The area inhabited by the Cucutenians includes the South-East of Transylvania, an area situated inside the arc of the Carpathians, and most of Moldavia. In the South-East of Transylvania, the Cucuteni settlements are grouped around the upper Olt and its tributaries and only three settlements are situated on the Târnava Mare. The Western most sites are situated on the Mureº, near Târgu Mureº. These are merely isolated settlements. The Cucuteni discoveries in Transylvania took for a long time to develop as a self-sufficient culture. In recent years, new research proved that it was only a regional aspect of the Cucuteni culture. From the South-East of Transylvania, the limits of the Cucuteni territory cross the Carpathians towards the north-east to the Putna river, which they follow up to its confluence with the Siret. From here on, the frontier makes a large arc towards the North, going around the Plains of the Buceag in Southern Bessarabia, until it meets the Dniester near its confluence with Rãut. Then the Cucuteni boundary follows the stream of the Dniester towards the North. The Northern limit is very hard to determine, maybe a line that unites the stream of the Dniester. The northwestern limit is none the better precision; it stretches to the Easter Carpathians. Between these boundaries is included a surface of about 80-90,000 sq.km.