The following notes on the distribution of early civilisations in the north of the Balkan peninsula are mainly intended to supplement the views put forward in Chapter XIV concerning the connection of Thessaly with that region. They may also perhaps help to draw the attention of English archaeologists to a much neglected, but very important question.

In Moldavia, Transylvania, Bukovina, Bessarabia, and the adjoining districts evidence is rapidly accumulating for the existence of large quantities of painted prehistoric pottery, which despite many local varieties, may for our present purpose be regarded as forming one class. At Cucuteni near Jassy in Moldavia Dr Hubert Schmidt has now discovered two different periods, one of which seems to be neolithic, and the other chalcolithic, for in it bronze weapons were found together with celts. The characteristic feature of the first and earlier period is a large series of polychrome vases of the so-called “fruitstand” type, which in shape, and to some extent in decoration recall several wares of the Second Period in Thessaly. There are however considerable differences: in the Cucuteni wares the biscuit is unpolished, the paint is matt and dusty in appearance, and the designs, which usually cover the whole of the vase, are, though similar to the Thessalian, far from being exactly the same. Thus in spite of a strong general resemblance even small sherds from Cucuteni and Thessaly can be easily distinguished.