DIVINITATI ACVATICE LA APULUM: CONSIDERATII ICONOGRAFICE SI PROBLEME DE STIL
DIVINITÉS AQUATIQUES À APULUM: CONSIDÉRATIONS ICONOGRAPHIQUES ET PROBLÈME; THE GRAVE OF AN AVAR RIDER RECENTLY FOUND AT UNIREA-VERESMORT (ALBA COUNT

Summary/Abstract: Le port commercial d’Apulum, situé probablement non loin de l’embouchure des rivières Mures et Ampoi, a eu un rôle très actif dans la région puisqu’il constituait un point de contacte important entre les centres économiques de la partie centrale de la province. La présence de plusieurs textes épigraphiques mentionnant des négociants mais aussi quelques pièces monumentales décoratives et une plaquette votive consacrées à des divinités aquatiques témoignent justement de l’importance de ce port fluvial pendant l’époque romaine. Nous nous sommes proposés d’analyser une partie de ces pièces figuratives et de leur trouver des analogies iconographiques et stylistiques. Une variante développée de ce texte a été présentée au IV-ème Congrès roumano-suisse de Deva, 7-13 avril 2008, et va être publiée dans les Actes.; In the spring of 2008, during some minor building activities in the courtyard of Mr. Mihoc Ioan from Unirea (Veresmort), on the Traian Street no. 827, a grave containing human bones and fragments of a horse’s skeleton was found at around 1 m depth. The household and its orchard are placed on the second terrace of the Mures River, on the right bank, having a southern (southeastern) exposition, more precisely on the rising area of the terrace, known as Maroslab. The site is situated at about 3 km east of the European road 81 (DN 1) and at about 500 m north of the county road 107 D, which goes to Ocna Mures.The place at the base of this terrace, close to a seasonal rivulet, is known as “On the Rivulet”. Nearby, upstream to the east, is a fit up spring known as “The Roe Spring” or “The Roe”, while to the south-west, at about 150 m, is the Orthodox Church of the village. The funerary inventory was recovered by criminologists, so the primary observations concerning the grave belong to them. According to the report provided by the criminologist, the skeleton was laid on the back, into a rectangular pit with rounded corners and a depth of about 1.10-1.20 m. The inventory consists of an iron sword with a single cutting edge and the handle covered by a thin silver sheet, without hilt guard (nr. 1, pl. 1/1-2); some bronze pieces belonging to the scabbard set (nr. 2-6); iron arrowheads (nr. 7-16), an enforcement plate for the bow, made of bone (nr. 17); fragments of an iron mail (nr. 18); fragmentary and complete silver belt ends (nr. 19-24, 28); bronze buckles (nr. 25, 26, 34, 35); iron buckles (nr. 32, 33); a bronze clasp (nr. 36); a silver appliqué for the belt, decorated with a human mask (nr. 27), other silver appliqués (nr. 37-44), rivets of bronze (nr. 45-58) and silver appliqués (nr. 59-61); small bronze plates (nr. 29-31); silver rods (nr. 62-64); a gold earring (nr. 65); a horse-bit (nr. 66), stirrups (nr. 67-68); a flint steel (nr. 69); some iron pieces of a saddle (nr. 70-95).

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