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The Boian Culture

Black polished vase,decorated raised geometrical

design in white clay.

Lid with excized geometricaldecoration, still showing incrustations

of white clay (origin : Tangru).

Site Eponym : Located on an island on Lake Boian

in the south of Romanian province of Muntenia,

north of the Danube.

Dates : Middle to recent Neolithic culture, partiallycontemporary of the Hamangia culture and divided

into four steps; the last, called "the Spantov period"

dates from the first half of the fifth millennium BC.

Geographic Setting : Their geographical region

(Muntenia) is rather restricted during their

primitive phase, then a rather extensive territory,

notably toward the Black Sea, until it displaced the

Hamangia in Dobrogea. The Boian culture is

referred to as the Marita in Bulgaria.

Habitation : At first modest dwellings situated onthe river ledges and in the valley. During the stages

which followed, we see successive occupations of

the same region, dwellings successively morestructured and sometimes fortified, and next, the

birth of the tells very frequently reoccupied by the

Gumelnita population.Material Means : Ceramics abundantly decorated

with carved of raised geometric motifs with an

inlay of white clay; some tiny copper objects in the

late period.

Funeral Rites : Most commonly buried in a

curled-up position.

Cup with stand, richly decoratedin geometric patterns, raised white clay,

characteristic of the Boian culture(origin : Vidra, Giurgiu, Romania).

Terra cotta figurineof the Boian culture(origin : Radovanu).

The Boian culture is found in the Romanian territory in Valachia up to the Jui Valley, in

Dobrogea, to Moldavia in the southwest and to Transylvania in the southeast. Through out the four

periods of its evolution, the culture spread southward down to the banks of the Aegean Sea. In the

Bulgaria it is known by the name Marica.

The settlements are set up on high terraces or on headlands and sometimes show signs of

fortification (defensive ditches). During the early two periods the dwellings were buried in the

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ground and quickly became rectangular homes of wood framing and cob (straw and clay), built at

ground level.

The economy is characterized by the practice of agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting, gathering

and fishing.

At the beginning of their evolution, lithic tools are indicated by the presence ofmicroliths, next to

which various types of cut flint and polished stone tools appear. The ceramic, especially ones of

great quality are charcoal gray or black, polished and carved, extrusions or grooved and withincrustations of white clay.

The decorations are principally geometrical. Towards the end of its evolution, this culture seems to

have developed copper metallurgy.

The tribes of the Boian culture practiced burial and funerary rites and rituals, which varied overthe course of time.

Because of its characteristics, the Boian culture is attributed to the recent Neolithic era where it

belongs to the cultural category Boian-Gumelnita.

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