RETRIEVING MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL CULTURE „C.S. Nicolăescu-Plopşor” – YEARBOOK/ANUARUL, vol. XVIII, 2017, pp. 7-15 CONSIDERATIONS ON THE LATE PERIOD OF THE BRONZE AGE IN THE SOUTH-WESTERN OF ROMANIA Simona LAZĂR ∗ Abstract: The first chronological stage is dominated by the presence of the incised and incrusted ceramics of Gârla Mare type, of which development may encompass a large segment from the Middle Bronze period. The innovations that appear during the Late Bronze period in almost all the sites, intensively researched, appear in the tendency of replacing the incised ornament with the plastic, grooved decoration. Thus, the cultural aspects of the Late Bronze – the end of the Gârla Mare culture, the cultural group Bistreţ-Işalniţa, the group Govora (the last manifestations of the Verbicioara culture) – are followed, almost uniformly in this region, by the groups with grooved ceramics. Keywords: archaeology, Late Bronze period, Oltenia, Gârla Mare, Bistreţ-Işalniţa. In Oltenia, we can distinguish, in the Late Bronze, two cultural aspects (zones): one in the centre and especially in the north of this territory, in the hilly sub- Carpathian region, characterized by discoveries belonging particularly to the group with Govora type ceramics (the last manifestations of the Verbicioara) and other along the Danube and Câmpia Olteniei, where the grooved ceramics appears starting with the last phase of the Gârla Mare culture and becomes more frequent in what is called the Bistreţ-Işalniţa group. Among the archaeological discoveries that are available in the actual stage of the researches, is evidenced the Gârla Mare type pottery that belongs to the wider area of the incrusted ceramics groups situated on one side and another on the middle and inferior course of Danube 1 . The presence of this type on the actual territory of several river-side states, determined the archaeologist from those countries to present under different names the same archaeological phenomenon: the Romanians called it Gârla Mare, the Serbians Dubovac-Žuto Brdo and the ∗ 3 rd Degree Scientific Researcher, PhD., “C.S. Nicolăescu-Plopşor” Institute for Research in Social Studies and Humanities from Craiova, of the Romanian Academy; Email: simonalazar@ymail.com. 1 M. Şandor Chicideanu, Cultura Žuto-Brdo Gârla Mare. Contribuţii la cunoaşterea epocii bronzului la Dunărea mijlocie şi inferioară, Cluj, Nereamia Napocae Publishing, 2003; Christine Reich, Das Gräberfeld von Szeremle und die Gruppen mit inkrustierter Keramik entlang der mittleren und unteren Donau, Berlin, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin-Preussischer Kulturbesitz, 2006.