Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 31/1. (2011)
Articles
New Data about the Roman Settlement from Odorheiu Secuiesc 221 in the centre of the village, south-west from the church, painted roman ceramic and provincial materials have been found.2 From Cristurul Secuiesc-Zata the remains of an incineration grave are known, where two bronze brooches, a spear tip, a knife-blade and a bronze buckle were discovered (Soroceanu 1971, 499-502). The marcomanic wars seem to have strongly affected the basin of the Tárnává Rivers. The events are marked by the hiding of monetary treasures. 3200 denarii were hidden at Sälasuri around 158 AD (Molnár-Winkler 1965,269-294), the thesaurus of Tibod had coins as late as 167 AD (Protase 1969, 509-513), other smaller treasures from the same time have been found at Sänpaul, Cristur, Oráseni, Odorhei (Benkő 1992, 16). This part of the limes probably collapsed around 260 AD, following the attacks of the gothic tribes. These Germanic tribes populate intensely the south-eastern part of Transylvania; so far about 150 settlements from this period are known (Körösfői EtAl. 2010, map A). The largest researched settlement lies near Odorhei. The site is away from the roman settlement, but the barbarian inhabitants re-use materials from the roman buildings: cut stones for the ceramic-burning ovens, bricks for the out-door ovens, cut stones for the hearths, etc.3 After the end of the roman domination in the upper valley of the Tárnává Mare new, smaller settlements appear and grow significantly in a short period of time, which suggests that this might be due to a new population (Benkő 1992, 17). Concerning the discoveries from the territory of Odorheiu Secuiesc, the newer literature only quotes the older writings (Visy 2009a, 109; Visy 2009b, 593), with a few exceptions. The first descriptions of discoveries from Odorheiu Secuiesc date from the middle of the 19th century. The roman settlement of Odorhei has first been found by Gy. M. Szigethy in 1828, when remains of roman walls, coins, ceramics, goddess statues, incineration urns, road-traces were discovered, all of them completely disappearing by the end of the 19th century. Gy. M. Szigethy considered that the roman settlement from Odorhei might be Utidava (Paulovics 1944, 49). Later the remains and the roman monuments of this region have been studied closer by B. Orbán (1868, 58-62), then by C. Gooss (1875, 316). Between 1847 and 1848 M. Ackner and Neigabauer (Téglás 1896b, 384), the Prussian consul in Bucharest and in 1850 the Protestant bishop F. Müller (1859, 165) visited and searched for the roman history on the eastern limes. The research was taken over by G. and I. Téglás, who on repeated occasions did field research on the eastern limes. Téglás described completely the eastern limes for the first time, performing field researches in every roman fort and in the border area (Téglás 1896, 412-427; Téglás 1897, 257-268; Téglás 1900, 261-269). Among the discoveries made by G. Téglás here, we observe several information concerning the roman thermae, which we will describe bellow. I. Paulovics resumed all the information known on the roman discoveries from Odorheiu Secuiesc, noticing the strategic importance of the place of the presumed fort. Analysing from a topographic point of view the place of the Csonkavár fortification he considered that Hungarians built their own fortification exactly over the roman fort (Paulovics 1944, 48). Later on, the bibliographic sources make no reference to other Roman discoveries from Odorheiu Secuiesc; they only review the older ones, as well as the editors of the synthesis works did (IDR III/4 261, 262), where the bronze medallion discovered in 1874 and the drawings of the printed bricks from G. Téglás are published. In 1955 in the Town Hall Square (Piata Primäriei) Roman discoveries were made, where several iron artefacts have been found, representing the arsenal of a roman 2 Field research done in the spring of 2007 by A. Sófalvi and Zs. Nyárádi, material stored in the Haáz Rezső Museum in Odorheiu Secuiesc. 3 The material is being processed for publication.
