The Neo-Eneolithic site from Coţatcu-Cetăţuia, Podgoria commune, Buzău county

The Neo-Eneolithic site at Coţatcu (Podgoria commune) is located in the hilly northeastern area of ​​Buzau county, approx. 15 km from the municipality of Râmnicu Sărat, on the right side of the middle terrace of the stream with the same name. Known by the locals as Cetătăuia, the prehistoric settlement is bordered to the west by the Coţatcu stream, and to the north and south by two deep valleys. The easiest access to the site can be made from the east, through a bend that connects the high terrace of the Coţatcu stream with the middle one on which the settlement is located.

The archaeological site at Coţatcu was discovered in 1971 by Vasile Motoaşcă, the director of the village school, with the first landslides that affected the area. In the years 1973-1974, the first systematic research was carried out for the recovery of archaeological materials from the complexes destroyed by landslides and for establishing the stratigraphy of the settlement. The research was conducted by Vasile Drâmbocianu, archaeologist at the Buzău County Museum. He noted that the total area of ​​the settlement at that time was approx. 775 square meters and that approximately one third of it had been destroyed by landslides. In 2005, following surface checks carried out in the area, it was found that the area that could still be investigated archaeologically did not exceed 500 square meters.

The systematic archaeological researches from Coţatcu were resumed between 2006-2010 within the project Cultural Interferences in the Northeast of Muntenia in the Neo-Eneolithic Age, part of the research program of the Neo-Eneolithic in Southern Romania: The Beginnings of European Civilization. The Neo-Eneolithic in the Lower Danube. G. Trohani, R. Andreescu, L. Grigoraş, E. Paveleţ, K. Moldoveanu and C. Haita were part of the research team.

The most recent archaeological excavations were carried out in 2019, and a new research area (S1) was opened.

The successive dwellings at Coţatcu have contributed to the formation of a consistent tell-type deposit, with an amplitude varying between 3.6 and 4 m. Eight dwellings have been investigated so far, and an impressive amount of archaeological materials (vessels, tools, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic statuettes, pendants, etc.). Five dwelling levels have been identified, representing the superimposed remains of burned and unburned dwellings: the first four (from top to bottom) belong to the Stoicani-Aldeni cultural aspect (ca. 4300-3900 BC), and the fifth to a late phase of of the Starčevo-Criş culture (ca. 5700-5600 BC)

The particularities of this site reside in the positioning in the contact area of ​​some important cultural areas (Gumelniţa, Cucuteni and Ariusd), the Stoicani-Aldeni aspect encompassing and synthesizing some of their specific elements.