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The Vârghiș Gorges karst system (Perșani Mountains, Eastern Carpathians) constituted a point of interest for speleologists, paleontologists and archaeologists since the second half of the 19th century. Their efforts succeeded in highlighting the notable archaeological potential of the area, although the actual research results were not always thoroughly reported. Since 2014, our team reunited specialists from 10 different institutions and various fields of research and initiated archaeological excavations, coupled with achaeozoological, sedimentological and chronometric investigations, in several caves within the Vârghiș Gorges. As the paper below will show, although the results obtained so far are definitively informative, further investigation are clearly needed, in order to accurately clarify aspects pertaining to the intricate cultural and chronological framework.

In 2015– 2017 the Prut-Dniester expedition from the Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences carried out field research at a number of Paleolithic localities in the middle reaches of the Prut and Dniester in the north-west of Moldova. This paper presents the results of new research at the Middle Paleolithic open air site of Teţcani X and the cave site of Buzdujeni I. The cultural layer of Teţcani X yielded a representative collection of flint artifacts. The flaking technology is oriented on the production of points, which were struck from unifacial single platform cores. The tool set is typical of Mousterian, no bifaces are present. The cave of Buzdujeni I was nearly completely excavated by N. A. Chetraru in the 1970’ s, but remained largely unpublished. The re-analysis of the old collection together with the materials obtained by us in 2017 challenges the once popular idea that the industry of Buzdujeni I belongs to Denticulate Mousterian, highlighting instead its Micoquian affinities such as presence of various bifacial tools. The available biostratigraphic and radiometric data, including newly obtained radiocarbon dates, appears to suggest that both sites can be broadly dated to the first half of MIS-3 or to MIS-4, with Teţcani X being probably somewhat older than Buzdujeni I

This study aims to publish the results of the archaeological excavations carried out in 2012 in the Neoeneolithic site from Boldeşti-Scăieni, Seciu neighbourhood (Prahova County). The surface excavated in 2012 was small, comprised of two sections. Extensive research was performed at the site in 2009 ; the results were published in a monography and in several studies. Archaeological artefacts specific to the Starčevo-Criş culture, especially ceramics, but also an inhumation burial of a child were unearthed in 2012. Archaeozoological material was also found. An Eneolithic dwelling attributed to the Stoicani-Aldeni cultural aspect was found above the Early Neolithic habitation layer. Two radiocarbon dates were obtained from samples taken from the Neolithic layer. They are presented and analised in this paper in the broader context of the evolution of the Starčevo-Criş culture at the Lower Danube.