Date noi privind evul mediu timpuriu în zona centrală a Dobrogei
New Data on Early Middle Ages in Central Dobrudja

Summary/Abstract: The material presented in this article comes from the early medieval settlement from Grădina (Grădina commune, Constanţa County), located in the centre of Dobrudja, and is the result of surface investigations. The settlement is in situated at the outskirts of Grădina village, in ”Caraci” section, located approximately 2 km north-east from the exit to Cogealac, near "Turk’s Well". Here, on the right bank of Mucova stream, on an area of about 160 m2, annual farming works brought to surface many signs of habitation from the specified period, consisting of pottery, various objects used in current activities, pieces of coated clay and burned adobe (partially vitrified). Together with these materials, we also studied several ceramic fragments of jars, a rim fragment of a clay boiler and a spindle whorl, part of the collection of the school in Grădina; we were informed these items were also found in the above-mentioned settlement. In total, 418 pottery fragments were collected: 345oxidant burned and 73 reductant burned. From the first category, 299 were made of common clay, 22 of kaolin and 24 of clean fine clay. The pots made of common clay were made at the slow wheel, except a fragment that comes from the top of a pot. Regarding typology, the best represented type is the pot without handles, with bevelled or round rim, rarely grooved, with short or high neck. One fragment comes from the neck of a jar and another one seems to come from a bowl. The vessels were made of common paste and all decorated by incision. Sometimes the inside of the lip is also decorated. Kaolin pots were made at the fast (three) and slow wheel. The most frequent type is the pot with or without handles, with rounded rim, more or less turned outwards, and short neck. Clay boilers are also well represented. Kaolin pots were also decorated by incision. Pots without handles and pitchers are modelled from clean clay. Such pottery items were decorated by polishing sometimes combined with incised patterns. The pots modelled from clean clay burned reducting show shades of gray-brown to black, and the core can be brown or gray. Such fragments come from pots with rounded lip and straight neck, and from jugs. Reducing burned vessels were decorated by polishing technique, sometimes associated with horizontal grooves. Along with pottery, at this point we also collected a clay roundel, a spindle whorl, a weight, a piece of partially vitrified adobe and three pieces of coated clay. Benefitting from materials found only at surface investigations, we turned to analogies of pieces found in well defined archaeological contexts in order to date the settlement at Grădina. Based on these analogies and on the observations made, we think that the early medieval settlement from Grădina dates to the 10th century - the first decades of the 11th century.

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