Archaeology - ROMANIA Monthly Update - July 2007

Volunteer Archaeological Update - July 2007

Simleu Silvaniei is a small city in the north-west of Romania. Human civilizations have lived there since the Bronze Age period. On the main hill near the city there are two fortifications. The bigger of the two dates back to the Bronze Age and is on higher ground which extends over several hectares. The second one is on the peak of a smaller hill and is a Dacian fortification under a medieval one.

However, we did not come to Simleu Silvaniei for these fortifications. We came for the remains of a medieval castle which is in the middle of the city. It appeared as a small building in the second half of the XV century when Nicolae Bathory II moved his residence from the east of Hungary to Simleu, in Transylvania. If the name Bathory means nothing to you, note that Bathory Erzsebet is very famous for the fact that he tried to keep young by bathing in the blood of young virgins. He was one of the biggest sources of inspiration for Bram Stoker in his famous book, Dracula.

The city decided to restore the remains of the castle, so archaeologists were called upon to make the necessary diggings. Outside of this the scientists had the opportunity to study the history of the castle and establish the most important steps of construction. The city desperately needs an historical objective for tourists and this is the main one. There are not a lot of castle ruins in the middle of a city.

At the moment there are two towers still standing, but they are not in good shape, and restoration is currently being done on both of them. Some of the new walls and a newer gate are still standing. The way in which the restoration will be done will be decided by the architect after he sees the results of the research. The digging was done by Hieronymus Cultural Association and The Zalau Art and History County Museum.

The digging was done in several sections. There were two main ones and a smaller one. A surface dig was also done in one trench.

The third tower of the fortification was discovered and inside were found several levels which used to be lived in. Two ovens were found on two of the levels. The entrance to the tower was closed with rock. Another discovery was the old entrance gate into the old fortification. Here we found a tower, several very well preserved wooden structures, and even the gate's chain. A palisade was discovered at the entrance, one of the most impressive I've ever seen. It had four rows of wooden piles and a defense trench. On the North side of the fortification was a simpler palisade. On the exterior of this a wooden structure was found, probably a wooden tower.

In the interior of the fortification were discovered the remains of old construction structures that were here before the castle was built, probably from the XV century.

Some of the oldest discoveries were mainly from the Dacians' pottery. Arpadian remains and remains from the XIII-XIV century were also found.

The dig was one of the most interesting that I have seen. A lot of interesting things were found: a lot of artifacts, huge amounts of pottery, tiles, over 130 fragments of sculpted rocks from the buildings, metal objects, and over 20 coins. The amount of data found in the digging surprised even the archaeologists, and they are thinking of starting a museum here.

The digging will continue next year and we will be here to help and learn.



George Andrei CIOTLAUSI
Archaeology Assistant for Project Abroad Romania

Projects Abroad Archaeology Centre Romania
8^th August 2007

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