Archaeology - ROMANIA Monthly Update - July 2006

Volunteer Archaeological Update - July 2006

The beginning of the month has caught us at the digging from Pincota. This is a small city in the west of Romania, 30 kilometers away from Arad. It is famous for the wines that it produces, for the timber industry and for the fairs that were held here a long time ago.

In the early medieval times Benedictine monks started a small Abby here. Marki Sandor is the first historian who mentions them and he says that it started sometimes in XII century. They built a church and cells here. Later on, they extended the buildings around here, building an earth wall around the construction. The Turkish invasion ended with them conquering the fortified church and eventually they transformed it into a garrison.

The diggings here have been done since the beginning of the last century by a postman, an amateur archaeologist. The documents that remain from him were not of much use on later diggings. Actually there we were more confused because the plans that he left were not corresponding with the reality of the field. At present, the diggings are being done by The Museum of Archaeology and History Arad in collaboration with Dr. Daniela MARCU. They started 6 years ago and they will continue for a few more years.

In this yea, six sections were made where we tried to find out what the plan of it was. Another major goal was to determine the different stages of the building in the construction of the church and of the earth wall.

There were a lot of interesting discoveries but also a lot of things that we wanted to discover and we didn't. There were several graves that were found but with no other elements found inside them to determine the time period when the bodies were buried.

We expected to discover at least a coin so we can determine the age of a certain layer and from that to get a conclusion but unfortunately we didn't.

There were a lot of pottery discovered and a lot of animal bones. Unfortunately the pots didn't offer us a clear indication of any timetable either. The animal bones were washed and they will be sent to a zoologist who can give information about what kind of animals they were, their species (and from that the area from which they were) and other elements that could help.

Eventually we made some conclusions regarding the way that the church was built and the stages in which it happened. The old plans left by the amateur archaeologist were proved to be wrong.

This type of church is one from Romania. There are just a few in this part of Europe so it's importance in this area is big. It can tell us a lot of things about the owners and its conqueror. The diggings will continue in the next few years and we will be present there.

The second large digging on which we participated was the one from Piatra Craivii or what was formerly known as Apoulon. It is one of the most important centers of the Dacian kingdom, controlling the rich areas of gold from the Apuseni mountains. The significance of this settlement is established by the discoveries that there were made here in the last century and in the present one.

The digging is being done here by the Alba Iulia National Museum under the coordination of Cristi PLANTOS. There were four section opened on three terraces. One of the terraces had an older section that was opened and closed last year for preserving purposes. The idea was to continue with the digging this year. The problem was the treasure hunters are present in the area and they destroyed a part of the section looking for the Dacian gold.

The purpose of the diggings was to determine the fitting-out of three of the terraces. In one of them, the remains of a burned house were discovered and in another one, medieval remains. In the third one, the fittings out that we found probably come from a tower.

For the next month, the plan is to help at a Dacian digging near Brasov that started last year (Bunloc) and to go to Popina Bordusani where we will probably stay until the end of September.

George Andrei CIOTLAUSI
Archaeology Assistant for Project Abroad Romania

Projects Abroad Archaeology Centre Romania
8th August 2006

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