INTRODUTION

Situated in the contact zone between Central and South-eastern Europe, Romania is a Carpathian–Danubian country. The Carpathian mountains – Eastern, Southern (with peaks over 2,500 m) and Western – which in the course of history have never been an ethnic and cultural barrier, enclose the Transylvanian plateau, a real central stronghold, connected by passes with the Carpathian foothills and the large plains beyond them. The entire country is crossed by rivers, almost all of which have their source on the territory of Romania; either directly, or indirectly through the river Tisa, these rivers flow into the Danube which, in turn, flows into the Black Sea.

Given the scores of millennia and the numerous problems with which this chapter has to deal, only a brief outline of the prehistory of Romania from the first evidence of human activity to the eve of the first millennium B.C., that is the end of Hallstatt A, is possible within the available space.

Prehistoric research in Romania is almost 150 years old, but methodical research began much later. The collection and classification of archaeological data were initiated in the second half of the nineteenth century and the first survey of the prehistory and protohistory of Dacia was published in the early 1880s. The results of test excavations in the Cucuteni Eneolithic settlement and at similar sites were reported at international congresses, and other contributions were made regarding various prehistoric studies, while a steady activity was carried out in Transylvania.