SITUL ARHEOLOGIC DE LA MICEŞTI - CIGAŞ (MUN. ALBA IULIA, JUD. ALBA)
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE AT MICEŞTI – CIGAŞ (ALBA IULIA CITY, ALBA COUNTY)

Summary/Abstract: Archaeological excavations carried out since 2009 in a new residential quarter named Orizont, between Alba Iulia and Miceşti, revealed the existence of a great and complex site with settlements which can be dated to the Eneolithic period (Coţofeni culture), Early Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age (Wietenberg culture), Late Bronze Age (Wietenberg culture and Cugir - Band group), Early Iron Age (Gáva and Basarabi culture), Later Iron Age (1st century B.C – 1st century A.D.) and Early Medieval Age (the end of 9th – first half of the 10th centuries). 110 were identified features (dwellings, cult pits, waste pits, annexes and an incineration grave). The site is situated 5 km north-west of the confluence of rivers Ampoi and Mureş. The bearers of the Coţofeni culture are represented by ten certain features (hovels and pits). The group Gornea – Orleşti/Foeni/Iernut, atested through two features, is specific for the Early Bronze Age III in Banat, Oltenia and Transylvania. The Middle and Late Bronze Age are atested by a large number of features belonging to the bearers of the Wietenberg culture, phases III/C and IV/D and the group Cugir – Band. The Early Iron Age is represented by some features of Gáva culture, with ceramics simirar to phases II-III from Teleac and, for the middle Hallstatt period we have found some features belonging to the Basarabi culture. The La Tène epoch is attested by two ritual pits which preserved two dogs skeletons on the bottom and are dated between 1st century B.C. – 1st century A.D. The last dwelling of the terrace is an Early Medieval settlement dated to the first half of the 10th century and an incineration grave, better said an urn with calcinated bones and ash of the deceased, placed in a brick cist (roman bricks were reused by these inhabitants of the Early Medieval Time), dated probably in the second half of 9th century – the begining of the 10th century. At this stage of research there are not incineration graves with brick cist in biritual necropolises of the Mediaş group, but this type of grave we have found in some biritual cemeteries along both sides of the Danube in the 8th-10th centuries. The Balkan-Danubian civilization extended its penetration area into Wallachia, Oltenia and southern Transylvania (here it is named Blandiana A group) along with the expansion of Bulgarian power in the 8th and the first half of the 9th centuries. Near Alba Iulia, in the area which contains the sites from Blandiana, Sebeş a nd A lba I ulia, i t seems that an enclave formed, a power centre subjected by the Bulgarians for the salt mines since the second half of 9th – first decades or half of 10th centuries. The settlement at Miceşti – Cigaş is most probable a later phase of the Blandiana A group.

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