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Cercetările arheologice din ultima vreme au permis descoperirea unor reprezentări antropomorfe în nivelurile paleolitice. Excelează în acest sens valea Bistriței moldovene, în special cu siturile cunoscute sub numele de Poiana Cireșului și Piatra Neamț 1. Aici, identificarea unor reprezentări antropomorfe s-a făcut exclusiv prin cercetările recente. La Poiana Cireșului săpăturile arheologice se desfășoară aproape continuu din 1998. Situl Piatra Neamț 1 a fost descoperit în anul 2019. Dacă la Poiana Cireșului s-au descoperit reprezentări antropomorfe stilizate, de la Piatra Neamț 1 s-a recuperat singura statuetă feminină de tip Venus din România. Pe valea Dunării, în adăpostul sub stâncă Cuina Turcului, cercetările s-au desfășurat cu mai mulți ani în urmă, iar un os gravat descoperit aici a fost reinterpretat ca reprezentare antropomorfă.
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Așezarea de la Scânteia este printre cele mai bogate situri arheologice din punctul de vedere al descoperirilor. Estimată inițial la 8 hectare, conform celor mai recente cercetări geomagnetice desfășurate pe suprafața sitului se poate estima faptul că suprafața așezării este de 11,5 hectare. Suprafața cercetată intruziv acoperă 0,36 hectare. Așezarea a avut două niveluri de locuire. În partea sudică a sitului au fost identificate o serie de structuri aparținând secolului IV p. Chr. Aproximativ 20% din sit a fost distrus prin construirea lacului artificial și există câteva urme de la tranșee din perioada celui de-Al Doilea Război Mondial. Cu aceste mici excepții, așezarea cucuteniană este păstrată în condiții foarte bune. Din punct de vedere cantitativ, numărul vaselor descoperite în interiorul clădirii L. 14 este mai mic decât numărul recipientelor din clădiri similare, aspect care poate conduce spre concluzia că această locuință ar fi fost abandonată anterior incendiului sau golită de o parte din inventar. Materialele din campania anului 2016 provin din zona etajului și dintre dărâmături, iar cele cercetate în anul 2017 provin preponderent din zona parterului. În articolul de față ne dorim prezentarea rezultatelor prelucrărilor statistice a materialului arheologic cercetat de pe suprafața unui singur complex, respectiv clădirea L. 14, interpretată ca fiind sanctuar, pe baza mai multor elemente fixe descoperite în interiorul acesteia. Concluzia culturală pe care o permite în momentul acesta prelucrarea statistică a materialelor ceramice este legată de perioada de funcționare. Acumularea de material aflată în imediata vecinătate a L. 14, precum și cantitatea mare de material arheologic din interiorul camerelor, modul lor de dispunere, toate aceste aspecte ne arată o perioadă îndelungată de funcționare a clădirii.
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Articolul tratează analiza urmelor de uzură a 13 artefacte din piatră descoperite în situl eneolitic de la Răucești (județul Neamț). Situl este situat în nord-estul României, la contactul dintre Subcarpații Moldovei și Podișul Sucevei. Săpăturile arheologice efectuate în perioada 2015-2018 au scos la iveală vestigii eneolitice aparținând fazelor Cucuteni A3 și Cucuteni B1. Artefactele au fost investigate microscopic, prin abordarea „high power”, care a indicat că acestea au fost folosite, în majoritate, într-un mod destul de intens. Respectivele piese litice au fost implicate în mai multe activități economice, precum curățarea pieilor, recoltarea cerealelor, tranșarea cărnii, prelucrarea fibrelor, prelucrarea lemnului și a oaselor. De asemenea, au fost obținute o serie de date despre modul în care au fost manipulate respectivele obiecte: unele dintre unelte erau fixate în mânere de lemn, os/corn, altele au fost înfășurate într un înveliș realizat din fibre vegetale, în timp ce câteva piese erau folosite cu mâna goală. Lotul de artefacte din situl de la Răucești este printre puținele care a beneficiat de analize ale urmelor de uzură, prin raportare la ansamblul litic specific mediului cucutenian din zonele răsăritene ale României.
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During the excavations in the courtyard of the former “Petru Maior University” (Târgu Mureș, Nr. 1 Nicolae Iorga Street), traces of an Early Neolithic settlement were documented. The ceramic material dated to the IIIA–IIIB phase of the Criş Culture is contemporaneous with the archaeological finds unearthed on the territory of the adjacent fortress. This paper presents the archaeological materials found in 2009 in the courtyard of the university, as well as the relation between the two archaeological sites.
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In 2018, during field surveys, near the village Ţufalău / Cófalva a Middle Bronze Age cemetery was identified. In the ploughing marks a total of 18 ceramic and bone densities were discovered, belonging to a disturbed cremation cemetery. The ceramics discovered in the cemetery belong entirely to the Wietenberg culture, very likely to the A‑B/I‑II periods. An important result of the present paper is a radiocarbon dating of one of the graves (G 2). The calibrated data has given a 68.2% probability for a dating between 1876 and 1698 BC, which corresponds to a 95.4% probability for a dating between 1882 and 1692 calBC.
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The article presents an anthropomorphic figurine discovered incidentally in 2009 in Sângeorgiu de Mureş. The fragmentary figurine can be dated to the third phase of the Coţofeni culture and presents a person with arms in an orans position. Figurines similar to this specific type were discovered in several contemporary settlements in Transylvania as well as in the neighbouring regions.
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The bronze objects attributed to the Noua-Sabatinovka cultural assemblage come largely from hoards or are stray finds, very rarely being found in settlements. Over 70 bronze pieces discovered in settlements or by chance (except for those in hoards) are stored in the National Museum of History of Moldova. The present paper introduces this collection of objects, as well as the chemical analysis of the metal alloy, which will elucidate some aspects related to the spread of metals in the settlements of Noua-Sabatinovka in the western part of this cultural community. The distribution by categories of the pieces discovered in the settlements, places the tools on the first position (30 units), followed by ornaments (25 units) and weapons (3 units). Except for uncleaned objects, the least impurities (Sn: 0.5-1.2%; Pb: 0.35-1.2%) were found on a piece of wire, pins, a Rollenadel type pin and bracelet and most impurities (Sn: 13-16%; Pb: 5.3-5.6%) were found on awls, knives and pins with ring heads. At the same time, the average values of tin are almost the same for tools and adornments and amount to about 7%; the values of lead, arsenic and antimony being visibly higher for tools (especially knives). The awls are among the tools in whose composition the tin can amount to 10-11%, the average values of this metal being lower in the case of pins and knives. In the category of ornaments, the tin content of the alloy is usually below average, although there are samples with a tin content of 8-13%. We mention that most of the bronze objects discovered in the Noua-Sabatinovka settlements are of western origin, analogous to those in Transylvania, but there are also items of Eastern origin – from the Dnieper region, such as daggers.
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The systematic excavation of Rapoltu Mare – La Vie site (RAN code 90672.02) began in the summer of 2013, in the form of an archaeological diagnosis, whose results opened the perspective of extensive and long-term investigations of the discovered remains. From that moment until now (2023) a decade has passed, which is why, in the present lines, we are trying to present the results of the undertaken research, this time as an extensive report. The archaeological objective is located in the south-western corner of Transylvania, in the central-eastern part of Hunedoara County (Fig. 1). La Vie point is situated at the northwestern edge of Rapoltu Mare village (Fig. 2; Pl. I/1-2), on the second terrace from the right meadow of Mureș (north), about 1.5 km upstream from the confluence area of Strei and Mureș rivers and at the same distance from the volcanic neck of Măgura Uroiului. Archaeological discoveries from this point are reported as early as the last decades of the nineteenth century. Much later a field survey of the area was undertaken, in order to verify the information from the older bibliography, a first trial pit being conducted in 1999. Other archaeological excavation, also in the form of a test pits, were those from the summer of 2013. The obtained results created the premises for transforming the intrusive diagnosis into a systematic archaeological excavation, which allowed the identification and digging of archaeological contexts that, from a chronological point of view, are stagged from the Paleolithic to the Modern Age. Of these, the most intensive habitation proved to be in Roman times, during the II-III centuries AD. The stratigraphy of the site revealed the succession of pre-Roman dwellings and the phases of arrangement of the identified Roman complex (Fig. 3-4). Below the vegetable, plough level, in which archaeological materials, especially Roman, were already found, were noted between six and eleven layers, depending on the situation in the investigated areas, which allowed the classification of anthropogenic traces in many epochs. It has been observed that the oldest human habitation in this place dates back to the Upper Paleolithic, followed by a consistent one from the Early Neolithic, then by the dwellings from the Eneolithic, the Early Bronze Age, the Second Iron Age and the Roman Age, for which two stages of construction of a villa rustica complex were observed. In the investigated areas it could be observed that, in prehistory, the Paleolithic level overlapped directly the limestone structure of the existing terrace (Fig. 3-4; Pl. III/1-2, IV/1). The recovered lithic material – finished pieces and many cutting debris, can be dated, for the most part, to the Upper Paleolithic (Pl. IV/2-4), and some pieces can be attributed, with reservations, to the Middle Paleolithic. In the Early Neolithic, a community belonging to the Starčevo – Criş culture was established here (Pl. V-VII), the material recovered from the investigated surface features and pits – pottery and lithic pieces, being datable in first centuries of the VIth millennia BC. For the Early Eneolithic, traces of habitation on the terrace are, for now, mostly sporadic, the most consistent being located on the high plateau Jipiș (Pl. XXI-XXII), placed immediately to the north, height that shelters, at the base, a karst structure. The Bronze Age is better represented by features datable to the third stage of the early period (Pl. VIII/2), but in the dug levels, ceramic fragments were discovered that also attest to dwellings from the middle and late periods. In ancient times, the terrace experiences again more intense habitation. The La Tène epoch is illustrated by several features (Pl. IX/1-2), rich in materials, but also by pottery discovered in the upper levels, indicating the interval of the third century BC. After an apparent hiatus in terms of habitat, the terrace is occupied, after the period of the Roman province of Dacia, by a rural residence that experienced construction and, after a moment of destruction, the reconstruction of a housing and household complex characteristic of the era (Pl. X-XVII). Its evolution could be seen in detail, from the first temporary wooden constructions, to the construction of the first phase of the residence, the moment of destruction by arson, the second phase of construction and extension of buildings and, finally, the stage of their abandonment, after which, in the Middle Ages, it became a handy source for the first stone edifices of Rapoltu Mare village. Pieces with chronological value – coins, fibulae, discovered in clear contexts attest to the existence of the villa from the first quarter of the second century until the middle of the third century AD. In the Middle Ages, the habitation in the area seems to have been abandoned, the only discoveries so far being two graves attesting the existence of a cemetery dating from the XI-XIIth centuries (Pl. XVIII/1-3). In the following centuries – XIV-XV, maybe even earlier, the traces of the old Roman era constructions are stolen by the locals, a phenomenon that will persist until recently. Towards the end of the Middle Ages and in modern times, the northwestern part of the locality, in the area called La Vie, as the toponym suggests, is occupied by the village vineyards, which will gradually disappear as a result of phylloxera, beginning with the second half of the nineteenth century.
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The north of the Dnieper forest-steppe in the Scythian time was a zone of contacts between Scythoid tribes and Mylohrad culture bearers. The spread of sites shows that there was no clear border between these two cultural areas, and in a strip of more than 100 km these tribes lived together and had left typical settlements and burials. The northernmost burial of the Scythian type in the region is a burial mound near the Ladyzhychi village in the lower reaches of the Prypiat River. The complex was excavated in 1886 by a local landowner Zhelinsky, who handed over the finds to the Ukrainian historian and archaeologist V.B. Antonovich. Nowadays, the survived part of them is kept in the National Museum of History of Ukraine. The burial mound was located in a group of three embankments 2 km southwest from the village. It was “average in size” with a height of 2.5 arshins (about 1.77 m). The research was carried out from the top of the mound with a rectangular pit 2.16×1.42 m in size. In the lower part of the embankment or at the level of the ancient horizon, at a depth of more than 2 arshins, a burnt heap of “ash and coal” was found, possibly representing the remains of cremation on the side. On either side of it there were laid a crumbling wooden “shield”, an iron dagger and an ax, 18 or 19 bronze arrowheads, some with partially survived shafts. Bridle objects were found with them: an iron bit, a bronze noseband, a buckle of a circle and a trapezoid shapes and parts of other such buckles, four plaques – round and in the shape of a human face, a pair of “strict” bushings. And also – a fragment of a bronze pin (?). According to the set of arrowheads, the monument can be dated to the 4th century BC. Judging by the cremation rite, a representative of the local forest-steppe tribes could have been buried here.
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Extract from minutes no. 3 of September 19, 2023 meeting of the National Archaeological Commission of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Moldova.
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This research examines some attempts of the Russian Federation to interfere in the educational policy of the Republic of Moldova, in order to reverse the return to the Romanian national traditions in higher education. The inappropriate and insistent initiatives of the Russian authorities and their acolytes to open in the Republic of Moldova several higher education institutions/branches of the Russian universities, which would work according to the educational standards of the Russian Federation and use the Russian language, came under the pretext of ensuring the right of the Russian-speaking population to education in their native language. This is a classic example of the cultural imperialism of the Moscow rulers and an attempt to keep the Republic of Moldova in the area of influence of the Russian Federation. This case study shows that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Moscow’s policy of Russification of the population of the Republic of Moldova entered a new phase, preserving the methods and tools of the Soviet Empire.
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During the human history, hunting has been an important economic and social activity, requiring various techniques and hunting equipment. In the literature discussing the Late Iron Age of the South Pannonian Danube valley, the hunting strategies and the importance and meaning of wild animals are rarely discussed. In order to better understand this aspect of life, this paper reconsiders the already ex-isting archaeo-zoological data on wild animals from the settlements, as well as the objects usually in-terpreted as hunting equipment, as indicators of the hunting strategies, the mode of usage and the so-cial role of wild animals, along with the potential status differences among the settlements of the Late La Tène period.On the grounds of the acquired data, it may be concluded that hunting was a regular activity in the majority of the Late La Tène settlements in the South Pannonian Danube valley. The differences in the frequency of wild animals in the settlements in Bačka and Banat, compared to the ones in Srem, may be interpreted as the consequence of differing economic/social strategies, and not as a sign of marked differences in the availability of resources. The results have shown that the high percentage of game animals is not restricted solely to the fortified settlements. However, the traces of aurochs and brown bear, registered only in the fortified settlements, as well as the preference towards hunting large wild boar males registered at Židovar, may be the indicators of the groups of inhabitants with higher social and economic capacities situated in the fortified sites. Although on the central European sites of the same period the high frequency of wild animals is not a common trait, on a number of spatially close sites in Romania a similar archaeo-zoological situation is registered and interpreted as the indicator of the presence of the elites. This interpretation is plausible, but it should also be taken into account that in the case of the settlements analyzed in this paper other potential causes may be cited, such as the times of crisis and the decrease in the number of the domesticated animals. This interpretation is plau-sible, but it should also be taken into account that in the case of the settlements analyzed in this paper other potential causes may be cited, such as the times of crisis and the decrease in the number of the domesticated animals visible in the archaeo-zoological assemblages. It is necessary, however, to bear in mind that the registered archaeo-zoological situation need not be explained by the same reasons on all the sites. Namely, although the period in question spans just over one century, the Late La Tène is the time of dynamic and perpetually changing internal and external relations, causing the changes in the subsistence strategies as well. The data on the hunting equipment is very scarce. Since very few finds are associated to these activities, it is necessary to conduct more detailed specialized studies, not only of the metal objects, but also of the ones made of other material, that may be associated to the hunting practices (e.g. net weights, bone and lithic projectiles).
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In memoriam In memoriam prof.univ.dr. Nicolae Ursulescu (2 april 1943-18 june 2023).
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In Memoriam Prof. Univ. Dr. Nikolae Ursulescu (2 April 1943-18 June 2023).
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In memoriam prof.univ.dr. Nicolae Ursulescu (2 april 1943-18 june 2023).
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Asbestos was used in making pottery in a large area of Eurasia, from Scandinavia, Corsica to the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese Archipelago as well. The earliest traces of using asbestos as pottery temper is dated back to the Neolithic period and in some areas this tradition survived up to the Middle Ages. The ancient Greeks and Romans used asbestos in their cloth, shrouds, candlewicks. However, most archaeological asbestos finds come from funeral context as a cremation robes, sacks or sheets. Analogous situation putting the asbestos textiles in ancient burials is observed in Southeast Asia. In the Ancient China asbestos cloth huo huan pu (cloth cleaned in fire) were associated with the Da Qin (Roman Empire) textile production. The origin of the asbestos fibers, in Western tradition from Early Medieval times identified with salamander or wool of Abraham land. Thus, in East their origin was more complex. Three different provenances proposals have been specified: a) - from the flowers of inflammable trees, b) - from the bark of the said trees and c) from the long hair of certain white rodents which went into the fire without burning. The hair could be plucked and woven. Evidently, the asbestos had a huge success in West and East since Neolithic period until recent past, firstly, due to magic proprieties, secondly, due to fire-retardant effect.
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The custom of depositing spindle whorls is not so often attested, at least for the Sarmatian graves from Wallachia and Moldavia. Even so, the analysis of its characteristics can help not only to complete the general image of the Sarmatian graves from the two above-mentioned areas, but can also highlight certain common features and differences, too. The number of Sarmatian graves with spindle whorls from Wallachia and Moldavia is not a very large one – 36 (19 in Wallachia and 17 in Moldavia), out of a total that can be estimated at about 500 graves. The author discusses the characteristics of the burials (grave layout, orientation and position of the deceased, specific features of age and sex of the individuals), of the funerary inventory (number, type and position of spindle whorls, associations of grave goods) and the dating of the graves. As far as can be seen from the currently available documentation, the spindle whorls were deposited mainly in graves belonging to adult women, some of them with a high material and social status.
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