Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 30/1. (2010)
Articles
10 Á. Cs. Balázs dwelling (L ) was partially revealed, with burned adobe floor, smoothed with a thick clay layer. It could have been fully unveiled by enlarging the square “f ”, or opening new squares. As we have very few information about the 1996-1997 campaigns, only a short report on the website of the Institute for Cultural Memory (CIMEC), and a few words about the artefacts,19 we’ve considered important to publish these campaigns, and the findings. The 10 x 10 m section opened in 1996 on the lower terrace of the settlement, to north, was noted M (Fig. 1). It was parallel to the C section opened in 1974, and it was gridded from 2 to 2 m, from north to south (grids 1 to 5) and east to west (grids A to E). Geologically, the structure of this section is identical with the one from the section C: at the surface (top soil) we have the vegetation layer (0-0.30 m), which overlaps in sequence, a yellow silty layer (from 0.30 to 1.00 m) and a yellow sandy layer (1.00 to 1.60 m) below which is marl. Archaeological deposits are in the yellow silty layer, but they were also noticed in the yellow sandy layer. They belong to the Cotofeni culture (Copper Age, Eneolithic), and the Schneckenberg culture (Early Bronze Age). On the entire surface of section, below the top soil, there were unearthed pottery fragments, which judging by their profile belonged to cups, pots, amphorae, tempered with sand and gravel, decorated with patterns in relief (“lentil grains”, short horizontal belts on the rim), but also in other techniques (incision, successive pricks or “Furchenstich” and impressions). In the grids A2-B2-4 and C4 at 0.70 m a surface dwelling was found with hearth and a pit. The rectangular-shape dwelling was built on a burned compact adobe (floor), with a thickness ranging between 9 and 12 cm. It was built on a wooden structure and wattle plastered with adobe. A small adobe fragment with incised ornaments (Pi. 7/8), found in the remaining of the dwelling, suggests that its walls were ornamented. Judging from the coal, ash, and collapsed walls, the dwelling probably burned down. The 80 cm diameter hearth was found at 0.55 m, in the south-western corner of the dwelling, and the pit to south (C4), at 0.80 m. The hearth had straight walls, coated with a smoothed layer of yellow clay, deepening in the yellow sandy layer to 1.40 m. The pit was grasped at 0.80 m, and had a rich inventory, what we could reconstruct from a few hand-written notes which accompanied the findings. In the filling of this pit bone remains, potshards, two large restorable vessels (PI. 3), a stone axe fragment (Pi. 7/6), and a fragment of a grinder (PI. 7/5) was found. On the platform of the dwelling there were potshards, few flint and stone tools (blades, chisel fragments, grinder fragments), and bone tools (awls). Another two pits were found in the E2 and E5 grids. Near the dwelling, in grid D5 an inhumation grave was found in an oval pit (1.80 x 1.20 m). Disturbed already in ancient times, the grave was of a child buried in contracted position. Near the grave, in the pit there were slabs of stone (sandstone) and grey, restorable vessels, decorated with ornaments in relief (conical knobs, round buttons, indented, oblique or vertical applied jagged belts), impressions.20 The burial had a rich inventory, with several restorable vessels, from the Schneckenberg culture.21 Considering also the several potshards from the same culture, found in the cultural layer, in all levels, we can suspect here a later Schneckenberg settlement. As the shards were found mixed with Cotofeni materials in all layers, 19 In the Chronicle of Archaeological Research in Romania, 2000, the campaign is dated as taking place in 1996. According to some original hand-written notes accompanying the findings from the archaeological excavations, stored at the Mure? County Museum, the research of the area took place in 1997, too. 20 CIMEC (http://www.cimec.ro/scripts/arh/cronica/detaliu.aspik = 436). 21 We wish to thank dr. Berecki Sándor from the Mure? County Museum for this information. The artefacts found in the Schneckenberg burial will be the subject of another article.
