MORMINTE DIN PRIMA EPOCĂ A FIERULUI DESCOPERITE LA GELMAR (JUD. HUNEDOARA)
EARLY IRON AGE BURIALS DISCOVERED AT GELMAR (HUNEDOARA COUNTY)

Summary/Abstract: The rescue excavations on the Deva - Sibiu motorway brought to light a site which belongs to Late Bronze Age, Early Iron Age and post-Roman period. It is placed on the territory of Gelmar village (Geoagiu town, Hunedoara County). Geographically, this village is situated in Orăştie Depression, limited to North by the Metaliferi Mountains and to South by the Şureanu Mountains and is crossed from East to West by the Mureş river. The site is located on the left side of the Mureş, on the first terrace.The discoveries from the Early Iron Age belong to Basarabi culture, which is dated in the Danube-Carpathian region between 850/800 and 600 B.C. At Gelmar there were discovered features which are specific to a settlement (dwellings and pits) and to a cemetery (two inhumation burials). The stratigraphic observations, together with the analysis of the archaeological materials discovered in these features show the presence of two chronological phases from the Early Iron Age (Basarabi culture). On the basis of the ceramics, the settlement can be chronologically included in the early phase of the Basarabi culture, dated in the first half of the 8th century B.C. The burials overlap the settlement which was abandoned at the time the cemetery functioned. The funerary features are represented by two inhumation burials (Cx. 20 and Cx. 22) as well as by several human bones scattered in the proximity of burial Cx. 20. The two burials discovered in situ were placed at 48 m one from another. In burial Cx. 20, the skeleton was discovered in lateral decubitus position, crouched on the left side, oriented SSW-NNE. There were found two stones and potsherds belonging to a vessel which was probably part of the funerary inventory. In Cx. 22, the skeleton was discovered in dorsal decubitus position, oriented SE-NW. The funerary inventory consisted of 37 bronze and iron objects, among which there were four bracelets, a fibula, buttons, a collar made of saltaleoni and beads, four hair rings and a buckle. In both burials, the human bones were in a poor preservation state.For the inventory of the burial Cx. 22 there are good analogies in other Basarabi burials, as in the cemeteries at Balta Verde, Basarabi, Gogoşu, Iaz, Sviniţa and Moldova Veche, but also in the bronze deposits from Ghidici and Hunia. The ceramic vessel from Cx. 20 is also specific of Basarabi culture. On the basis of the fibula in Cx. 22 (fibula with triangular plate, double resort, and spring made from twisted wire) the burials at Gelmar can be dated between the end of the 8th century and the first half of the 7th century B.C.

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