Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 31/1. (2011)
Articles
MEDIEVAL FINDS FROM COTORMAN ISTVÁN BOTÁR Muzeul Secuiesc al Ciucului, Miercurea Ciuc, RO In memoriam Gábor Kasza Cotorman is a small village in Csik-seat, which appears in the written sources in the 16th century. There were no information about archaeological finds or sites from the territory of the village, but the place name suggested that the settlement is much earlier than the written mentions. Field survey confirmed the supposition, the collected material proved the existence of such a settlement in the 13th century. During this work also a reliquary pectoral cross was delivered by one inhabitant, therefore we decided to make a control excavation. The first year’s (2007) main achievement was the identification of an oven with three layers, each containing more ceramic fragments dated to the 14th century. At this point it is uncertain if the oven was placed in a house with three rooms (suggested by wooden remains) or in an intermediary building. The analogies of the ceramic finds appear only in distant towns, castles and manors. Close to the oven, in a 13th century pit beside ceramic fragments a sword pommel was collected. It is highly possible that in the 13-14th century we have to count with the presence of a family (!?) with superior material culture and wider connections than the local rural communities. The question if these finds belonged to the local elite prior the immigration of the Székelys, to the milites of the former frontier organisation, or they were connected to a early Székely aristocrat’ remains unanswered. Keywords: settlement archaeology, medieval material culture, pottery, Árpádian period, reliquary cross, Székely Land Until the recent times, the archaeology of the medieval period in Csík Seat was almost totally neglected (Benkő 1993; Botár 1999). In the last decade there were several excavations in the medieval churches of the region which produced important results regarding the beginnings of the ecclesiastical system in Székely Land and building periods of the researched churches (Botár 2009a). This development is surely not valid for the archaeology of the settlements. The situation is well characterised by the fact that the last published materials - houses from the Árpadian period and late Middle Ages - were excavated in Säncräieni in the 1950s (Préda 1959, 831-832, 845-853). Since then, the results and materials of the different excavations made in late medieval sites - mostly manor-houses (Gheorgheni-Lázár mansion, Säncräieni-ßors- and Andrássy-mansion, Miercurea Ciuc-Körösi Csorna Sándor Str., Miercurea Ciuc-Mikó fortress and Ciomortan) are kept in drawers of the local museum. A unique exception is the catalogue of the medieval tiles of Csík Seat written by M. Kémenes (2005). Due to this situation there is very scarce information about the medieval material culture from Csík Seat. Therefore, the development is conditioned by several factors. The first would be the publication of medieval materials from the archaeological deposits of the Muzeul Secuiesc al Ciucului. These materials were collected almost exclusively from undocumented field work, and in many MARISIA XXXI, p. 299-312
