This chapter outlines the prehistory of Romania from the first evidence of human activity to the eve of the first millennium BC, that is the end of Hallstatt A. The period from 1949 to 1975 was the second flourishing stage of Romanian archaeology. Hundreds of settlements and cemeteries from all prehistoric periods were excavated, new cultures were discovered and the ones already known were thoroughly studied. The extensive Palaeolithic excavations were made for the first time and some sites were fully investigated, including the Eneolithic settlements at Hăbăşeşti, Truşeşti, Teiu and Căscioarele, two of the biggest Neo-Eneolithic cemeteries of Europe (Cernavodă and Cernica), the four Bronze Age cemeteries at Monteoru, and the cemetery at Cîrna. At the beginning of the Pleistocene the Romanian plain and the southern part of the Moldovan plateau were still covered by the Pliocene lake. In Romania however, Hallstatt A-B cannot be equated with the beginning of the Iron Age.