Turdas

a culture of the developed Neolithic (fourth or early third millennium B.C.) in Rumania, chiefly in the western part of the country. The tribes of the Turdas culture were engaged in primitive farming and stock raising. In the earlier stage they lived in tents and pit houses, and in the later stage, in large, rectangular, ground-level dwellings. Microlithic stone implements were gradually superseded by relatively large implements. Polished stone axes, and occasionally, copper objects have been found at the settlement sites. The pottery is represented by vessels on high cylindrical pedestals and feet, basins, cups, and globular and conical pots, with relief, incised, and other types of ornamentation. Burials, with the flexed corpses placed on their side, were usually performed right in the settlements. Three ceramic tablets with pre-Sumerian writing from Mesopotamia (early third millennium B.C.) have been found at one of the settlements (Tartaria).