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The Vârghiș Gorges karst system (Perșani Mountains, Eastern Carpathians) constituted a point of interest for speleologists, paleontologists and archaeologists since the second half of the 19th century. Their efforts succeeded in highlighting the notable archaeological potential of the area, although the actual research results were not always thoroughly reported. Since 2014, our team reunited specialists from 10 different institutions and various fields of research and initiated archaeological excavations, coupled with achaeozoological, sedimentological and chronometric investigations, in several caves within the Vârghiș Gorges. As the paper below will show, although the results obtained so far are definitively informative, further investigation are clearly needed, in order to accurately clarify aspects pertaining to the intricate cultural and chronological framework.

Since its inception, the Romanian archaeological school of the Palaeolithic maintained the interpretation of archaeological layers through the lenses of the geomorphological data as an objective. Our study presents one of the situations in which archaeological researches did not benefit from a direct collaboration between the two fields of inquiry, which led to an erroneous understanding of the sedimentary genesis in the Palaeolithic settlement of Malu Dinu Buzea (Covasna Department). Recent observations offered a glimpse of both vertical and horizontal movement of the archaeological material, due to the periodical reactivation of a dejection cone, and to sedimentary peculiarities. The technological analysis of the recently excavated lithic assemblage revealed the existence of a single, heavily disturbed cultural unit, found in secondary position, along with numerous naturally fragmented flint, sandstone, quartzite, and limestone blocks. The largest part of the technological and typological features of the mostly local flint assemblage indicates a possible final Upper Palaeolithic timing for its origin, with no arguments in favour of a putative Aurignacian designation, and only several hints at a Tardenoisian one, both previously stated for what used to be recognized as a twofolded cultural sequence

Les nouvelles recherches effectuées dans le but d’identifier les sources de matière première lithique utilisées par l’homme pendant le Paléolithique, nous ont offert une grande surprise par la découverte à Şinca Nouă des premiers outillages paléolithiques. Les pièces découvertes sont concentrées en deux points de la commune et appartiennent, du point de vue techno-typologique, au Paléolithique Moyen et Supérieur, sans pouvoir faire pour l’instant des précisions d’ordre chronoculturel. Nous espérons que les fouilles futures apporteront des clarifications supplémentaires en ce sens.

In order to characterize the climatic changes observed on a regional and local scale, an analysis of the pluviometric parameters has been proposed. It relies on the calculation of the centered index decreased and the quintile method to characterize their long-term evolution. This investigation allows for an explanation for the extreme rain variability. It also shows the severe and durable character of the climatic drought noticed in this region beginning with the 1970s and the shy return towards a possible humid phase observed beginning with 2008. At the same time, the analysis of the evolution of the extreme rains has highlighted a relevant relation with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). This relation is in reversed phase with the humid periods (negative NAO index and high frequency of the extreme rains from the humid categories) and in phase with the dry periods (positive NAO index and high frequencies of the extreme rains from the dry categories). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The last few decades have recorded a high frequency of the meteorological drought phenomenon. Southern and south-eastern Romania make no exception, with such phenomena often occurring from July to November 2011, which brought about an agrometerological drought that lasted from the third decade of July to early December, with a slight improvement in October. This situation led to a decrease in soil water reserves, mainly in the first 20 cm, with a negative impact on agricultural crops and the following agricultural year as well., Findings: The methodology was based on a correlative analysis between the decadal rainfall quantities and the existing soil water reserve, during the interval between June and November 2011, for eight weather stations., Conclusion: The statistico-mathematical data analysis showed an intensification of the pedological drought phenomenon in September, with a slight improvement in October and an increase in November.