Soroki

a city (since 1835) under republic jurisdiction in the Moldavian SSR. Landing on the Dnestr River, 40 km from the Floreshty railroad station on the Slobodka-Bel’tsy-Slobodzeia line. Population, 29,500 (1975).

Soroki has a technological-equipment plant, a metalworks, a building-materials plant, a butter factory, a cannery, a winery, a brewery, and a clothing factory. The city also has an agricultural mechanization and electrification sovkhoz-technicum, a pedagogical school, a cultural-educational school, and a historical museum of local lore. Among the city’s landmarks is a round fortress with five towers; built in 1543, it has a diameter of 30.5 m and a height of 20 m.

The excavated remains of nine settlements dating from the Neolithic Bug-Dnestr culture (sixth and fifth millennia B.C.) are located near Soroki on the bank of the Dnestr. The settlements are characterized by five chronological periods. During the first period, the economy was based on gathering, hunting, and fishing. Harpoons, flint scrapers, and wild boar tusks for working hides have been found. In the second period, cattle raising was developed, as was land cultivation; wheat and, later, barley and millet were grown. Hoes made of antler, flint sickle inserts, stone querns, and clay pots with flat and pointed bottoms have been discovered. Pit houses and surface dwellings were built in the third period, and the polishing of stone axes and adzes was mastered. In the fourth period vessels with round bottoms were made. Cores and vessels similar to those of the early Tripol’e period were characteristic of the fifth period. A burial was discovered containing a flexed skeleton but no artifacts. Many finds indicate that the Soroki culture had ties with the Neolithic cultures of the Balkan Peninsula.