vol. 12.1, 2022, 29–59 doi:10.57573/be-ja.12.29-59 Papers / Статии Article history: Submitted 13 September 2021 Accepted 15 March 2022 Available online 6 June 2022 Copyright: © 2022 C. I. Popa Were there any tells in the Coţofeni culture area? Cristian Ioan Popa a a “1 Decembrie 1918” University of Alba Iulia, 5 Gabriel Bethlen Street, 510009 Alba Iulia, Romania; cristian. popa@uab.ro ABSTRACT The approach to the topic of tells in the North-Danube area, between 3500 and 2800 BC, corresponding to the Coţofeni culture (in Bulgaria, Magura–Coţofeni, Tărnava culture) has been inconsistent. This study aims to clarify a series of ar- chaeological and terminological aspects in direct relation to those Coţofeni sites that may or may not be included in the category of tell settlements. The so-called tell settlements are also discussed and the term pseudo-tell is proposed. Sites at very high altitudes (over 1000 m) or others related to salt exploitation have generated complex stratigraphies, consisting of successive Coţofeni levels, but completely different from the types of sediments that led to the formation of “classic” tells from the lowlands. The lack of fortifcations is another feature of these settlements, which takes them away from the classic defnition of a tell. Following this analysis, it can be summarized that the terminological problems or the established conventions are not suf- fcient to defne certain Coţofeni sites, such as those from Ostrovu Corbului, Basarabi or Moldova Veche. However, there are arguments to speak of tell or pseudo-tell settlements in the Coţofeni area. Compared to the impressive number of known sites in the area (over 1500), their percentage is only around 1%. KEYWORDS Coţofeni culture, genuine tells, tell-type settlements, pseudo-tells, Late Eneolithic, Early Bronze Age Introduction One of the challenges faced by the archaeology of the frst half of the 3rd millennium BC is the existence of tells or tell-type settlements in the Carpathian Basin at the end of the Eneolithic. In the timespan between the two horizons of tell settlements in Europe, i.e., between 4500 and approxi- mately 2400/2300 cal BC, this type of occupation was modifed and tells completely disappeared from many geographic areas (Kienlin 2020, 4, 9). This necessitates a discussion that focuses, in particular, on certain terminological aspects and tries to defne the multi-layered settlements from the area of the most representative Danube–Carpathian culture: the Coţofeni culture. Starting with Florin Gogâltan’s defnition of a tell from the Carpathian Basin, seen as “a multi- layered settlement, characteristic to a certain archaeological culture, that was formed by successively accumulating the debris of some surface buildings made of clay and having wooden structures” (Gogâl- tan 2003b, 5), we shall also approach the issue of this type of settlement from the Coţofeni culture area. When discussing the issue of tells from the Carpathian Basin, the same author proposed their division into two main categories: genuine tells and tell-type settlements. Those of the former have a stratigra- phy of over 1 m and at least three archaeological levels, while the latter have at least two archaeological levels and a stratigraphy of up to 1 m (Gogâltan 2003a, 62; 2003b, 5; 2005, 80; 2014, 14; 2017, 30). Bulgarian e-Journal of Archaeology Българско е-Списание за Археология https://be-ja.org ISSN: 1314-5088 This article and the content of the journal is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0