# Discoveries near you

*Beneath your feet*

Choose a Romanian town or village to find archaeological discoveries recorded within 1, 5 and 10 km of its reference point. Explore their periods and open the evidence in Romania’s National Archaeological Record.

21,510 sites with known positions from 29,007 RAN records consulted.

[Find your town or village](https://mariuscomper.uk/sub-picioarele-tale/en/#explorer)

## Within 5 km: about 86%.

We compared site points with the 1 km population grid from the 2021 census. Each inhabited cell contributes its population.

 ≈86 % of the population in the 2021 census grid was within 5 km of a RAN site with published coordinates. 1 km 35.2% 5 km 86.4% 10 km 97.1% At 5 km: 16,466,935 of 19,053,815 residents. Sensitivity to position within a cell: 83.0–89.1% . This is a geometric range and does not include site-coordinate errors. Method ↓ 

## Traces have shape, weight and texture.

Examples from Romania’s archaeological heritage. The photographs show the places and objects described in their captions; they stay the same when you choose another place.

![Circular sanctuary in a clearing surrounded by woodland.](https://mariuscomper.uk/sub-picioarele-tale/assets/sarmizegetusa.webp)

The large circular sanctuary at Sarmizegetusa Regia, photographed in 2017. © Hoheblau. [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sarmizegetusa_Regia%2C_ROMANIA.jpg). Resized and converted to WebP.

![Stone column remains among the walls of Histria.](https://mariuscomper.uk/sub-picioarele-tale/assets/histria.webp)

Columns and walls at Histria, Constanța County, photographed in 2014. © Caliman Emanuel Catalin. [CC BY-SA 3.0 RO](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ro/) · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Histria_sit_arheologic.jpg). Resized and converted to WebP.

![Two seated figurines; the one on the left rests its head in its hands.](https://mariuscomper.uk/sub-picioarele-tale/assets/hamangia.webp)

The Thinker and the Sitting Woman of Cernavodă, Hamangia culture. Photograph taken in 2023. © Chainwit.. [CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bucharest_-_The_Thinker_%26_The_Sitting_Woman_of_Cernavoda_img_02.jpg). Resized and converted to WebP.

![Tall ceramic object painted with red and black geometric patterns on a pale ground.](https://mariuscomper.uk/sub-picioarele-tale/assets/cucuteni-vessels.webp)

Cucuteni pottery on display in Piatra Neamț, photographed in 2009. © CristianChirita. [CC BY 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) · [Wikimedia Commons](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:CucuteniTypicalCeramic.jpg). Resized and converted to WebP.

## What this map can tell us.

### A record of discoveries

RAN is maintained by Romania’s National Heritage Institute. It covers recorded discoveries: a denser map can also reflect more research, infrastructure works or better documentation. Places without dots may have a past that remains unknown.

### The site’s position matters

The official map distinguishes sites with coordinates from those placed conventionally at their locality. Distance circles and the national calculation use only the first category. A locality reference point provides an orientation; an address at the edge of town may have different surroundings.

### A period can span millennia

The “oldest period” is the earliest recognised label in the matching records. Mesolithic, Eneolithic and Migration-period labels remain separate. Dates expressed only as centuries or ambiguous terms remain visible as text and are not automatically assigned a period. A record may document a settlement, cemetery or isolated find; these do not establish continuous habitation.

### Population and the 5 km circle

The calculation approximates residents’ distance using the centre of each 1 × 1 km census cell. A person could live up to about 707 m from that centre. The displayed range shows sensitivity to location within the cell; uncertainty in RAN coordinates and unrecorded discoveries add further limitations.

## Explore the sources

- [RAN](https://ran.cimec.ro/)
- [INP map](https://map.cimec.ro/)
- [Eurostat GEOSTAT](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/gisco/geodata/population-distribution/geostat)
- [GeoNames](https://download.geonames.org/export/dump/)