Floreshty

a city (until 1946, an urban-type settlement) and administrative center of Floreshty Raion, Moldavian SSR. Located 130 km northwest of Kishinev, Floreshty has a railroad station on the Bel’tsy-Slobodzeia-Slobodka line. Industries include the production of glass, cured tobacco, wine, and butter. The Kommunal’nik plant and the Moldavian Fruit and Vegetable Industrial and Marketing Association are located in the city. There is a sugar refinery nearby.

The remains of a late Neolithic settlement were discovered near Floreshty and were excavated by T. S. Passek in the periods 1955–58 and 1960–61. A stratum of the Linear Pottery culture (early fourth millennium B.C.) was overlain by a stratum of the Boian culture (fourth millennium B.C.).

The population lived in subterranean dwellings, which formed streets, and engaged in land cultivation, stock raising, and hunting. The earlier settlement was characterized by vessels for domestic use, decorative pottery, stone scrapers, sickle inserts, querns, adzes, and hoes made of antler. Characteristic finds of the later settlement included painted pottery and bone and clay statuettes.