Romanian Lands in Ancient Times. The Geto-Dacians and the Mediterranean World
Archaeological discoveries offer clues about human physical and cultural development,
migrations, wars, the disappearance or assimilation of ancient civilizations, changing patterns of
life, as well as artistic, economic, and religious behaviour.
Palaeolithic Era (ca. 1,000,000 BCE – 10,000,000 BCE). Earliest human settlements found on the
territory of present-day Romania date from this period. Human ancestors such as Homo habilis
and homo sapiens evolved into used stone tools and lived in small groups They were huntergatherers and fishermen. Evidence of Human activity has been found at Bugiuleşti (Jud. Vâlcea),
Ohaba Ponor (Jud. Hunedoara), Valea Dȃrjovului. Evidence of continuous human activity goes
back to the Neolithic Era (New Stone Age ca. 6000 – 2000 BCE). The Neolithic Revolution
witnesses the invention of agriculture and animal husbandry. Humans transition to a sedentary
lifestyle. There is also a diversification of occupations, pottery being one of the most important.
Small hunter-gather groups gradually evolved in to gens (ginţi = extended groups with a
common ancestor) and tribes. The Cucuteni-Ariuşd Culture is representative of the late
Neolithic Era.
The Bronze Age (ca 2,000 – 1150 BCE) and the Iron Age (ca. 1150 BCE – 440 BCE) were
characterized by increased specialization, along with the invention of the wheel, along with the
horse-drawn and ox-drawn plow. They were also marked by the large-scale production of
bronze and iron, respectively. Crafts are increasingly large-scale and diversified, metalworking
occupying pride of place. Trade intensifies and coins appear. Archaeological discoveries from
that period include settlements with ditches and walls as defence against migratory peoples.
The monogamous family gradually replaces the gens.
Culture and Spirituality was continuously evolving in alongside social and economic changes.
The art of the various prehistoric periods, particularly cave paintings, provides evidence of
fertility cults, cults of the sun, and of death. Such paintings may be found at Lăpuş (Maramureș)
and Cuciulat (Sălaj). The statues at Hamangia (Dobrogea) represent male and female deities
that indicate a fertility cult.
The Indo-Europeans and the Thracians. The bronze Age marks the beginning of a large
migration of peoples from the Eurasian steppe, entering the area of Old European civilizations,
creating and developing successive cultures. Over the next 15000 years, Indo-Europeans spread
in three great migration waves from east to west and southward. After the second wave of
migration and expansion (3rd millennium BCE), the Carpatho-Danubian area and the whole
region down to the Aegean Sea was inhabited by Thracians. They consisted of a large number of
tribes speaking different dialects of the same basic language. They could have become one of
the great powers of the classical world were it not for their seeming inability to unite the
various tribes.
The Geto-Dacians were part of the northern branch of the Thracians. They lived in tribes or
union of tribes speaking the same language. The earliest Getic site is Zimnicea, on the northern
bank of the Danube, about 80 km. from present-day Bucharest. The Geto-Dacians were led by
military chiefs. The tribes were centered around fortified settlements called whose names often
contained the suffix ”dava” . They were the bearers of a flourishing Iron Age civilization. In
time, increasing social complexity and stratification gave rise to a military and religious
aristocracy named tarabostes. The tarabostes gradually constituted themselves into a veritable
ruling class that. This eventually led to the formation of a Dacian state. At the opposite end of
the social spectrum, there were free producers, the comati, who constituted the majority of the
population
Contacts with the Mediterranean World: In the mid 7th century BCE Dorian and Ionian
merchants travelled north and set up a number of trading posts, which developed into the citystates of Tomis, Callattis, Histria, Dionysopolis, Tyras, and Axiopolis. From the local population,
they brought fish, slaves, furs, grains, as well as gold and silver mined by the Dacians living in
the western Carpathians. In return, merchants sold important luxury products, wine, and oil.
Regular trading with the Greek colonies had a profound impact on the development of the
Geto-Dacians, as they were gradually brought into the sphere of influence of the more
advanced Hellenic civilization. The Geto-Dacians partially adopted from the Greeks the potter’s
wheel, the use coins, new metallurgical techniques, and new models of political organization.