Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 30/1. (2010)

Articles

BURIALS IN THE TÄRGU MURE§ FRANCISCAN FRIARY. A FOURTEENTH CENTURY BURIAL WITH DIADEM

ZOLTÁN SOÓS-SZILÁRD SÁNDOR GÁL

Mure§ County Museum, Tärgu Mure§

Keywords: burial, Franciscan friary, grave inventory, discs, anthropology

The excavation of the former Franciscan friary in Tärgu Mure§ (Marosvásárhely), revealed a number of unique and important artefacts and objects in the last decade.1 A particular

case was found in the graveyard of the former friary. The excavation of the friary’s courtyard initially focused on the former well, identified on the Austrian military map from 1740. This is the first reliable ground plan of the seventeen century castle and of the buildings within the walls. The castle included the former Franciscan site as well, with the friary situated at the southwestern corner of the castle (Fig. 1).

The C28 archaeological trench was excavated on the place of the former well, which appeared in the north-western corner of the trench at 0.8 m depth. Its wall is made out of limestone and round shaped rocks from the river. The well (Pi. 1/1) was 11 mdeep and 1.2 m wide and based on the material found in the filling, we could establish that it was in use up until the 1920’s. We have found bullets from the First World War and a military hat ornament representing the Hungarian coat of arm, these objects offered a solid ground to establish when the well was filled up. Besides the identification of the well our main goal was to find out since when it was in use.

Fig. 1. The Austrian military map of the castle from 1750. The position of the friaries well is marked with an arrow.

1 The excavation of the former Franciscan friary is supervised by Prof. Adrian Andrei Rusu, it is lead by the author of this article. During the 2008 excavation two archaeologists Zalán Győrfi and Rita Németh were the crew members.

MARISIA XXX, p. 187-203