Alexandru Ciornei

In the late 1950s to mid-1960s publications regarding the Upper Palaeolithic and Epipalaeolithic sites from the Middle and Lower Bistriţa Valley (Northeastern Romania) several raw material categories were acknowledged: Audia black schist and silicified glauconitic sandstone, from the Audia Beds (Lower Cretaceous) opened on Hangu Valley; menilite from the Lower Oligocene deposits found between Bicaz and Piatra Neamţ (Bisericani area); good quality flint of various colours from the Middle Prut Valley (Prut flint). This raw materials classification endured the changes faced after 1990 by the Romanian Palaeolithic research and remained in use until today. The current contribution tackles the reassessment of this classification by re-examining the thin section collection intended to back the initial raw material categories from Ceahlău Basin. Also, the bulletins of petrographic analysis for the legacy thin section collection and the associated archive documents were reviewed. This reassessment confirmed most of the raw materials recognised in the initial classification, highlighting the existence of at least 14 raw material categories and the absence of the Oligocene menilite. Through the way it has been presented here, the reassessment was directly linked to the Romanian Palaeolithic research history and impacted a well-established archaeological classification of lithic raw materials.

This study tested the possible connection of diverse multi-layered Upper Palaeolithic sites through the long-distance transfers of lithic raw materials across different regions of present-day Romania. Based on the petrographic analysis, several distant raw materials were recognized in the study sites: Lower Danube Valley cherts, Sita Buzăului chert, “Prut-Dniester flint”, and “Audia Black schists”. The lithic analysis of the artefacts on distant raw materials suggest diverse discard patterns (from debitage to implements), different modes of introduction (preformed cores and/or end-products) and provisioning strategies. These are related to multiple occupational moments covering a larger time scale. In this picture of long-distance raw material transfers during the Upper Palaeolithic, the Middle Bistrița Valley represents (given the current state of research), as probably do other valleys, an important communication pathway for human groups from different regions and throughout time.

In 2017-2018 a total number of 14 field surveys were carried out in order to assess the occurrence and availability of siliceous rocks in the Baia Mare area. The results of the field surveys showed that various types of siliceous rocks (associated with different geological contexts), with a high degree of macroscopic variability (different colours, sizes and knapping qualities, with bladed/compact bladed and compact elongated forms), occur abundantly throughout the area. All the macroscopic categories identified at Seini, Ilba, Poprad Frumușeaua, and Iricău were also recognised in the immediate vicinity of the site (Nistru-Băița interfluve). The geological context indicates that most of the siliceous rocks from the study area are associated with hydrothermally altered volcanics, but other types of siliceous rocks occur as lenses in sand, sandstone or clay deposits. Another type of knappable raw materials is represented by the silicified/siliceous detrital rocks (sandstones and mudstones) found throughout the area.

Long‐distance raw material transfers across Romania prior to the Last Glacial Maximum have previously been inferred from either visual and/or petrographic observations of East Carpathian sites. We investigated the potential to ‘fingerprint’ flint from archaeological sites at Mitoc‐Malu Galben and Bistricioara–Lutărie III in Eastern Romania, using in situ high‐precision analyses of 28 major, minor and trace elements determined by laser ablation – inductively coupled plasma – mass spectrometry (LA–ICP–MS) in combination with multivariate statistical analysis. Our results suggest that geochemical analyses have the ability to distinguish between different geographical sources but are unable to positively associate flint artefacts from archaeological contexts to these geochemical groups. The mismatches of signatures between artefacts and geological materials, however, raise new questions and open unforeseen perspectives.

For a while now, lithic raw material studies have been focused mainly on the geochemical and petrographic characterization of specimens from host‐rock deposits (primary geological position) and archaeological sites, and on identifying the supply source. For the Lower Danube Valley, chert occurrence and availability in alluvial deposits (secondary geological position) was assessed through field surveys and external morphology analysis of the collected samples. These investigations have shown that cherts are available in most of the gravel deposits from the Lower Danube Valley, in various forms, sizes and states of preservation. Those cherts were transported from the Bulgarian Tableland over short (Ciuperceni) to long (Ghizdaru) distances by the Balkan paleo‐rivers and deposited as alluvial fans in southern Romanian (Frăteşti Formation), and reworked and redeposited as terrace deposits by the Danube. The evidence also shows that the Upper Palaeolithic people living in the sites along the Lower Danube Valley used these allochthonous sources to extract chert clasts fitted for their needs of tool knapping.

Prehistoric wooden objects have a special status amongst archaeological finds mostly due to a low rate of conservation and because they can be directly dated through archaeometric investigations. This contribution is a review of the papers on the radiocarbon dates obtained for some “wooden” objects from two Early Neolithic sites in southern Romania: Grădinile-La Islaz (Olt County) and Măgura-Boldul lui Moş Ivănuş (Teleorman County). This analysis was also focused on the archaeological research and the geo-archaeology of the two sites, the archaeological context of the objects and their morphological traits. The 14C dates obtained for the respective objects were above 35000 years BP, far in time from the normal Early Neolithic ages in this area. Thus, the archaeologists investigating this problem reached the conclusion that the prehistoric people living at Grădinile and Măgura used fossil wood as a raw material for the objects. The reviewed information has revealed that the astonishing 14C dates obtained for the supposed wooden objects embodies the saga of overlapping research errors, such as disregarding the unfavourable conditions for wood preservation in the given geological contexts, decontextualisation of the objects and their treatment in an antiquarian manner, unfortunate choosing of the investigation tools for the identification of the raw material. These errors derive from taking for granted the arguments proposed for the preservation of the Grădinile “wooden” objects by the archaeologist describing them some 30 years ago.

The Southern Carpathians and the Balkan Mountains define a broad physiographic area, placed at the centre of current debates on the emergence of the earliest Upper Palaeolithic and the Aurignacian technocomplex, the migration and dispersal routes of Anatomically Modern Humans in Europe, and the pre-Neolithic and the neolithization of the Balkan area. In this archaeological context and state of research, the Upper Palaeolithic sites from the Lower Danube Valley represent a relevant piece in the jigsaw puzzle of past human land use and mobility patterns. The aim of this article is to investigate the similarity between intraclastic-bioclastic cherts from Giurgiu-Călăraşi area and “Kriva Reka” type of Ludogorie chert from NE Bulgaria, by focusing on their macroscopic and microscopic traits and their geological contexts. The distribution of eluvial and primary deposits of Ludogorie chert types from NE Bulgaria reflects the sedimentary facies belts of the Lower Cretaceous Sea. Also, the alluvial deposits reveal the role played by rivers in the erosion, transport, and redeposition further and further away of the Ludogorie cherts, thus generating an extended area abundant in such materials. The geological distribution of Kriva Reka type similar cherts in Romania was confirmed in alluvial deposits around Giurgiu (Frăteşti Formation, Lower Pleistocene, and Danube’s lower terrace deposits, Upper Pleistocene). The archaeological distribution was confirmed in the Upper Palaeolithic open-air sites from Giurgiu-Malu Roşu, Slobozia-Râpa Bulgarilor, and Nicolae Bălcescu-La Vii. Their use by Boian and Gumelniţa Neolithic communities from southern Romania suggests a long time exploitation of local available cherts.

This study presents the petrographic analysis of
lithic raw materials from level IV of Lespezi-Lutărie site
(Upper Palaeolithic, Lower Bistriţa Valley, Bacău County,
Romania), resulting in the identification of 16 varieties related
to different rock types: sandstones (quartzarenites, calcarenite),
black shale, bedded cherts (Early Oligocene menilite and detritalrich
spiculite chert), peloidal cherts, Eocene and Cretaceous
nodular cherts. Part of the varieties identified reflect the
availability, abundance, accessibility and variability of raw
materials in the surrounding area (Tarcău and Vrancea nappes),
while the ones brought in from other regions represent imported
materials related to cultural relations and geographically
available circulation routes between Gravettian communities
from the Bistriţa, Prut and Danube valleys. The use of both
coarser (sandstones) and fine-grained lithologies (shale, cherts),
from poorly silicified (sandstones, shale) to strongly and very
strongly silicified (cherts from chalk) reflects acquisition
patterns guided by specific needs and uses of tools. External
macroscopic features indicate secondary sources (alluvial
deposits, riverbeds) for all varieties determined.

This study focuses on petrographic analysis of chert samples from Peştera-Dealu Guran site (Lower Palaeolithic) and from Peştera-Dealu Peşterica (sampling location), both located on Peștera Valley (Peştera village, Constanța County, Romania). Macroscopic examination of geological and archaeological hand specimens established visual characteristics of cherts and allowed the primary separation of samples and selection for thin sections. Microfacies analysis was carried on 19 thin sections, with special attention to grain categories, recognition of systematic fossil groups, matrix, and cement types, estimated by use of visual comparison charts for each thin section. This microfacies analysis delivered the means to characterize and classify cherts (chert microfacies), while sedimentary interpretations of microfacies strengthened and supported them as valid chert varieties reflecting local sedimentation conditions in a regional geological setting (a rimmed carbonate platform). This analysis also established the use of these chert varieties as raw-materials for tool productions in the Lower Palaeolithic site of Peştera-Dealu Guran.

This article presents the conclusions reached in the authors PhD thesis called “Raw-material sources, raw-material supply and production strategies in the Upper Paleolithic from the Valachian Sector of Moesic Platform”. The study area is the Lower Danube Valley and it includes the Paleolithic sites of Vădastra-“Măgura Fetelor”, Ciuperceni-“La Tir”, Ciuperceni-“La Vii”, Giurgiu-“MaluRoşu” and Nicolae Bălcescu-“La Vii”, and a series of sampling points (see map 1, tables 1 and 2). The raw-material taken in consideration is chert. For many years archaeologist sustained two hypotheses about the raw-materials provenance: Pre-Balkan Platform and the Danube’s gravels. By means of macroscopic description in hand specimens, microscopic characterization in thin section (primary constituents, fossils) and X-ray Diffraction, the author has determined several varieties of chert for each site and sampling location and also three categories that present macro- and microscopic features that surpasses the local setting (see map 2, tables 4, 5 and 6). Taking count of microscopic features and by directly examining the thin sections of those varieties whit macroscopic similarities and from different places, the author determined the provenance of some raw-materials in the Paleolithic sites. The two Ciuperceni sites are linked to the Frăteşti Formation (Lower Pleistocene) gravels, opened in the vicinity by a modern quarry (Ciuperceni-“La Carieră”); some of the Giurgiu-“Malu Roşu” cherts were determined to come from gravels of the Frăteşti Formation, opened by modern quarries to the north (Ghizdaru-“Cariera de la Haltă”, Cetatea-“Cariera Bălănoaia”), and from gravels of the lower terrace (t1), opened in places such as Giurgiu-“Cariera Malu Roşu” and Giurgiu-“Cariera de la SV”; the source of provenance for the main raw-material (grayish “granulated” chert – in fact a peloidal chert) of Giurgiu-“Malu Roşu” was not found; for the other two sites in the study, Vădastra-“Măgura Fetelor” and Nicolae Bălcescu-“La Vii”, it hasn’t been possible to determine the provenance of the raw-materials. Al cherts form the Paleolithic sites present external characteristics similar to materials transported and reworked by waters (in spite of the “fresh cortex” present on many of the samples). Identified raw-material sources indicate short supply distances and a local exploitation of raw-materials.