__NOTOC__ Baia is a commune in

Tulcea County Tulcea County () is a county ( județ) of Romania, in the historical region Dobruja, with the capital city at Tulcea. It includes in its northeast corner the large and thinly-populated estuary of the Danube. Demographics In 2011, Tulcea Cou ...

Northern Dobruja Northern Dobruja ( ro, Dobrogea de Nord or simply ; bg, Северна Добруджа, ''Severna Dobrudzha'') is the part of Dobruja within the borders of Romania. It lies between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, bordered in the south ...

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

Villages

The commune includes five villages: * Baia (''Hamangia'' until 1929, tr, Hamamci) * Camena * Caugagia ( tr, Kavgaci) * Ceamurlia de Sus (''Yeni Kazak'' until ca. 1855) * Panduru (''Potur'' until 1929)

History

In 1953, archaeological excavations on a site along the

Lake Golovița Lake Golovița is part of a complex of lagoons on Romania's Black Sea coast. It is connected to the larger Lake Razelm on the north by a channel wide, to Lake Zmeica on the south by three narrow channels, and separated from the Black Sea's salt w ...

, near Baia, led to the discovery of a new Middle Neolithic culture, named after the commune. Further research has shown that the culture, with

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...

origins, extended across

Dobruja Dobruja or Dobrudja (; bg, Добруджа, Dobrudzha or ''Dobrudža''; ro, Dobrogea, or ; tr, Dobruca) is a historical region in the Balkans that has been divided since the 19th century between the territories of Bulgaria and Romania. I ...

and North-Eastern

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

. The culture's most notable artefact is an anthropomorphic statuette in

terra cotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based unglazed or glazed ceramic where the fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, and architecture, terracotta ...

, known as ''The Thinker'', which was discovered at

Cernavodă Cernavodă () is a town in Constanța County, Northern Dobruja, Romania with a population of 20,514. The town's name is derived from the Bulgarian ''černa voda'' (черна вода in Cyrillic), meaning 'black water'. This name is regarded by ...

References

* Communes in Tulcea County Localities in Northern Dobruja Aromanian settlements in Romania {{Tulcea-geo-stub