page_title: Prehistory of Transylvania
section_title: Gorneşti culture
hierarchical_section_title: Prehistory of Transylvania / Neolithic / Chalcolithic / Gorneşti culture
caption_attribution_description: English: Fragment of a Herculane-Cheile Turzii culture vessel, dated 3800-3500 BC (Middle Eneolithic Period), found at Cheile Turzii. It has a narrow mouth and almost straight sides, a flat neck hook, and is decorated in bands. Română: Fragment de vas aparţinând culturii Herculane-Cheile Turzii, datat 3800-3500 a.Chr. (epoca cuprului) şi descoperit la Cheile Turzii. Are gura strâmtă şi pereţii aproape drepţi, atârnătoare plată pe gât, şi este ornamentat în benzi.
context_page_description: The Prehistory of Transylvania describes what can be learned about the region known as Transylvania through archaeology, anthropology, comparative linguistics and other allied sciences.
  Transylvania proper is a plateau or tableland in northwest central Romania. It is bounded and defined by the Carpathian Mountains to the east and south, and the Apuseni Mountains to the west. As a diverse and relatively protected region, the area has always been rich in wildlife, and remains one of the more ecologically diverse areas in Europe. The mountains contain a large number of caves, which attracted both human and animal residents. The Peştera Urşilor, the "Bears Cave", was home to a large number of cave bears whose remains were discovered when the cave was discovered in 1975. Other caves in the area sheltered early humans.
  Prehistory is the longest period in the history of mankind, throughout of which writing was still unknown. In Transylvania specifically this applies to the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age.
context_section_description: The Gorneşti culture, characterized by the occurrence of the so-called high-necked milk pots with two small protuberances pulled at the margin and drilled vertically, is a continuation of the [Româneşti] (featuring receptacles with bird bill protuberances and decorated with step or nettle incisions), in turn descended from the Tisa culture in the developed Neolithic period.
  The settlements of the neo-Eneolithic cultures were located on the low or high river terraces, on hilltops or hillspurs and consisted in several dwellings whose positions sometimes observed particular rules. Recent research has tended to focus on the defense systems (ditches and scarps) of these sites. The culture strata are thick and superposed forming at times regular tells.
  The dwellings of this period were of several types. The earth houses displayed an oval shaped hole, with a maximum of 5–6m and a minimum of 3m in diameter. On one of the edges a simple fireplace was built out of a smoothed layer of clay. The thatched roof was conical or elongated and was supported by a trestle. The one room rectangular surface dwellings are also documented as dating back to the beginning of the Neolithic. They had wattle walls pasted with clay mixed with straw. The roof was double sloping, and the floor was made of trodden clay. The Cucuteni dwellings in south-east Transylvania are spacious (40–100 m² and more), often have a platform and are divided into two or more rooms.
  Neo-Eneolithic sculpture is represented by cultic figures, idols, and talismans fashioned out of bone, stone or clay. These are human or animal representations conveyed by stylized or exaggerated body parts. Among the thousand anthropomorphous statues discovered, the female ones, symbols of fertility and fecundity, prevail by far.
  Copper was first used for fashioning small implements or ornaments (needles, awls, fishing hooks, pendants, etc.), while gold was used solely for aesthetic and decorative purposes. For a long time the items were produced by the technique of hammering, for the technique of the casting mould as well as that of „cire perdue" (lost wax) emerged much later. Although there is no proof of the provenance of the first metal items, they are seemingly local rather than imported products. That does not necessarily suggest that metallurgy was the invention of the local population, for it might have been introduced as a result of contact with regions where metal processing had started earlier (in the East or the Caucasus).
  The Eneolithic marked a notable advancement in the development of metallurgy. Throughout this period copper artifacts are present in the settlements, in grave inventories or even in deposits (assemblies of whole or fragmentary objects concentrated in one, usually isolated, place). This period also marks a high incidence of flat axes, pins, simple or multi-spiral bracelets or necklaces. The most complex of all Eneolithic achievements is the axe. These weapon-implements are bound to the late phases of the Cucuteni, Decea Mureşului and Bodrogkeresztúr-Gorneşti cultures. 
  The gold Eneolithic items, outnumbered by the copper, actually constitute the beginning of goldsmithing in the Transylvanian lands. An outstanding artifact was the great gold pendant in the thesaurus of Moigrad (Sălaj County), which is 30 cm in height and weighs 750g.
  We know little about the racial types of the Transylvanian Neolithic population. The area of some of the cultures, for instance Cucuteni, lack funeral finds, for they are the expression of ritual practices that elude archeological methods. The little anthropological data available (Gura Baciului, Iclod) suggests Mediterranean-type physical features.
  The role of the invasion of the pastoral tribes coming from the north-Pontic (supposedly Indo-European kinship) in bringing to an end the Eneolithic culture of sedentary farmers, represents one of the hotly debated issues among specialists in the prehistory of south-eastern Europe. What once might have seemed exclusively a migration of nomadic tribes, now may be understood as a socio-econo
caption: Herculane-Cheile Turzii culture vessel, dated 3800-3500 BC (Middle Eneolithic Period), found at Cheile Turzii. On display at the National Museum of the Union, Alba Iulia
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