Schuster[4] in 1865 from the Râpa Roșie site in Sebeș (present-day Alba County, Romania).

Some of the more prominent contributors to the study of this culture include C. Gooss, K. Benkő, B. Orbán, G. Téglas, K. Herepey, S. Fenichel, Julius Teutsch, Cezar Bolliac, V. Christescu, Teohari Antonescu, and Cristian Popa.

This covers present day Maramureș, some areas in Sătmar, the mountainous and hilly areas of Crișana, Transylvania,[5][6] Banat,[7] Oltenia,[8] Muntenia (not including the North-East), and across the Danube in present-day eastern Serbia and northwestern Bulgaria.

[10] Cultural synchronisms have been established based on mutual trade relations (visible as imported items) as well as stratigraphic observations.

The influence between the Coțofeni and their neighbours the Baden, Kostolac,[13] Vučedol, Globular Amphora culture as well as the Ochre Burial populations was reciprocal.