GROPI RITUALE DESCOPERITE ÎN AŞEZAREA DIN PRIMA VÂRSTĂ A FIERULUI DE LA ALBA IULIA „RECEA”
RITUAL PITS DISCOVERED IN THE EARLY IRON AGE SETTLEMENT FROM ALBA IULIA „RECEA”

Summary/Abstract: On this occasion we wish to raise for discussion ritual complexes in which adobe from the site is deposited, and which were discovered within researches carried out in 2003-2006. There have been discovered six complexes that, due to inventory or its manner of organization, may be considered pits of special character, amongst these in four cases it was noticed a “sealing” of the inventory with adobe, in their group also being found a pit with depositions of human bones. Three complexes with deposited adobe were discovered, two amongst these being of small dimensions. Depositions of vessels were discovered in two cases, one case in which one vessel was deposited being noticed. An attempt of chronological framework can be established only for one complex, due to ceramic material discovered within the complex. For the other two complexes there may be stated that the material from complexes belongs to Gáva habitation from the site. We consider that presence of the bitronconical vessel decorated with horizontal grooves on the neck is a valid argument for dating the complex after the mid of HaA2 and until the mid of HaB1. For the first period of the Iron Age it is noticed the quite frequent use of adobe within ritual pits, irrespective of their symbolic meaning. It appears in connection with vessel depositions, with „fire dogs“, with animal skulls, but also with depositions of children or human bones. Worth mentioning is that for all discoveries it is stated that we have big fragments of adobe, resulting from the walls of some dwellings, not fragments of hearths or ovens. An interpretation of complexes in which adobe is discovered as being ritual depositions related to construction of dwellings or pits, interpretation offered by M. Gumă for discovery from Valea Timişului „Rovină”, cannot be excluded. Unfortunately, the number of complexes in which this association appears is quite limited, fact which determines us to raise the question of whether we are dealing with isolated uses of adobe within ritual pits or is it only a research flaw?

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