Archaeology - ROMANIA Monthly Update - August 2006

Volunteer Archaeological Update - August 2006

The digging planted in Bunloc, near Brasov didn't take place as they should. The local Council from didn't sign the contract with the archeologist.

We went to Alba Iulia where we made diggings in the Neolithic site from the city called "Lumea Noua". It was not the first time that we have dug there, so we had experience with the culture and the site. There were a lot of interesting discoveries made there. Between lots of pottery we also found tools such as a rock axe. There were no houses discovered in the site but one of the sections was cut by a trench. There could be several explanation of its function, but we didn't find one approved by everybody. The main two hypotheses were that it was made by the people a few years ago when they dug water channels in the area, on the occasion they found the archaeological site. The second one was that it was made in the Neolithic times, however it was cutting the settlement and it didn't have a logical role. Probably future diggings will tell us more about this. Because of the heat in which we were working during the day and in the late evening we were going to the main swimming pool of the city, which was quite relaxing...

In the middle of the month we went to Bordusani in the south-east of Romania, one of the main Neolithic sites from Eastern Europe.

The digging continued in the Beta and Gamma section from the point where it was ended last year. At the beginning the site was cleaned, plastic bags and the earth which had been used to cover it a year ago was removed. Every year at the end of the digging the site is covered so that it is protected from the animals and the natural elements. In the New Year there is a general cleaning of the site in order to have a clear situation of the site. The digging is split into several sections in which the archeologists are working. Each section has a main archeologist who is supervising the students digging inside of it.

This year three Neolithic houses were discovered all from the same time period which is a first in 20 years in Romania. One of the houses was particularly interesting because the wall were of a different construction to the other two. Instead of 2 rows of pillows it had 3 rows. One of the houses had inside an Oven and a bench made from clay. The houses were around 60 square meters and usually they had three rooms.

There were a lot of artifacts discovered: silex tools, pottery, bone tools and a really special one, a shoe tree - the right leg, found near the remains of some wood. Some suggested that it could off belonged to a shoe maker but the arguments are weak. There were no tools discovered that would suggest a shoe maker. The favoured hypothesis is that it was an object which was kept in the house for good luck. There have been other discoveries like this but not very often and some are too small to be used by a shoe maker. But if the hypothesis that they were used by a shoe maker was to be proven correct, it would revolutionise are view of aspects of life from 7000 years ago.

As in every year, during one day of a weekend an open day was organized at the digging, for everyone who wanted to come and see what was done and to ask questions. The officials from the village and from the county came along with the press. This kind of event promotes the archaeology in general and the digging site. Very often this science is seen as a search for treasure - Indiana Jones had a part in it. Other people consider that archaeology is just the finding of ancient objects ignoring a lot of other vital aspects of this science.

George Andrei CIOTLAUSI
Archaeology Assistant for Project Abroad Romania

Projects Abroad Archaeology Centre Romania
6th September 2006

Back to Volunteer Archaeological Monthly Update Files