Dwellings with Weapons from the Early Medieval Settlement in Sfântu Gheorghe (Mureş County)
Dwellings with Weapons from the Early Medieval Settlement in Sfântu Gheorghe (Mureş County)

Summary/Abstract: The present article focuses on three dwellings discovered in the 7th–8th-century settlement fromSfântu Gheorghe that have revealed a number of weapons. These weapons suggest that warriors lived in thatsettlement. The site in Sfântu Gherghe (Mureş County) is located in the eastern border of the village, on thespot that the locals call “Pe Şes”. The three dwellings deepen into the yellow clay by 15 to 20 cm. They are surfacedwellings. Their wooden walls rested on wooden soles placed at ground level, the level where the excavation ofthe archaeological features started. All of the dwellings were provided with fire installations. The dwellings hadbeen affected by a strong fire while still in use. In the pits of these dwellings archaeologists discovered potteryfragments and the following weapons: a backsword, spearheads and arrowheads, spurs, phalerae, and horse bits.Most of the archaeological inventory, with strong traces of burning, was found in the layer of ash identified onthe floor of the dwellings, not in the fill or in the level where the features became apparent. This contradicts thepossibility that the archaeological material ended up in the dwellings subsequent to the time when the archaeologicalfeatures went out of use. The dwellings in Sfântu Gheorghe date between 670 and 750 AD. The weapons,the military equipment pieces, and the elements of horse tack attest the presence of warriors in the settlementfrom Sfântu Gheorghe, inhabiting the three dwellings under discussion.

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