Photos: Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum


Archaeologist Daniel Garvan, a Cucuteni culture specialist, told AGERPRES that the highlights among the 7,000-year old artifacts are the famous ‘Ring Dance of Frumusica’, ‘The Council of the Goddesses’ or ‘The Thinker of Tarpesti’, figurines that stirred the interest and imagination of archaeologists with their expressiveness.

The eponymous site of the Cucuteni culture is located on the present-day spot called Cetatuia, of the Baiceni commune — Iasi, and was discovered in 1884 by folklorist and ethnographer Theodor Burada. The first researches were performed by Nicolae Beldiceanu and Grigore Butureanu in 1885. The Piatra Neamt museum was inaugurated 120 years later, in 2005. It is headquartered in a heritage building from the year 1930, a former seat of the National Bank of Romania. The grated vaults where the cash or valuables of the Romanian state were kept are still in place, now preserving priceless artefacts.

The headquarters were not picked just randomly and the choice is not necessarily related to the security of the building, but to its location, the historic center of the Piatra Neamt municipality.

Archaeologist Daniel Garvan says the artifacts are regarded as objects of art.

“The Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum represents a national one-of-a-kind by the theme approached, being simultaneously a history and an art museum which currently houses the most important collection of Eneolithic art in Southeastern Europe. This is dedicated solely to the Cucuteni culture, with its two basic components: decorative and figurative art. The most spectacular artefacts are showcased here, genuine objects of prestige belonging to the Precucuteni — Cucuteni — Trypillian Cultural Complex, in fact the most important and spectacular European prehistoric civilization.

“The exhibition includes both three-dimensional objects and photo-documentary resources belonging to all phases and development stages of this civilization, represented in its entire area. Cucuteni means painted ceramics and statues, because the other artefacts can be found in all cultures. We do not know if in that time painted pottery was considered as a work of art produced for this purpose or if these were everyday objects. It is a question that will remain unanswered,” said archaeologist Daniel Garvan.

Due to their uniqueness and long age, the artefacts were invited to international exhibitions, and the most important exhibits could be admired in the U.S., Switzerland, Vatican City, Greece or Poland.

Some objects also have a contemporary story, as is the case of the ‘Ring Dance of Frumusica’. The historians relate that in 1973, when the National Museum of History was established, spectacular items were collected from several museums and they also requested the ‘Ring Dance’. Its restorer, archaeologist Aurel Buzila, made an exact copy of it and sent the replica to the National Museum of History without anyone noticing this, so that the Bucharest museum opened with a copy of the original artefact on display.

In its basement, the building of the Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum accommodates an impressive repository of archaeological items, as well as the restoration-conservation laboratory; the ground floor and the 1st floor are occupied by the permanent exhibition arranged in three halls. There is also a vault on the ground floor where the valuables of the banks formerly headquartered here were kept and where the Cucuteni culture artefacts are currently preserved. A modern multimedia center in two rooms on the first floor, equipped with last generation audio video electronic equipment, offers the visitors enlightening presentations.

The second floor is intended for temporary exhibitions which constantly switch within the two halls and a hallway.

The first room, located on the ground floor, is themed to the history of Cucuteni researches. A series of graphic materials illustrate the portraits of outstanding personalities of Romanian archeology, but not only, as well as the main stages of research into this civilization. A natural demarche was to highlight the major role the Piatra Neamt History and Archaeology Museum has played over time in researching and fully shining a light on the Cucuteni cultural heritage. The most important cultural-scientific events related to the Cucuteni culture are also reviewed here. Also on display are the main monographs and summary works, catalogs and collections of studies and articles that rendered visible in publishing media the discoveries made over time throughout the Cucuteni area.

The second room, which is also on the ground floor, is devoted exclusively to decorative Cucuteni art, represented most often by the painted decoration of the pots, although etched, incised and grooved decorations are also showcased. Almost the entire range of shapes and decorations is displayed, with four major categories of vessels — probably for ritual worship — being clearly outlined: crown-vessels, binocular-vessels, ring-dance vessels and the vessels with support and small columns. It should be noted that they are specific to this civilization alone. The vessel discovered at Izvoare was transposed to the logo of the Neamt County Museum Complex.

The third room, located on the first floor, houses the masterpieces of Cucuteni decorative art illustrated by plastic anthropomorphic, zoomorphic and ornitomorphic stand-alone motifs or painted on vessels, relief protomes applied on the outside of the pots, models of shrines and various ornaments and worship items. Noteworthy among the exhibits are the famous Cucuteni worship complexes at Poduri and Ghelaiesti.

The fourth hall on the second floor is dedicated exclusively to temporary exhibitions that are in constant succession. This gives the possibility to exhibit for quite a long period other types of items specific to the Cucuteni cultural milieu, discovered at some sites and researched by specialists from other relevant institutions in Romania.

The first temporary exhibition hosted by the Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum is the one titled ‘Cucuteni Masterpieces from the Scanteia Site — Iasi County’; this is a settlement dating from the first development phase of the Cucuteni culture, which produced a very rich and spectacular heritage found in the collections of the Institute of Archaeology and of the History Museum of the Iasi-based “Moldova” National Museum Complex. It was minutely researched for many years by renowned specialist Dr. Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici.

Subsequently, this was the venue for the exhibition ‘Art and Passion’, which brought together the most valuable exhibits belonging to the “Cucuteni for the Third Millennium” Foundation in Bucharest, from all stages and development phases of this civilization in Romania. In the fourth hall there are currently about 500 valuable items discovered in recent years in the most important Cucuteni settlements on the present territory of Romania, and the adjoined hall depicts some aspects of the older archeological excavations conducted here under the lead of Dr. Dan Monah; all these items are included in the tribute exhibition ‘Poduri-Dealul Ghindaru. 30 Years since the First Excavations.’

The fifth hall, also located on the second floor, and the lobby initially illustrated some of the masterpieces of the Trypillian area outside the borders of Romania, brought together in the photo-documentary exhibition “Cucuteni — Trypillian Eneolithic Art in the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine”. This included various types of pottery, plastic anthropomorphic and zoomorphic representations, shrine mock-ups and religious and ornamental objects, among which the treasure cache at Carbuna — Republic of Moldova stands out. Also shown are some personalities who distinguished themselves through research conducted in the Trypillian area, as well as graphic reconstructions of the giant settlements of those ancient times.

Later on, a number of artefacts belonging to the Boian civilization, the linear pottery, Precucuteni and Stoicani-Aldeni-Bolgrad cultures, respectively, were displayed in the fifth hall as part of the exhibition titled ‘Precucuteni. The Origin of a Great Civilization’ organised with the support of the “Eastern Carpathians” Museum of Sfantu Gheorghe and the County History and Archaeology Museum of Ploiesti.

Currently, the same exhibition space encompasses valuable items belonging to some of the most brilliant prehistoric mainland civilizations — Gumelnita and Cucuteni. ‘Ancient Civilizations of Europe’ is an exhibition organised with the support of the Teleorman County Museum in Alexandria.

Most of the artefacts on display were discovered during archaeological investigations carried out by professionals and contributors of the institution — outstanding personalities of Romanian archeology — especially at the now famous Cucuteni settlements in the present territory of Neamt County: Izvoare, Tarpesti, Bodesti, Piatra Soimului, Ghelaiesti, Traian, Valeni, but also outside county boundaries, at Trusesti and Targu Ocna. The tell settlement at Poduri — Bacau County, which is the top important settlement of the Precucuteni — Cucuteni — Trypillian cultural complex in Romania and one of the most important in Europe, remarkable through the amount, diversity and quality of the Cucuteni vestiges, is a site ranked in the “national importance” category.

In recent years the site received generous financing from the Ministry of Culture; in recognition of the importance of the research and promotion of its assets by the International Center for Research on Cucuteni Culture, the exhibition titled ‘Poduri — the Ghindaru Hill. A Troy in Moldavia’s Subcarpathians’ and the accompanying volume were awarded the Adrian Radulescu prize.

In the short time since its inauguration, the Cucuteni Museum has earned recognition for its uniqueness and spectacular character, becoming one of the most popular and visited institutions of its kind in Romania. It has thus heavily contributed to asserting Piatra Neamt city as an important cultural, scientific and tourism centre in the country and abroad. Throughout this period, its priceless treasures left a strong impression on culture lovers who also noted their appreciative thoughts in the museum’s Book of Honor. Recognized as a centre of outstanding cultural, scientific and artistic value, the Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum is definitely enshrined in the Romanian and international cultural landscape. In 2006 the Ministry of Culture and Denominations awarded it the Iulian Antonescu prize for the museology management project and the accompanying volume, called ‘The First Cucuteni Museum in Romania.’

The Cucuteni Eneolithic Art Museum in Piatra Neamt is open to visitors from 10:00 to 18:00 from April to September and from 09:00 to 17:00 between October and March; the admission price is 2 RON for adults and 1 RON for students. AGERPRES