearance of the first carved tools, the so-called "Pebble culture" (Cultură de prund in Romanian). These tools have been attributed to the Homo erectus hominid type.
Lower Paleolithic
The Romanian Lower Paleolithic (circa 700,000 - 120,000) is characterised by the appearance of two distinct carved tools: the bi-facial stone axe (chopping tools; at first, the Abbevillian, later Clactonian type), and the stone chip (at first, Acheulean, later the Levalloisian type). These tools were attributed to the Pithecantropus erectus hominid species. Of major importance was the discovery of several fireplaces. This the first ever proof of the hominid's ability to control fire in what today is Romania.
Middle Paleolithic
The Middle Paleolithic in Romania (circa 120,000 - 35,000) is characterised by the persistence of the Mousterian culture. During this time, the stone tools start to differ according to their function, and the first bone tools appear. These products have been attributed to the Neanderthals.
Upper Paleolithic
In 2002, the oldest modern human (Homo sapiens sapiens) remains in Europe, have been discovered in the "Cave With Bones" (Peştera cu Oase), near Anina. [1] Nicknamed "John of Anina" (Ion din Anina), his remains (the lower jaw) are approximately 42,000 years old.
As Europe’s oldest remains of Homo sapiens, they are likely to represent the first such people to have entered the continent. [2] The particular interest of the discovery resides in the fact that it presents a mixture of archaic, early modern human and Neanderthal morphological features, [3] indicating considerable Neanderthal/modern human admixture, [4] which in turn suggests that already on their arrival in Europe, modern humans met, intermixed and interbred with Neanderthals.
A second expedition by Erik Trinkaus and Ricardo Rodrigo, discovered further fragments (for example, a skull dated ~36,000, nicknamed "Vasile").
Two human fossil remains, found in the Muierii and Cioclovina caves, in Romania have been date by the method of radiocarbon,
using the technique of the accelerator mass spectrometry to the age of ~ 30,000 years BP. These are among the most ancient dated
human fossil remains from Romania, possibly belonging to the upper Paleolithic, the Aurignacian period (see Human fossil bones from the Muierii Cave and the
Cioclovina Cave, Romania.
The first skull, and scapula and tibia remains were found in 1952 in Baia de Fier, in the Muierii Cave, Gorj county in the province Oltenia, by Constantin Nicolaescu-Plopşor.
Another skull was found in Cioclovina Cave, near commune Bosorod, Hunedoara county in Transylvania, found by a worker at the exploitation of phosphate deposits, in the year 1941. The skull arrived at Francisc Rainer, anthropologist, and Ioan Simionescu, geologist, who published a study of this skull.
The work of physical analysis of these fossils started in the summer of the year 2000 by Emilian Alexandrescu, archaeologist at the Institute of Archaeology 'Vasile Parvan' in Bucharest, and Agata Olariu, physicist at the Institute of Physics and Nuclear Engineering-Horia Hulubei, Bucharest, when samples were taken: one sample of bone from the skull from Cioclovina, and samples from the scapula and tibia remains from Muierii Cave. The work continued at the University of Lund. AMS group, by Göran Skog, Kristina Stenström and Ragnar Hellborg. The samples of bones were dated by radiocarbon method applied at the AMS system of the Lund University and the results are shown in the analysis bulletin [2] issued on the date 14 December 2001. The human fossil remains from Muierii Cave, Baia de Fier, have been dated to the age 30,150 ± 800 years BP, and the skull from the Cioclovina Cave has been dated to the age 29,000 ± 700 years BP. [5][6][7]
The Mesolithic
The Neolithic
- Starčevo-Criş culture
- Dudeşti culture
- Cucuteni culture
- Hamangia culture
- Vinča culture
- Tărtăria tablets
- Indo-Europeans
Chalcholitic
The Bronze Age
The Thracians
From this mix of native neolithic populations, and the invading Indo-Europeans, a new ethnos emergerd, the Thracians.
The Iron Age
By the sixth century BC, the first written sources dealing with this territory appear from Greek sources. By this time, from the Thracian-speaking populations, the Getae (and later the Daci) branched out.
Chronology
See also
References and footnotes
- Inline
- ^ Trinkaus, E., Milota, Ş., Rodrigo, R., Gherase, M., Moldovan, O. (2003), Early Modern Human Cranial remains from the Peştera cu Oase, Romania in Journal of Human Evolution, 45, pp. 245 –253, [1]
- ^ João Zilhão, (2006), Neanderthals and Moderns Mixed and It Matters, in Evolutionary Anthropology, 15:183–195, p.185
- ^ Trinkaus, E., Moldovan, O., Milota, Ş., Bîlgăr, A., Sarcina, L., Athreya, S., Bailey, S.E., Rodrigo, R., Gherase, M., Hilgham, T., Bronk Ramsey, C., & Van Der Plicht, J. ( 2003), An early modern human from Peştera cu Oase, Romania. Proceedings of the National Acadademy of Science U.S.A., 100(20), pp. 11231–11236
- ^ Andrei Soficaru, Adrian Dobo and Erik Trinkaus (2006), Early modern humans from the Peştera Muierii, Baia de Fier, Romania, Proceedings of the National Acadademy of Science U.S.A., 103(46), pp. 17196-17201
- ^ Olariu A., Alexandrescu E., Skog G., Hellborg R., Stenström K., Faarinen M. and Persson P, Dating of two Paleolithic human fossil bones from Romania by accelerator mass spectrometry, NIPNE Scientific Reports 2001-202, pag. 82
- ^ Olariu A., Skog G., Hellborg R., Stenström K., Faarinen M. and Persson P. and Alexandrescu E., 2003, Dating of two Paleolithic human fossil bones from Romania by accelerator mass spectrometry, http://arXiv.org/abs/physics/0309110
- ^ Olariu A., Stenström K. and Hellborg R. (Eds), 2005, Proceedings of International conference on Applications of High Precision Atomic & Nuclear Methods, 2-6 September, 2002, Neptun, Romania, Publishing House of Romanian Academy, Bucharest, ISBN: 973-27-1181-7, Dating of two Paleolithic human fossil bones from Romania by accelerator mass spectrometry, 235-239
- General
- Alexandru Păunescu, Evoluţia istorică pe teritoriul României din paleolitic până la inceputul Neoliticului, SCIVA, 31, 1980, 4, p.519-545.
External links
- (Romanian) Ion din Anina, primul om din Europa on Jurnalul.ro
- (English) Human fossils set European record on BBC.co.uk
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