摘要：A favourite topic of Ion Conea¡¯s works published during his early research years is the mountain
space west of the Olt River. The mountain had exerted a special attraction on the Professor due to its
geohistorical importance, the large possibilities for settlement, profitable utilization, and more over very close
relationships between man and this landform. Each of his studies or descriptions was intended to highlight
these very relationships, man¡¯s adaptability, understanding and respect what the mountain as a phenomenon
stands for. Conea came to the conclusion that the geographical phenomena are perceived, judged and defined
rather by the impression they create, and particularly by their use value, which has an overriding importance
for those whose living is connected with them. Mountain people are indifferent to the mountain as volume of
rock or elevated landform with forests or ridges. What is important for them is the area beyond forest, the
realm of alpine meadows and pastures. The mountain is not a physical (geographical) concept with them, but
an economic notion ¨C the alpine grazes. What stands above it (summits, peaks, ridges, etc) is embodied in a
very rich terminology created out of the space and position or reflecting qualities and express the impression
produced on man. Speaking of the Carpathians as place of habitation, Ion Conea underlines their major
physical attribute, that of facilitating circulation in all directions, of acting as a link between the depressions
situated in the north and those located in the south. Therefore, these mountains are no barriers in the way of
communication. The wealth of toponyms and the traces of habitation found in the mountains stretching out
west of the Olt River are a pertinent proof of the Daco-Roman continuity in an area where a state organization
in ancient Europe chose to erect its capital at the highest altitude.
