On Thursday, March 12, from 19:00 to 20:00, at the headquarters of the Romanian Cultural Institute in Beijing (ICR Beijing), we have the honor to invite you to the launch of the remarkable volume “罗马尼亚库库特尼文化彩陶集萃 / Selected Collection of the Cucuteni Culture Painted Pottery from Romania.” The event will bring together distinguished personalities from the academic and diplomatic communities of the Chinese capital.
Among the participants will be H.E. Mr. Dan-Horia Maxim, Ambassador of Romania to the People’s Republic of China, alongside distinguished Chinese guests: Academician Chen Xingcan, former Director of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; Mr. Wen Changhao, coordinator of the volume; and Professor Dong Xixiao from Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU).
Published at the end of 2025 by the prestigious Chinese publishing house Cultural Relics Press, the volume represents a remarkable achievement of Romanian–Chinese cooperation in the field of archaeological research. Available in bookstores across China since January 2026, the book is conceived as a genuine calling card of bilateral cultural relations, promoting Romania’s history and heritage internationally through the Chinese and English languages.
The 432-page volume is dedicated to the memory of the distinguished Romanian archaeologist Gheorghe Corneliu Lazarovici (1941–2025), a leading figure in the research and promotion of the Cucuteni Culture. The publication brings together over 300 three-dimensional reproductions of artifacts discovered at archaeological sites in northern Romania. These objects belong to the collections of several prestigious museum institutions: the National Museum “Moldova” in Iași, the Institute of Archaeology of the Romanian Academy – Iași Branch, the Botoșani County Museum, the “Ștefan cel Mare” County Museum in Vaslui, the “Iulian Antonescu” Museum Complex in Bacău, and the “Vasile Pârvan” Museum in Bârlad.
A particularly significant aspect of this project is that it represents one of the concrete outcomes of initiatives launched by ICR Beijing as early as 2017. On the occasion of an exhibition and conference organized that year, dozens of replicas of artifacts belonging to the Cucuteni and Yangshao cultures were presented to the Chinese public, laying the foundations for long-term scientific cooperation. As a result of the partnership agreement signed at that time, four joint Romanian–Chinese teams of specialists conducted archaeological research at Dobrovăț (Iași County) in 2019, 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Published under the auspices and with the support of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, the volume highlights, among other aspects, the symbolic and morphological similarities between the ceramics of the Cucuteni Culture (Romania) and artifacts discovered in Henan Province, China, attributed to the Yangshao Culture (5000–3000 BC), thus emphasizing shared features in the early development of human civilizations.
The launch of this volume marks a new milestone in the cultural and academic dialogue between Romania and China, reaffirming the essential role of archaeology in building enduring cultural bridges between civilizations.
