Prezenţe ale omului preistoric în Carpaţii Bucovinei

Abstract

The Presence of the Ancient Man in the Mountains of Bukovina

The article presents fifteen new and important archeological sites placed in the mountain area of Suceava county, most of them coming from the superior Paleolithic Age. Several sites belong to the Neolithic Age. The article represents the most important contribution until now in knowing prehistoric house-hold in Bukovina Mountains. The field research, which was extremely difficult in this area of grazing forests, focused on the terraces near the confluence of rivers, such as that of Moldova and Bistriţa. The pieces made of stone that we discovered in these places are only rarely made of silex and quite frequently made of local rocks originated in the Carpathians. During the first stage of research, the discoveries of objects coming from the Upper Paleolithic may be said to belong to the Aurignacian tradition. In turn, the few Neolithic findings (Cârlibaba, Coşna, Câmpulung Moldovenesc), which probably belong to the famous Cucuteni civilization that developed in the course of more than a thousand years, may be  associated not only with some hunting expeditions in the mountainous region of Bukovina but also with journeys meant to secure useful minerals as well as native copper or manganese, often used for the decoration of painted ceramics. The stone pieces found near the salt spring of Doroteia/ Frasin, at an altitude of more than 750 metres, represent a singular discovery. If this archeological inventory comes from the Paleolithic, the site might become the attestation of the earliest use of salt by human beings in Romania. Of course, new archeological investigations in the region will be able to better illustrate human presence in this mountain area.

Keywords: prehistory, Carpaţi, Bucovina