The new stone age (neolithic) goes for approximately three
millenium (aprox. 5000 - 2000 BCE).
As a consequence of the development of the production
forces in the economy and in the material culture of the neolithic period,
several changes tood place, the human communities evolving gradually from the
phase of food-seekers to the one of food producers.
The basic occupation of human beings during this period
was the primitive cultivation of plants breeding, breeding animals, potery and
different house trades (spinning, weaving) which are added to thier old
occupations in the paleolithic: fishing, hunting / harvest, but these have a
secondary importance.
Next to some silex tools of small and medium dimesions,
which continue the forms and techniques specific to the paleolithic era, are
used now and other more more new tools from stone, improved and much more
effective, used in order to polish and perforate, basically generalised during
this period.
A main characteristic of economical activity during the
neolithic period would be a large spreading of ceramics, considering the
specific features like technque, shape or set involving ceramics, a new culture
could have been distinguished, the neolithic culture.
The human communities divided into races and tribes,
covered surfaces concentrated onthe valley of the rivers, where they were
offered much more favourable living conditions.
In the second room, reserved for the neolithic period, a
general text presents the main features of this period and all the towns from
Hunedoara with their most important discoveries.
In the first glass displace case are exposed nucleouses of
silex and obsidian, which were the basic raw material used int eh creation of
lithical tools (blades with and without retouch, GRATOARE, perforated tools,
etc.) and different types of polished, non-perforated axes, in chronoligical
order; axes in the shape of last [calapod = last; shoe tree; (fig) pattern],
trapezoidal axes and flat axes. In the second glass display case are a series of
individual or fragmented axes disposed with a hole/opening for the {glovening -
INMANUSARE}, in different stages of their production process, axes which were
specific for the middle and late neolithic and which were discovered at Turdas,
Mintia, Baiesti, Batrina etc.
The next four glass display cases (if you go from left to
the right) are used to present the next materials belonging to the Turdas
culture, the most important neolithic culture in Hunedoara county, and even in
Transilvania, discovered through systematic searches at the eponimic settlement
in the valley of the river Mures, at Deva and Mintia. Here are exposed some
specific vases for this culture: an elecant cup from fine, palished ceramics,
dishes bowls, pans etc., from which some were decorated with bands filled with
incisions and spots.
The practice of primitive agriculture by those who
belonged to Turdas culture is confirmed by the existance of hand-grinders, stone
squashers for seeds (which were discovered at Turdas and Mintia) and of hoes
made of antlers. Are also presented silex and obsidian knives and rasors ,
perforated axes, vase polishers, adobe with [urme de birne si nuiele], weights
for the loom and for the fishing net, [fusaiole] etc.
Along with the agriculture and the animal breeding is also
spread the cult of fecundity and fertility, both represented in the museum by
some feminine statuets (idols) from burnt clay and by statuets representing
animals (discovered at Turdas and Mintia) and which are characterised by a
refined plasticity.
In another display case are presented some painted ceramic
pieces belonging to the Petresti culture, discovered at Deva. Characteristic for
this culture (which has a small area of spreading in the centre of Transilvania
and especially in the valley of the river Mures and of its main tributaries) is
the ceramics made of rafined paste, which have painted over on orange-reddish
layer, geometrical motifs: lines, meandres, black coloured spirals etc.
The Tisa II Culture is documented in the Hunedoara
territory through the material discovered at Deva. The vestiges proceeded from this settlement are of a great
variety: ceramics (vases, dishes, bowles or small dimension cups decorated with
circular incisions, hashed [HASURATE] or criss-crossed bands), silex,
non-perforated axes and bone sqashers. The existance of silex rasors with fine
retouching and with easily polished, and then used as components for sicles,
next to numerous weed tools from antlers of a great typological variety, proves
that the economy in the Tisa II culture was mostly based on ariculture.
At the beginning of the second millenium BCE (2000-1800)
in the lives of the neolithic tribes who lived in Transilvania and in other
regions in the country, many socio-economical and cultural changes take place.
This transition period from the neolithical period to the
bronze period is characterised on one side by the multiplication of human
settlements and onthe other side, by the larger number of tools, the ones of
copper being very important. The apreciative quantities of domestic animals'
bones, found at every settlement prove the importance that the breeding of
aninals had in the lives of the communities during that period of transition.