Keywords: religion; state; public sphere; Romania; modernity.
Romanian state attempted to use religious organizations to achieve certain political goals in the modern era. This has prevented the development of religious pluralism. It took a whole historical process to resolve disputes that exist between the state, the religions and society. The emergence of a mature and responsible civil society favoured the development of religious pluralism in Romania. Solving problems within the Romanian society was also favoured by the belonging to a stable political and cultural space (the European Union). This text aims at highlighting the evolution of state-religions-society relations in contemporary Romania, from state control over the religious affairs to a state that is neutral in religious matters.
More...Keywords: argint; bronz; colonii; comert; descoperiri; Dobrogea; emisiune monetara; greci; militari; monetarie; politica monetara; secolele VI a. Chr. – I p. Chr.; tranzactie
The metallic coin has appeared in the ancient world out of practical reasons, which regarded the simplification of the commercial transactions (means of exchange), the creation of a standard of value, of small dimensions, easily useable, the obtaining of a reserve of value (the hoarding), and the appearance of a means of payment. By means of the coin, one could pay or measure a merchandise from the point of view of the value, and it was accepted and guaranteed by a state or a city (through imposition), by the simple user or the merchant (through convention), as it was a direct expression of authority, an assertion of prestige, sometimes within the limits of the administrative, economic, political and military supervision, other times beyond these fluctuating boundaries. Also, its moulding or striking pertained to a financial sovereignty of the emitter, to hisdecisions, depending on the momentary or of the future interests, with direct consequences on a set of economic and commercial actions. It remained up to the authorities to decide the epigraphic and iconographic details, the constitutive metal, the inner value etc. For the Greek coins issued by different centres, closer to or farther from the analysed geographical space, an impressive number of discovery sites have been charted, in the west-Pontic territory, both hoards and isolated discoveries. A very important part, as mediator for the Greek coins, other than the west-Pontic ones from Dobrudja, was played by the Greek urban centre of Histria, starting with the 6th–5th centuries, but especially during the 4th century, whose manifestation was an economy in full expansion owing to its commercial nature, first and foremost in the Pontic area. Subsequently, the other centres, Callatis and Tomis, had their important role in creating the conditions that were propitious for the dissemination of some coins coming chiefly by sea on the coasts of Dobrudja, in the chora, then in the territory of the natives and maybe north of the Danube. Proof in this respect is represented by the frequent economic, commercial and cultural relations and also other types of relations existing between the west-Pontic colonies of Dobrudja and various other centres of the Greek world, as is confirmed by the epigraphic material.
More...L’auteur présente 12 monnaies grecques, toutes appartenant au musée municipal de Sebeş, qui sont maintenant en conservation au Musée de l’Union d’Alba Iulia. Ces pièces sont les suivantes: une émission en argent de la ville de Thassos des années 500-465 a. Chr., deux tétradrachme d’Alexandre le Grand, posthumes (la première frappée à Sardes dans les années 323- 319 a. Chr., et la deuxième à Tyr en 305-290 a. Chr.), une tétradrachme de Lysmach, aussi posthume, deux tétradrachme de Thassos de type Dionyssos-Herakles, et six drachmes de Dyrrhachium. De ces 12 pièces on ne connait l’endroit de provenance que pour deux: notamment la pièce no. 5 (trouvée fortuite en 1959 à Petreşti, localité qui appartien au municipe de Sebeş) et no. 12 (trouvée aussi fortuite à Sebeş). Les monnaies publiées ci-dessus complètent les données disponibles sur les pièces grecques de nos musées, ainsi que sur la circulation monétaire dans la Dacie préromaine. Sur les planches jointes, les numéros des illustration sont ceux du catalogue des monnaies.
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Keywords: Valachie médiévale; fouilles archéologiques; villes; archaeological discoveries; towns; archaeological research
L’archéologie peut fournir des données significatives concernant les différents aspects de la civilisation urbaine de la Valachie médiévale, surtout sur la période initiale de leur développement, dont il y a peu d’informations des sources écrites, aussi comme sur d’autres périodes. Par les fouilles archéologiques on peut obtenir des renseignements sur les structures urbanistiques des localités, les éléments caractéristiques des habitations, les édifices de culte autour desquels étaient structurées les cartiers, les ateliers et la production artisanale. En dehors des nombreuses fouilles effectuées dans differents endroits des grandes villes Bucarest, Târgovişte, Brăila, ou des campagnes entreprises sur l’emplacement des villes disparues, Târgşor, Floci ou Gherghiţa, présentent intérêt les fouilles de Curtea de Argeş, Câmpulung, Drobeta Turnu Severin et doivent être signalés les sondages effectués a Buzău, Râmnicu Vâlcea, Craiova, Focşani, Râmnicu Sărat, Ploieşti, Câmpina. On doit remarquer que, dans la plupart des situations, les fouilles ont eu un caractère préventif, de sauvetage ou ont été liées à la restauration des monuments. Pour résoudre certains problèmes de grand intérêt, surtout sur la période des XIIIe – XIVe siècles, les recherches sont insuffisantes. Des importantes zones ont été incomplètement couvertes par les investigations, surtout en Olténie et au sud de la Munténie. Les résultats de beaucoup des fouilles n’ont pas été publiées, d’autres ont été publiées incomplètement ou de façon insatisfaisante. Pour pouvoir correspondre à la nécessité d’une meilleure connaissance des différents aspects de la civilisation urbaine de l’espace situé entre les Carpates Méridionaux et le Danube, on doit envisager, dans l’avenir, de dresser une carte précisant l’emplacement de tous les vestiges archéologiques découverts dans les localités urbaines. On doit envisager des fouilles préventives dans tous les cas des travaux de construction, édilitaires ou d’aménagement du territoire. Pour assurer ces nécessités, on a besoin d’un nombre suffisant de spécialistes dans tous les départements. Et surtout, on doit publier avec promptitude les résultats des fouilles et d’autres observations archéologiques.
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Keywords: pilgrimage; relics; ecumenism; religious institution; Romanian Orthodox Metropolis for Western and Southern Europe.
This paper intends to deal with the manner in which a religious institution, the Romanian Orthodox Church, uses pilgrimage as an instrument for approaching global and local contexts characterized by fluidity, loss of meaning and continuous transformations regarding authority, with consequences in the religious field. Focusing on the case of the Romanian Orthodox Metropolis for Western and Southern Europe, the study uses discourse analysis in order to show how pilgrimage is shaped and absorbed into the religious institution’s “politics of survival” after 1989.
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Archaeological discoveries between the Balkans, Carpathians, Black Sea and Dniestr, be they chance findings or systematic research, reveal a number of vestiges with similarities that, corroborated with written sources, can be attributed to the Getae. A set of decorative works that show an ideology characteristic of the Getae confirm the existence of specific features that the Getae have but the rest of the Thracian peoples do not, as mentioned in written sources (Herodotus IV, 93-94).
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Keywords: Amphorae; englyphic stamps; Apollonia Pontica; Heraclea Pontica; Ancient Thrace
The publications of new materials allow to make observations on the characteristics, origin, dating and spatial distribution of the amphorae with englyphic stamps in Bulgaria. Obviously the discussion about the origin of these amphorae will continue until incontestable evidence is found, such as furnaces or remains of their manufacture in situ or until a highly representative chemical analyses of the clay is carried out. The amphorae with englyphic stamps differ from most of the similar vessels manufactured during the Classical and the Hellenistic periods in several typical particularities The oldest stamps bearing only one name, were determined to belong the last years of the 5th c. BC and the first decade of the 4th c. BC. The dating of the stamps bearing eponymous name often with the affix “επι” at the beginning is more complicated. As a whole they are included in the period from 390/385 to 325/315 BC. The dating of the latest specimens of this type of vessels remains under discussion. Against the backdrop of the current studies related to the importation of Greek amphorae in Ancient Thrace, the large spread of vessels marked with englyphic stamps in a vast geographical region (Dobrudzha and Ludogorie, to the west of the river Yantra and across the Thracian plain and the sub-Balkan valleys up to the nominal line to the west between Simeonovgrad-Elkhovo-Fakia) represents an interesting phenomenon.
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Keywords: Saharna-Dealul Mănăstirii; First Iron Age; culture Cozia-Saharna; fortress; funerary practices; graves
In the course of archaeological investigations in the open settlement of the Saharna- Dealul Mănăstirii there were found several archaeological complexes of burial nature. One of these complexes representing a pit with bones (Complex 32, Pit 24) was investigated in 2010. At the bottom of the pear-shaped pit there was found a human skeleton, laid on its right side, his head oriented to the west/southwest, the legs bent at the right angle to the center of the pit. At the bottom there were also found 12 pillar pits, 8 along the outer perimeter and 4 in the center, which presumably were the basis of a wooden cone-shaped dome frame, erected over the dead. Analysis of this complex allows us to suggest that the type of items discovered on the settlement reflects some funeral rites dating back to the 10th - 8th centuries BC and widespread both in the Lower Danube (Babadag culture, phase I-III), in most cases (fig. 8), and in the Upper Dniester Area (Neporotovo-Dubova).
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Keywords: Early Iron Age; Babadag culture; Romania; Moldavia; Lower Danube; burials; Perioada timpurie a epocii fierului; cultura Babadag; România; Moldova; Dunărea de Jos; înmormântări.
Archaeological research in 1968-1977 at Suceveni-Stoborăni site, Galati County (southern Moldavia), led to the identification of an Early Iron Age settlement that can be ascribed to Babadag culture. Three pits contained human bones: a collective burial with the bones of four individuals deposited in unnatural positions; one pit with the skeleton of a child in flexed position; and another complex with disturbed human remains. After studying the available documentation, we analyzed these finds, discussing the chronology and cultural ascription, state of representation of the bodies, number of individuals, anthropological observations, data on the position and orientation of the dead, observations on the assumed rituals, as well as on the place of deposition. Rezumat: Cercetările arheologice întreprinse, în perioada 1968-1977, în situl de la Suceveni–Stoborăni, jud. Galaţi (sud-estul Moldovei) au condus printre altele şi la identificarea unei aşezări de la începutul epocii fierului, ce poate fi atribuită culturii Babadag. Un loc aparte îl ocupă trei gropi care conţineau oseminte umane: un mormânt colectiv ce conţinea osemintele a patru indivizi depuşi în poziţii nefireşti; o groapă ce conţinea scheletul unui copil depus în poziţie chircit şi un alt complex în care au fost identificate oseminte umane deranjate. Studiind documentaţia avută la dispoziţie, am încercat o analiză a acestor descoperiri, discutând cronologia şi atribuirea culturală, starea de reprezentare a cadavrelor, numărul indivizilor, observaţiile antropologice, datele privind poziţia şi orientarea defuncţilor, observaţiile privind presupunerea existenţei unor ritualuri, dar şi locul depunerii.
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Keywords: secularization, social identity, romanian orthodox church
The Romanian Orthodox Church engaged, after the fall of communism, in the reconstruction of its public identity and its position in society. The public discourse of its official representatives – the Holy Synod and individual hierarchs, especially the Patriarch Teoctist – expresses and „translates” this process to the faithful and the general public. Its perception by this public, particularly when mediated by means of mass communication, is usually partial and frequently altered. By focusing on the official discourse of the Romanian Orthodox Church representatives, as expressed in the ecclesiastical press and (re)transmitted in the common mass media, this paper will explore the justification/explanation by ecclesiastical officials of this process, following the lines of two main - intertwined - lines: the legitimization of the resurgence in the public sphere of the Church as an institution of spiritual and social assistance and its presence as the privileged keeper and guardian of national values.It will be further argued that, while explicitly refuting and condemning any signs of secularization in the Romanian society, the Romanian Orthodox Church, through its official discourse, is actually contributing to the deepening of this very process within both society and the Church itself. Our main sources for the public discourse of the Romanian Orthodox Church will be the ecclesiastical press and collections of speeches, sermons, articles of Orthodox hierarchs and documents of the Holy Synod. For the theoretical framing of the paper, the main references will be works of Thomas Luckmann, Danièle Hérvieu-Léger, Grace Davie, René Rémond, etc. Iuliana Conovici is PhD student and teaches at the Department of Political Science, University of Bucharest. Her main areas of interest: religion in post-communism and secularization theory. She published several articles about the Romanian Orthodox Church in the post-communist Romania. E-mail address: iulicon@yahoo.com
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Keywords: cheek-pieces (psalias); First Iron Age; Babadag culture
The article presents 16 antler cheek-pieces discovered in Northern Dobrogea in contexts that belong to the beginning of First Iron Age (Babadag culture). With this occasion the artifacts were analyzed technologically, typologically and chronologically. This way, it was possible to observe the preference for brow tine of a red-deer antler and rarely from roe deer antler. All entire exemplaries present three perforations on the same plan, indicating the using of a unitary system of attachment to the bridle, differences existing in the dimensions of these orifices and the form of the cheek-pieces which determined us to divide the studied psalias in more types. The association of these characteristics with the discovering context indicates at this point that the exemplaries placed in a.3 and b.2 types are earlier than those placed in a.1-2 and b1 types.
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Chance or systematic archaeological findings between the Dniestr, Black Sea, Carpathians and the Balkans, have brought to light vestiges with similitudes that, when corroborated with written sources, can be attributed to the Getae. The “society of living”, which is to say the ruler and the community, tried to embody their prestige in the residential centers. As for the tombs, they were the result of the thoughts of the individual and the family on integrating oneself in the “community of the dead”. Finally, the practice of burying treasures points to their views on the “invisible partners” that were the deities, which were never absent from their worldviews. There is little doubt concerning the existence of a common ideology for the Getae aristocracy in the area in question, given the existence of a set of common items, images and figurative scenes. Moreover, the way these three types of findings show up on the map, namely in higher numbers in particular areas, suggests the presence of centers of power and authority in those areas. “Descoperirile arheologice dintre Balcani, Carpaţi, Marea Neagră şi Nistru evidenţiază, pe de o parte, o serie de vestigii cu trăsături comune care, coroborate cu sursele scrise, pot fi atribuite geţilor şi, pe de altă parte, diferenţe notabile între posibilităţile materiale ale comunităţilor şi indivizilor. Existenţa unor trăsături specifice doar geţilor, diferite de restul neamurilor tracice, menţionată de sursele scrise (Herodot IV, 93-94), este confirmată şi de un set de piese şi compoziţii decorative ce atestă o ideologie caracteristică doar acestora. În prezentul studiu ne vom referi la acele categorii de vestigii care evidenţiază o puternică structurare şi ierarhizare a societăţii getice, anume la: a) centrele rezidenţiale, care reflectă prestigiul dinastului şi al comunităţii, deci al „societăţii celor vii”, b) la morminte, care sunt reflecţia individuală/familială despre cum persoanele depuse acolo se vor integra în „comunitatea celor care dorm”, c) îngroparea de tezaure, care ne sugerează modul cum ei se raportau la divinităţi, adică la acei „parteneri invizibili”, dar omniprezenţi în mentalităţile lor, şi la strămoşii venerabili, care veghează la bunăstarea lor.”[…]
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On 24th – 30th of September 2003, surface investigations were made on the shore of Tibrinu Lake. These investigations resulted in discovering various pottery fragments characteristic for the Babadag culture, the Getic culture (4th -3rd century B.C.), the Roman-Byzantine period and early medieval period (9th-11th century BC). In order to verify the existence of a settlement, two sondages were drilled: H1 (1x4m) and H2 (1x4m), situated at 50m and respectively 300m from the shore, in a large bay, on the southern shore of the lake. The purpose of this article is to analyze the material attributed to the First Iron Age. Most of the fragments were discovered on the shore of the artificial lake Tibrinu that covered the Babadag type settlement, as the currents of the lake bring to the shore impressive amounts of pottery. In 2002, the Museum of National History and Archeology from Constanţa acquired a large lot of artifacts from Ţibrinu Lake. “Primele menţiuni referitoare la vestigiile arheologice de pe teritoriul localităţii Ţibrinu (com. Mircea Vodă, jud. Constanţa) au fost făcute de E. Comşa, care meţionează descoperiri din epocă romană şi medievală1. Ulterior informaţiile se îmbogăţesc prin identificarea şi cercetarea mai multor locuiri paleolitice2. În perioada 24 – 30 septembrie 2003 au fost efectuate cercetări de suprafaţă pe malul lacului Ţibrinu3. Acestea au evidenţiat existenţa a numeroase fragmente ceramice caracteristice culturii Babadag, culturii getice (sec. IV-III a.Chr), perioadei romano - bizantine şi celei medievale timpurii (sec. IX-XI p.Chr). Pentru a verifica existenţa unei aşezări au fost efectuate două sondaje, S 1 (1 x 4m) şi S 2 (1 x 4m), situate la cca. 50 m, respectiv 300 m de mal, într-un golf larg, pe ţărmul de S al lacului. În sondajul 1, ne-am oprit la adâncimea de 1,80 m fără a atinge solul steril”[…]
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“En juillet et août 1996 on a fouillé de manière systématique le site archéologique "Oraşul de Floci" (comm. de Giurgeni, le lieu dit "Piua Petri", dép. de Ialomiţa; Fig. 1). Les investigations ont eu lieu dans la zone méridionale du grind no. 6, tout près de l’ancienne berge de la rivière de Ialomiţa (Fig. 2). Nous l’avons alors conventionnellement nommé grind no. 6, secteur II, pour en faire la différence de la fouille faite par notre collègue Dana Mihai (grind 6, secteur I), quelque part plus à l’est (Chiţescu et al., p. 44-45). Nous avons démarré les fouilles par le traçage d’une section orientée N-S, ayant les dimensions 20,00 m x 2,00 m. Le carroyage est fait du nord au sud. Dans les carreaux 3-6, à 0,20 m de profondeur, on a trouvé une habitation de surface relevant de plusieurs phases de reconstruction (enregistrées alors comme Cpl.3A, 3B et 3C).”[…]
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While the Nazis and the Soviets regarded the Spanish civil war as an opportunity to test new weapons, the bloody conflict occurring in a distant country gave the Romanian Iron Guard the possibility of strengthening its ideology. In 1936 seven members of the far-right party decided to take part as volunteers in the Spanish civil war. After two of them died in combat, the burial ceremony in Bucharest became the stage for an immense popular mobilization. King Carol II was in a serious dilemma: he could either liquidate the party leadership, or attract them to cooperation and integrate this antisystemic movement into the Romanian political game, with the barely hidden aim to discredit it. A marginal episode like the small Romanian expedition to Spain becomes a good opportunity to explore in this article the complex mythology, based on the cult of dead heroes, elaborated by Romanian fascism. When confronted with empirical facts, the mythical world proves itself an indissoluble connubium of tragedy and farce, in conformity with the only trustful law of History: irony.
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