Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 29/3. (2009)
Berecki Sándor: A Late Bronze Age Pit Discovered at Sângeorgiu de Mureş (Mureş County)
50 BERECKI SÁNDOR The rest of the ceramic fragments belonged to a small vessel (M. C. M. 8389/ 380.3.153.785), a cup without a handle, with slightly arched profile and round, everted rim. Its colour was brownish brick-red; the surface was glazed and mildly polished, with marks of secondary burning posterior to the fragmentation. It was tempered with coarse sand, the firing was oxidizing and it was decorated with four bosses with two prominences, d. rim: 17 cm, d. bottom: 9.5 cm, height: 16 cm (plate 3/1, 3). This type of vessel can be frequently met in the Bronze Age sites4, and at Derrida they are specific to the last (3rd) phase of the settlement5, while at Bäcäinti they are met in funerary context from the last (4lh) phase of the Wietenberg culture6. The five fragments of pottery slag (M. C. M. 8390/380.3.153.786) were slightly vitrified and spongy because of the high temperature (plate 4/1). The wattle-and-daub fragments (M. C. M. 8391/380.3.153.787) kept the traces of wattle and poles (plate 4/2-7). From the statistical point of view, the analyses of the traces from the daub unearthed from the pit showed that the diameters of the poles and sticks were between 7 and 35 mm, with a sample mean of 17.8 mm, most of the traces (statistical modal score) having a diameter of 15 mm. Because in the afferent stratum, or in the researched surfaces no prehistoric objects were found, one can affirm that the archaeological feature from the late Bronze Age was an isolated one. However, the role and the functionality of the pit can hardly be established. At the Bronze Age settlement from Tureni-Quarry (Cluj County) researched by rescue excavations, a large number of pits were identified, some of them were interpreted as ritual features, but the settlement these hollows belonged to could not be determined on the field7. In other cases, like at Cluj-Beca$, the pits appear on the territory of the settlement. These were interpreted as storage pits, turned later into rubbish pits. Their diameter was 1-1.5 meter. In the first pit from the mentioned site, dated to the forth phase of the Wietenberg culture, a large quantity of pottery was unearthed8, some of which is similar to those discovered at Sängeorgiu de Mure$. A similar role for the feature from Sängeorgiu de Mure§ can not be excluded. However, because of the intense burning the pit might have been used rather as a holed fireplace with wattle-and-daub structure. BIBLIOGRAPHY Andritoiu 1992 Boroffka 1994 Chidio^an 1980 Ciugudean 1997 Andritoiu, I., Civilizatia tracilor din sud-vestul Transilvaniei in epoca bronzului, Bibliotheca Thracologica, II, Bucure$ti. Boroffka, N. G. O., Die Wietenberg-Kultur. Ein Beitrag zur Erforschung der Bronzezeit in Südosteuropa, Teil 1 und 2, Bonn. Chidio§an, N., Contributii la cunoa$terea tracilor din nord-vestul Romäniei. A$ezarea Wietenberg de la Derpda, Oradea. Ciugudean, H., Consideratii privind sfär^itul culturii Wietenberg, In: Cercetäri privind epoca bronzului $i prima epocä afierului, BMA, VII, Alba Iulia, 65-97. 4 Horedt 1960, Abb. 12, F16; Andritoiu 1992, 38, 35/18 (Telna); Boroffka 1994, 136, 36/5 (Chintelnic), 64/3 (Corpadea); Gogältan et al. 1992, pl. X/l; Gogältan 1993, fig. 16/13; Boroffka 1994, TClc. 5 Chidio^an 1980, 30, Fig.2/IV. 6 Andritoiu 1992, 39, pl. 43/72. 7 Gogältan 1993, 370-371. 8 Gogältan et alii 1992, 7.
