## 1 Introduction
### Study Area and Archaeological Background
This is represented by the manganese deposits in the lacobeni area [15], these being developed over an area of approximately 60 km along Bistrita [12]. The studies carried out until now have demonstrated that these resources, could be transported on the plain roads, and were used for painting Eneolithic pottery. Radiocarbon dating situates the Middle Bronze Age habitations in this geographic area between ca. 1950 [16] and 1620 [17] B.C. Thus, the Middle Bronze Age period is represented in this area by two cultural entities, Costisa and Monteoru, the relationship between them still being a subject of debate. In this sense, until recently, the hypothesis of conflicting relationships [18] was accepted, but recent research has shown that these two communities were contemporaneous and even cohabited [19; 20] in some settlements in the Bistrita River basin, an aspect partially reflected in the pottery they produced. The Costisa pottery typology is represented by all functional categories such as cooking vessels, those for preparation, serving and consumption; containers for storage or transportation of solid and liquid goods; drinking vessels; and multipurpose vessels. The shapes of the containers are relatively simple, high and low, having small, medium and large sizes, consisting of one to three volumes. Monteoru pottery is represented by the same functional categories, which include a greater variety of shapes. Additionally, the category of storage or liquid transport vessels contains more complex containers consisting of three to five volumes [21]. As far as our study is concerned, of the known Middle Bronze sites, miniature vessels were discovered in only five of them, namely at Costisa--_Cetatuia_[21; 22; 23; 24], Paulenti--_Dambul Cetatii_[25], Piatra Neamt--_Batca Daamnei_[26], Poduri--_Dealul Ghindaru_[26] and Silistea--_Pe Cetatuiie_[21]. Two of these settlements are outside the studied hydrographic basin, but were taken into account due to the presence of miniature vessels and their special emplacement. Although material remains of both ceramic groups are present in three of these sites, the miniature pots are specific to the Costisa community. Therefore, the Costisa pottery includes a category of vessels that represent miniatures of functional utilitarian classes, such as those for preparation, serving and consumption (Figure 2a); those with multiple purposes (Figure 2b); drinking vessels (Figure 2c); and those for storage or transportation of liquids (Figure 2d). Most miniature vessels belong to this last category, being also known as miniature amphore. It should be noted that these containers appear in the sites placed on dominant positions in the studied basin, because these settlements provided a special role of supervision or control which, along other important archaeological discoveries, could represent an aspect that can be an indication of miniature vessel functionality, and at the current research stage, seem to have been used only in dominant Costisa settlements (Figure 3). Figure 2: Costisa miniature vessels: (**a**) vessels for preparation, serving and consumption; (**b**) vessels with multiple purpose; (**c**) drinking vessels; (**d**) vessels for storage or transportation of liquids. These vessels come from the settlements of Costisa—_Cetàthia_ (2 a, 1–4 b, 1–4 c, 1–2 d, 17–18 d), Paúlení—_Dámbul Cetátti_ (2–7 d), Piatra Neamt—_[PERSON]_ (13 d), Poduri —_Deaul Ghindaru_ (6 b, 8–12 d) and Siliste—_[PERSON]_ (1 a, 5 b, 14–16 d, 19–20 d). Drawings after [24,26]. The function of these miniature pots is unknown, but there are several hypotheses to approximate their utility: they could represent prototypes of large vessels, an aspect determined by maintaining their shapes and proportions [21], they might have played a special role within the communities that created them or they could have had a practical purpose. The first hypothesis about the special role of miniature amphone [27] was related to the fact that some of these vessels were burned and broken.