Physical study of the Cucuteni pottery technology

Most of our knowledge concerning the Cucuteni pottery is based on traditional archaeological methods (typology, style and context analysis) and only a few interdisciplinary studies have been published. As there is a strong interest in revealing the basic pottery technology used by the Cucuteni communities we have investigated a significant number of pottery samples from 22 archaeological sites located in Eastern Romania by several physical analysis techniques: X-ray diffraction (XRD) and by magnetic measurements, including a first-order reversal curve (FORC) diagram study on the samples showing a hysteretic behavior. The main results presented in this study are discussed and compared with actual knowledge on the ancient Cucuteni pottery.     

The End of Town-life in Scythia Minor

The transition from 'town-life' to 'life-in-town' defined by several British archaeologists could be applied to 6th-century Scythia Minor. The economic crisis and the barbarian inroads caused an evolution from towns with a military function toward ruralized settlements, and finally to the extinction of these cities. The ruralization spread step by step over the entire province during the last third of the 6th century and at the beginning of the 7th. The dissolution of town-life did not always represent conversion to a rural economy. Some settlements preserved for a certain time the functions of the urban economy, but in different conditions. The coastal towns resisted better.