Preliminary Considerations on the Dacian Habitation in Vărădia de Mureş “Dealul Cetate”, Arad County (2nd century BC – 1st century A.D.)
Preliminary Considerations on the Dacian Habitation in Vărădia de Mureş “Dealul Cetate”, Arad County (2nd century BC – 1st century A.D.)

Summary/Abstract: Regarding the archaeology of Arad County, the 1965–1985 period was characterized by a specialenergy invested in the archaeological research of the traces of Dacian civilization traces. These researches haveled to the discovery of a significant quantity of archaeological materials that have enriched the museum collectionsof Arad, Oradea, and Cluj-Napoca. For various reasons, the majority of these discoveries have remained,until today, unstudied. The present article aims at providing a general picture of Dacian habitation on the sitein Vărădia de Mureş “Cetate;” the discoveries will be exhaustively presented in a future monograph work. Fromthe perspective of the chronology of the discoveries, the oldest traces of habitation on the “Cetate” Plateau canbe dated to the First Iron Age. Habitation traces from the Second Iron Age, namely during the period of theDacian Kingdom, are much more significant. It seems that the plateau was fortified during this period with adefensive ditch. From a stratigraphic perspective, the existence of two distinct levels of habitation has beenobserved (dated to the 2nd – 1st century B.C. and to the 1st century B.C.–1st century A.D.); furthermore, Dacianhabitation was not limited to the plateau but extended beyond it, westwards, under the center of the present-daysettlement. The archaeological material mainly consists of pottery; objects made of metal are rarities. The fortificationin Săvârşin “Dealul Cetăţuia” is located seven kilometers east of the one in Vărădia. The two fortifications,partially contemporaneous, controlled this sector of River Mureş and the entrance way to the Transylvaniannucleus of the Dacian Kingdom. The publication of the monographs of the two sites will certainly provide morenumerous possibilities of analysis of these fortified settlements, located so close to each other, that certainlyshared a common historical destiny.

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