Characteristics of habitat at the beginning of the Iron Age in the south-west of Romania

The archaeological documentation allow us to observe that in parallel with the existence of a “scattered” habitat, similar to the communities that used the grazing for earning their living, appear some fortresses that, show the existence of leaders in some communities, fiefs, that were interested in the affirmation and the maintaining of the social prestige. The chronology of the Early Hallstatt from the south-west of Romania has a first stage characterized by the grooved ceramics (Vârtop type), which is dated in the absolute chronology in the 12th – 11th centuries B.C. The second stage, with imprinted ceramics of Insula Banului – Gornea – Kalakača type is dated in the 10th – 9th centuries B.C.