Noi descoperiri arheologice ale culturii Corlăteni-Chişinău la Mihălăşeni, jud. Botoşani

Abstract

In the period between 1980-1990, in the villagc of Mihălăşeni, Botoşani county, it was systematically investigated a large necropole of Sântana de Mureş-Cernjachov culture, located in the plain of the Başeu River. Besides the over five hundred incineration and inhumation graves of this necropole, remains from other epochs were also discovered. Their reduced quantity and the fact that they did not come out inclosed archaeological compounds can be explained not only by the disturbance provoked by the necropolis of the Sântana de Mureş culture, but also by the fact that the easily flooded area from the plain of the Başeu River offered less favorable conditions for large lasting dwellings. Thus, besides the graves from the Sântana de Mureş culture, there were remains belonging to the following epochs and cultures:

1. a silex tool from the Middle Paleolithic Age;
2. a few fragments of vessels from the period of passage from the Neolithic to the Bronzc Age, belonging to the Horodiştea-Erbiceni-Folteşti culture;
3. several ceramic fragments of the Noua I culture;
4. at the same time, within the necropolis area, several ceramic fragments of the Corlăteni-Chişinău culture came to light.

The most typical fragments are from the pots with alveolate belt and tongues shaped handle, from the globulare bi-truncated cone-shaped vessels with large lip, handles and decoration of horizontal groove stripcs and from the pots with the lip curved inwards, provided with handles and sometimes decorated with horizontal grooves. Among these, the most interesting is a fragment of a globular bi-truncated cone-shaped pot which, besides the usual pattern of horizontal grooves, has underneath a horizontal strip of grooved zig-zag lines that remind the similar printed decoration specific to the Cozia culture.
The elements of the Corlăteni-Chişinău culture found in Mihălăşeni can be dated from HaB, that is the 11th—10th centuries B.C.