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The periodization of Late La Tène period in Romania is determined by three main flows of
imports: (1) the import of Rhodian and Cnidian amphorae during the 2nd century BC, (2) the import of drachms and denarii during the first half of the 1st century BC and (3) the import of Roman fibulae at the turn of the Millennium. The import of Rhodian and Cni...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... coins and imitations. The chart in Fig. 3 points out four peaks alternated by three nadirs. The peaks correspond to phases of mixed hoarding of 2-3 issues, meanwhile the nadirs correspond to the withdrawal of the older issues and the import of new ones. The theoretical model that can be inferred based on this numismatic evidence is synthesized in Fig. 4. It allows the determination of eight relative chronological stages of the regional monetary circulation. This scheme is useful for setting in relative timeline the emergence of the 'Dacian' jewellery hoards (see § 7). ...
Context 2
... and the north-Balkan regions. This spreading can be correlated to the structural similarities between hoards with late Republican denarii discovered in Italy and Romania 59 . This coincidence may not be accidental: most probably, the Gallarate jugs and certain batches of denarii have been imported simultaneously in southeastern Europe ca. 70 BC (Fig. 4). The Eggers 20 situlae from Lombardy and Bavaria have been framed in the LT D1 period, and so was dated also the grave 92 from the Belgrad-Karaburma necropolis 60 . The discoveries from Bulgaria and Romania should to be framed in the same way? It must be stated that the situla from Belgrad-grave 92 belongs to a late Republican bronze ...
Context 3
... 4-5, 200, fig. 7, 202, fig. 9. Cf. Piana Agostinetti, Priuli 1985. 64 Popescu 1958, 194 accepted by Künzl 2002, 334, 342-343;cf. Rieckhoff 1998, 517 fig. 19; Spânu 2012a, 142-144, fig. 48. hoards of the first group can be synchronized to the stages 3-6 of the regional monetary circulation; the second group of hoards corresponds to the stages 7-8 (Fig. 4). There are no association between local silver items and Macedonia Prima tetradrachms (stages 1-2), barbarian coins or post-Augustan denarii. More precisely, local silver jewellery manufacturing probably began during the latest phase of Thasian coins hoarding and continued until the arrival of early Augustan denarii. Thus, the first ...
Context 4
... in the graves nos. 4 and 5 at Sofronjevo) should also be framed in LT D1 because of the association of a similar item (Fig. 8/5) with a late LT 96 Teleaga 2016, 298 and311, tab. 2 (row 4) apud Vulpe 1976, 197-198, fig. 5 Spânu 2012a, 251, no. 154, pl. 174. This gigantic fibula is 32,9 cm long and weights 442 g. scheme fibula in a hut at Dobreşti (Fig. 8/4) 102 . The elongated middle LT scheme fibulae with spherical ornaments on the foot, like those from Sofronjevo grave 3, Corlate and Ostrovul Şimian hut no. 6 103 have close analogies in the latest graves from the Dobova necropolis (e.g. grave 19) belonging to the Mokronog group, and framed by Mitja Guštin in LT D1 phase 104 . The fibula ...
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Among the numerous Early Roman fibulae discovered at Poiana (Galaţi County, Romania) there are also some specimens of the Almgren 236/237 type, also called Norican-Pannonian fibulae (Germ, Doppelknopffibeln). Three of them (figs. 1 and 2) are still preserved today in collections from Tecuci and Bucharest. Three other specimens were probably lost du...
Citations
... The La Tène period has been divided by historians into several stages-the most used being the early, middle and late La Tène stages based mainly on the typology of metal finds, but the divisions might be still somehow debatable as scholars may refer to different points of interest in their periodization or use different systems in dividing the period (3 stages I-III or most commonly 4 stages A-D) [6,7]. ...
Archaeozoological investigation of the horse remains discovered in Alba Iulia-CX 143 complex of the La Tène period reveals the existence of a small-sized male horse (Equus caballus) of 1200-1300 mm in height with slender extremities that died at the age of 7-8 years with no evident paleopathological changes characteristic to horseback riding but showing distinctive elements of bit wear. Abstract: The present paper deals with the archaeozoological investigation carried out on a horse skeleton discovered in a Late Iron Age La Tène tomb (coded CX 143) in Alba Iulia, Romania. The paper presents all the results of the investigation, with a description of finds, adding a detailed assessment of the dentition with some interesting conclusions on the usage of a horse bit and the possible consequences of this use. The morphological features of the horse indicate a 7-8-year-old male individual, with a recalculated height of 1200-1300 mm. What is also stressed in the investigated sample is the lack of the characteristic pathological lesions typical for horseback riding but showing distinctive elements of bit wear. A comparative perspective over the few findings from the same period is provided to ensure the framing of the identified individual into the much larger historical context.
... 5 SPÂNU 2012SPÂNU 2019a, 172-178;etc. 6 SPÂNU 2002;SPÂNU 2012;SPÂNU 2019a. 7 HOREDT 1973. ...
These comments stem from the recent publication of a number of studies regarding the silver artefacts of pre-Roman Dacia, with important implications for the relative and absolute chronology of the late La Tène period in the region in question, and also for some cultural and historical transformations that happened in the same area. Some of the conclusions presented in these studies are insufficiently supported by arguments. Their publication requires a detailed analysis, which is meant to clarify a number of controversial aspects. For example, D. Spânu has recently divided the evolution of the Dacian silver hoards into two phases dated to the La Tène D2a and D2b (the period between ca. 75 – 65 BC and the Augustan age). To support this chronology, he chose to ignore a series of hoards, or only certain artefacts from other hoards, which did not fit into the suggested model. These efforts to push the chronology of the Dacian silver hoards within a particular time frame stem from his aim to use these discoveries as arguments for a series of a priori historical interpretations for which archaeological evidence is scant. This includes the idea that the local silver ornaments were all made exclusively of melted Mediterranean coins which supposedly reached pre-Roman Dacia massively only after the defeating of Mithridates VI Eupator and the fall of the Kingdom of Pontus. However, the analysis of the silver jewellery from pre-Roman Dacia is demonstrating that the artefacts in question were made using both locally-sourced silver and melted Mediterranean coins. Chronologically, these hoards can be divided into three phases: first group dated to the La Tène D1, 150/125 – 75/50 BC; second group belongs to the La Tène D2, 75/50 – 30/25 BC; third group dated to the Augustan – Tiberian period, 30/25 BC – AD 25/30. It can be therefore concluded that the scenario proposed by D. Spânu for the chronology of the end of the Late Iron Age in the lower Danube region and Transylvania, based on an erroneous dating of the silver hoards, is not credible. This kind of analysis requires the incorporation of different categories of archaeological evidence belonging to the last three centuries before the Roman conquest. Their contextual interpretation could provide a more reliable and detailed chronology of the evolution of the communities from each of the two territories in question. Lastly, this evolution was not uniformly equal across wide areas, as suggested by the typo-chronological tables and schemes drawn in the office by some researchers, since each community had its own history and evolution governed by a multitude of different social, economic, demographic or ecological factors.
... 5 SPÂNU 2012SPÂNU 2019a, 172-178;etc. 6 SPÂNU 2002;SPÂNU 2012;SPÂNU 2019a. 7 HOREDT 1973. ...
1. Again about the location of the expedition of Aelius Catus and the displacement of the northern Danubian Getae to the south of the river. In a polemic paragraph, Strabo (VII.3.10) mentions briefly that “in our own times Aelius Catus has removed from the opposite side of the Danube into Thrace fifty thousand Getae, who speak a language cognate with the Thracian. They still inhabit the very spot, and pass by the name of Moesi”. Strabo’s paragraph has been widely discussed in archaeological literature and many Romanian researchers have commonly located the intervention of the governor of Macedonia in the Wallachian Danube’s area (eastward the confluence of the Olt River with the Danube). Recently, I suggested that the “trans-Danubians” must have been relocated in an area from eastern Serbia and north-western Bulgaria. Vladislav Zhivkov and Zdravko Dimitrov have offered new arguments for this localization. Analysing the discoveries on the right bank of the Danube between the Timok and the Ogosta rivers, they observed that a number of new settlements and cemeteries appeared at the beginning of the 1st century AD precisely in this previously scarcely populated region. The inventories of these settlements and cemeteries have analogies northward the Danube. That is why the aforementioned Bulgarian researchers have come to the conclusion that their appearance was most likely linked to the displacement of the northern Danubian Getae to the south of the river at the beginning of the 1st century AD, under the orders of Aelius Catus. The conclusion presented by Zhivkov and Dimitrov is pertinent and well supported by archaeological evidence, confirming my earlier hypothesis regarding the area where the Roman authorities most likely resettled the northern Danubian Getae. 2. The “Bastarnae” and the “Celts” from Transylvania in ca. 200 BC. Comments regarding the “burial” discovered at Iernut (Mureş County). A recent discovery brings again into discussion the issue of the relations between the “Bastarnae” from the east of the Carpathians and the communities from Transylvania. The archaeological feature in question, probably a burial, was discovered in 2016 near Iernut (Mureş County). The feature can be dated to the end of the La Tène C1, that is before or around 200 BC. The discovery may represent a ritual, a symbolic burial of a person, probably a woman, originating from the “Bastarnae” cultural environment from the east of the Carpathians. Its presence in Transylvania could be potentially related to a matrimonial “alliance” concluded between members of the elites from the two geographic and cultural areas. It is worth underlining that the “burial” from Iernut is another example of the role played by individual and collective mobility in the circulation of goods and also of concepts, ideas, customs, knowledge etc from one cultural area to another, contributing to the long-distance inter-community exchanges.
This volume contains the results and finds of the intensive field surveys and the targeted excavations at Tash bair (North Bulgaria) that were carried out during the first research phase from 2018 to 2020, including pottery and small finds as well as the results of the interdisciplinary investigations.
Among the numerous Early Roman fibulae discovered at Poiana (Galaţi County, Romania) there are also some specimens of the Almgren 236/237 type, also called Norican-Pannonian fibulae (Germ, Doppelknopffibeln). Three of them (figs. 1 and 2) are still preserved today in collections from Tecuci and Bucharest. Three other specimens were probably lost during 2nd World War, but their existence is attested by Radu Vulpe’s sketches drawn in his field journals (fig. 3). One fibula was discovered in the funeral pyre of the “Movila Hârtop” tumulus in Poiana (fig. 2/2). All the others come the protohistoric settlement on the “Cetăţuie” site, but their contexts were insufficiently documented.
The Almgren 236/237 type fibulae from Poiana exceeds the number of similar specimens found so far in other sites dated before the conquest of Dacia by Trajan on the territory of today Romania (fig. 4). The presented fibulae from
Poiana indicate the close cultural contacts with the Alpine provinces in the early period of Roman Principate. The typological and chronological framing of the fibulae from Poiana are deficient due to their fragmentary state of preservation. However, the reception of Norican-Pannonian fibulae in local cultural milieus since the Augustus-Claudius time is suggested by a local imitation of silver discovered in the Remetea Mare hoard (fig. 5).
Although it is probably one of the most spectacular discoveries of the last half century, the royal mint from Sarmizegetusa Regia, the capital of the Dacian Kingdom, has received little attention so far. The archaeologists have concluded that the mint functioned around the beginning of the 2nd century AD. A reassessment of the entire case file suggests that the archaeological context is more complex than it was presented. The succession of the phases, as well as the correlation with other excavations near the mint, indicate an earlier period of operation of the workshop.
