Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 31/1. (2011)
Articles
A COPPER AGE SETTLEMENT FROM TÁRGU MURES. ASPECTS OF CHRONOLOGYAND RELATIONS OF THE ARIUSD CULTURE у In memoriam István Kovács The rescue excavation from 2007 carried out by the Mures County Museum in the Tornakert (Ro. Parcul Sportiv, Eng. Gym Park) at Tärgu Mures revealed new archaeological features dating from the Copper Age. The assemblages belonged to the same settlement researched by I. Kovács at the beginning of the 20th century. The archaeological materials consisting mainly of pottery come to complete the image of the habitat from Tornakert and they bring new data for the chronology and cultural interferences of the Ariusd culture and the adjacent communities. Keywords: Copper Age, Ariusd culture, Bodrogkeresztúr culture, settlement, pottery The research of the archaeological periods from Transylvania preceding the Bronze Age has a past of more than a century, being rich in remarkable realisations, some of them having European importance. Beginning with the attendance of the first amateur archaeologist regarding the unearthing and framing of different discoveries and sites from the Neolithic and Copper Ages, through the modern archaeological research, supported sometimes by a real arsenal of interdisciplinary methods, the Transylvanian archaeology evolved dynamically in the 20th century. Assuredly, one of the most interesting and dynamic period of the history of research occurred in the years before the First World War. For Eastern and South-eastern Europe it was the period of the beginning of systematic researches, resulting in the chronological definition and ordering of the various cultural phenomena of prehistory. For Transylvania, this period was marked by the collecting activity and topographic researches of amateur archaeologists and collectors of antiquities like Gábor and István Téglás, Iulian Martian, Endre Orosz or Julius Teutsch. It was also the period of the first systematic excavations of specialists like István Kovács, Ferenc László and Márton Roska.1 Unlike the older custom of unearthing and collecting only the significant vestiges, the new excavations from Ariusd, Corpadea, Decea Muresului, Ölteni, Sita Buzäului, etc. 1 Regarding the history of research of the period, see: Andrie§escu 1929, 252-257; Babe§ 1981, 319-330; László 1987, 49-57. MARISIA XXXI, p. 49-72 SÁNDOR BERECKI Mures County Museum, Tärgu Mures, RO SÁNDOR JÓZSEF SZTÁNCSUJ Székely National Museum, Sfántu Gheorghe, RO
