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Prehistoric Romania is the period in the human occupation (including early hominins) of the geographical area encompassing present-day Romania, which extended through prehistory, and ended when the first written records appeared.

Contents 1 The Palaeolithic 1.1 Protopaleolithic 1.2 Lower Paleolithic 1.3 Middle Paleolithic 1.4 Upper Paleolithic 2 The Mesolithic 3 The Neolithic 4 Chalcholitic 5 The Bronze Age 5.1 The Thracians 6 The Iron Age 7 Timeline 8 See also 9 References and footnotes 10 External links

The Romanian paleolithic is divided into five phases: Protopaleolithic, Lower Paleolithic, Middle Paleolithic, Upper Pelolithic and Epipaleolithic.

The Romanian Protopaleolithic (circa 1,000,000 - 700,000) is marked by the appearance of the first carved tools, the so-called "Pebble culture" (Cultură de prund in Romanian). These tools have been attributed to the Homo erectus hominid type.

The Romanian Lower Paleolithic (circa 700,000 - 120,000) is characterised by the appearance of two distinct carved tools: the bi-facial stone axe (chopping tools; at first, the Abbevillian, later Clactonian type), and the stone chip (at first, Acheulean, later the Levalloisian type). These tools were attributed to the Pithecantropus erectus hominid species. Of major importance was the discovery of several fireplaces. This the first ever prove of the hominid's ability to control fire in what today is Romania.

The Middle Paleolithic in Romania (circa 120,000 - 35,000) is characterised by the persistence of the Mousterian culture. During this time, the stone tools start to differenced according to their function, and the first bone tools appear. These products have been attributed to the Neanderthals.

In 2002, the oldest modern human (Homo sapiens sapiens) remains in Europe, have been discovered in the "Cave With Bones" (Peştera cu Oase), near Anina. ^[1] Nicknamed "John of Anina" (Ion din Anina), his remains (the lower jaw) are approximately 42,000 years old.

As the Europe’s oldest remains of Homo sapiens, they are likely to represent the first such people to have entered the continent. ^[2] The particular interest of the discovery resides in the fact that it presents a mixture of archaic, early modern human and Neanderthal morphological features, ^[3] indicating considerable Neanderthal/modern human admixture, ^[4] which in turn suggests that already on their arrival in Europe, modern humans met, intermixed and interbred with Neanderthals.

A second expedition by Erik Trinkaus and Ricardo Rodrigo, discovered further fragments (for example, a skull dated ~36,000, nicknamed "Vasile").

• Balkan Transition to the Upper Palaeolithic

• Balkan Mesolithic

• Starčevo-Criş culture
• Dudeşti culture
• Cucuteni culture
• Hamangia culture
• Vinča culture
• Tărtăria tablets
• Indo-Europeans

Main article: Thracians

From this mix of native neolithic populations, and the invading Indo-Europeans, a new ethnos emergerd, the Thracians.

By the sixth century BC, the first written sources dealing with this territory appear from Greek sources. By this time, from the Thracian-speaking populations, the Getae (and later the Daci) branched out.

• Timeline of glaciation
• Neolithic Europe
• Pre-Indo-European
• Indo-European people
• Thracian language

Inline

1. ^ Trinkaus, E., Milota, Ş., Rodrigo, R., Gherase, M., Moldovan, O. (2003), Early Modern Human Cranial remains from the Peştera cu Oase, Romania in Journal of Human Evolution, 45, pp. 245 –253, [1]
2. ^ João Zilhão, (2006), Neanderthals and Moderns Mixed and It Matters, in Evolutionary Anthropology, 15:183–195, p.185
3. ^ Trinkaus, E., Moldovan, O., Milota, Ş., Bîlgăr, A., Sarcina, L., Athreya, S., Bailey, S.E., Rodrigo, R., Gherase, M., Hilgham, T., Bronk Ramsey, C., & Van Der Plicht, J. ( 2003), An early modern human from Peştera cu Oase, Romania. Proceedings of the National Acadademy of Science U.S.A., 100(20), pp. 11231–11236
4. ^ Andrei Soficaru, Adrian Dobo and Erik Trinkaus (2006), Early modern humans from the Peştera Muierii, Baia de Fier, Romania, Proceedings of the National Acadademy of Science U.S.A., 103(46), pp. 17196-17201

General

• Alexandru Păunescu, Evoluţia istorică pe teritoriul României din paleolitic până la inceputul Neoliticului, SCIVA, 31, 1980, 4, p.519-545.

• (Romanian) Ion din Anina, primul om din Europa on Jurnalul.ro
• (English) Human fossils set European record on BBC.co.uk