Boian culture

The Boian culture (dated to 4300–3500 BC), also known as the Giulești–Marița culture or Marița culture, is a Neolithic archaeological culture of Southeast Europe. It is primarily found along the lower course of the Danube in what is now Romania and Bulgaria, and thus may be considered a Danubian culture. The Boian culture originated on the Wallachian Plain north of the Danube River in southeastern Romania. At its peak, the culture expanded to include settlements in the Bărăgan Plain and the Danube Delta in Romania, Dobruja in eastern Romania and northeastern Bulgaria, and the Danubian Plain and the Balkan Mountains in Bulgaria. The culture's geographical extent went as far west as the Jiu River on the border of Transylvania in south-central Romania, as far north as the Chilia branch of the Danube Delta along the Romanian border with Ukraine and the coast of the Black Sea, and as far south as the Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea in Greece. The type site of the Boian culture is located on an island on Lake Boian in the region of Muntenia, on the Wallachian Plain north of the Danube River. The Boian culture emerged from two earlier Neolithic groups: the Dudeşti culture that originated in Anatolia (present-day Turkey); and the Musical note culture (also known as the Middle Linear Pottery culture or LBK) from the northern Subcarpathian region of southeastern Poland and western Ukraine. The Boian culture is divided traditionally into four phases, each of which is given a name of one of the archaeological sites that are associated with it: Phase I – Bolintineanu Phase, 4300–4200 BC. Phase II – Giulești Phase (also known as the Giulești-Boian culture), 4200–4100 BC. Phase III – Vidra Phase, 4100–4000 BC. Phase IV – Spanțov Phase (also known as the Boian-Gumelnița culture), 4000–3500 BC. The Boian culture ended through a smooth transition into the Gumelnița culture, which also borrowed from the Vădastra culture. However, a segment of the Boian society ventured to the northeast along the Black Sea coast, encountering the late Hamangia culture, which they eventually merged with to form the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture.