Rumania or Romania

Geology.—The axis of the Transylvanian Alps consists of sericite schists and other similar rocks ; and these are followed on the south by Jurassic, Cretaceous and Early Tertiary beds. The Jurassic and Cretaceous beds are ordinary marine sediments, but from the Cenomanian to the Oligocene the deposits are of the peculiar facies known in the Alps and Carpathians as Flysch. Farther north, the Flysch forms practically the whole of the Rumanian flank of the Carpathians. Along the foot of the Car pathians lies a broad trough of Miocene salt-bearing beds, and in this trough the strata are sometimes horizontal and sometimes strongly folded. Outside the band of Miocene beds the Sarmatian, Pontian and Levantine series, often concealed by Quaternary deposits, cover the great part of the Danube plain. Even the Pontian beds are sometimes folded. In the Dobrudja crystalline rocks, presumably of ancient date, rise through the Tertiary and recent deposits to form the hills which lie between the Danube and the Black sea.

Climate.

The Moldavian-Walachian region, together with Bukovina and Bessarabia, endure the scorching summers of the Russian steppe-land and the extreme frosts and blizzards of the Pontic zone in winter. Transylvania and the Banat endure the less violent variations of Central Europe. The Danube plains often experience a temperature of 20° below zero (Fahrenheit) and in summer oo° to 11o° is common. Autumn is the mildest season; spring lasts only for a few weeks. At Bucharest the mean temperature for summer is 72° for autumn 65° and for winter 27°. For many weeks and even months the plainlands endure the north-east wind from Russia called the Crivets. In summer a hot south or S.W. wind sweeps up from the ranean, but without freshness. The Danube has been ice-bound for periods as long as three months. The rainfall, which is heaviest in summer, particularly in the Transylvanian plateau averages 15-2o in.

Fauna.

In its fauna, Walachia has far more affinity to the lands lying south of the Danube than to Transylvania, although several species of Claudilia, once regarded as exclusively Transyl vanian, are found south of the Carpathians. Moldavia and the Baragan Steppe resemble the Russian prairies in their variety of molluscs and the lower kinds of mammals. Over 4o species of freshwater mussels (Unionidae) have been observed in the Rumanian rivers. The lakes of the Dobruja likewise abound in molluscs; parent forms, in many cases, of species which reappear, greatly modified, in the Black sea. Insect life is somewhat less remarkable; but besides a distinctive genus of Orthoptera (Jaquetia Hospodar), there are several kinds of weevils (Cur culionidae) said to be peculiar to Rumania. Birds are very numerous, including no fewer than 4 varieties of crows, 5 of warblers, 7 of woodpeckers, 8 of buntings, 4 of falcons, and 5 of eagles; while among the hosts of waterfowl which people the marshes of the Danube are 9 varieties of ducks, and 4 of rails. Roe-deer, foxes and wolves find shelter in the forests, where bears are not uncommon; and chamois frequent the loftiest and most inaccessible peaks.

Rumania is rich in antiquities of all periods from the Neolithic to the Roman but no scientific archaeological work can be said to have been done before 1900 when Prof. Tocilescu published the results of his surveys of Roman Dacia. Excavation by Ru manians did not begin before The Neolithic period is hard to distinguish from the Chalco lithic but in general it is abundantly clear that Rumania in the first half of the third millennium B.C. formed part of a homo geneous region in which Bulgaria, Thrace, Thessaly and the Ukraine as far north as Kiev were included. This culture is distinguished by a remarkable painted pottery of high artistic quality in design and shape. The people of this area and period have, for convenience been called the people of the "Black Earth Region" because the soil is rich and alluvial and because those living upon it at this period were largely agriculturalists.

The most important sites in Rumania hitherto examined are Cucuteni near Jassy where abundant remains have been found of two periods of this culture, Erosd in Transylvania and Brasov (Kronstadt), and some sites (excavated by Germans during the World War) near Cernavoda on the Danube. The culture so revealed is one of the most remarkable that developed in Europe in the early prehistoric period. It is thought by some to have oriental affinities with regions so far afield as Turkistan and Honan in China, where remarkably similar pottery is found. In any case the "Black Earth Culture" came to an abrupt end about 2000 B.C. and was replaced by a culture coming from the north-east, equipped with weapons of war. The Bronze Age that ensued develops rapidly and concentrates mainly in the western half of Transylvania and the Hungarian plains. It is of great artistic merit and some of the finest products of the European Bronze Age in gold and bronze come from Transylvania. In habited sites are numerous but not large and the gold of Transyl vania seems certainly to have been worked on a large scale. There was a nobility and a subordinate or serf population and the ac coutrement of the nobility and their gold ornaments and plate form an outstanding feature of the civilisation they represented. The fioruit of this Bronze Age seems to have been about the fifteenth century B.C. and the Hungarian plain seems to have been the breeding-place for movements that extended far and wide. Bronze swords of Danubian type from these regions are found during the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries penetrating, perhaps more as signs of invasion than as elements of trade, as far afield as Mycenae, Egypt, Cyprus and Crete. The makers of the swords seem to have been the peoples who were gradually pressing down southwards into the Mediterranean and who subsequently were responsible for northernisation of the Minoan world. Their gold may have reached the wealthy cities of the Mycenaean mainland. Certainly they were in close touch with Troy and Anatolia.