Pietrele-Măgura Gorgana: o aşezare eneolitică la Dunărea de Jos între 4500 şi 4250 î.e.n.
Pietrele – Măgura Gorgana: a Copper Age settlement at the Lower Danube 4500-4250 B.C.

Summary/Abstract: The new reasearch project on the Copper Age tell “Măgura Gorgana”, located near the village Pietrele at the Lower Danube, started in the year 2002 as part of a cooperation project between the German Archaeological Institute - Eurasia department, “V. Pârvan” Archaeological Institute of the Romanian Academy and Institute of Physical Geography of the “J.W. Goethe” University, Frankfurt a.M. The main objective is to acquire new information on the chronology of Gumelnița culture, the architecture of the buildings, settlement organization, economic strategies and the use of space in the second half of the 5th millennium B.C.During the project it was possible to make a set of geomagnetic surveys on and around the tell. The rows of buildings which were visible in the geomagnetic picture were verified through excavation. Unexpected was the discovery of a large settlement around the tell and a cemetery with at least 50 graves west of the tell. A circular ditch enclosure was visible on a Corona satellite picture from 1967. The geomagnetic survey confirmed the existence of three concentric ditches.The settlement was much larger than we originally presumed. The plurality of specialized activities documented on the tell suggests the existence of a large population in the area. The discovery of the large settlement around the tell raises a new set of questions about the role of the settlement on the mound, about its inhabitants and it will make a fundamental review of the image of Copper Age tell settlements. The geomorphologic research provided a new picture of the development of the Danube meadow and the fluvial system in the Pietrele area. The drillings and the geophysical survey around the tell showed that the flooding area, the soils and sediments (colluvium) on the adjacent terraces are remarkable archives, and permit fundamental affirmations on the potential of using the space and also on the human impact over the household activities, very intense in the Neolithic period.

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