Monteoru

an archaeological culture of the middle Bronze Age (1700–1200 B.C.). It was discovered in 1917–18 near the village of Saărata-Monteoru, in Buzau District, Rumania. It was widespread in eastern Rumania and in the western Moldavian SSR.

The Monteoru culture is represented by fortified and unfortified settlements and by burial grounds (the corpses were buried in a flexed position on their sides). The population lived in patriarchal communes and engaged in farming and stock raising. Weapons and other objects were made of bronze and stone. Black, polished clay vessels were decorated with reliefs or cord impressions; at a later stage they were decorated with knobs, palmettes, or spirals.

Another find near the village of Sarata-Monteoru was a Slavic burial ground of the sixth and seventh centuries with more than 1,500 cremated bodies placed in round pits or, more rarely, clay urns. It yielded such artifacts as digitate fibulae, iron knives, glass beads, and Byzantine gold, silver, and glass vessels.