Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 31/1. (2011)
Articles
A Copper Age Settlement from Tárgu Mures. Aspects of Chronology and Relations of the Ariusd Culture 51 the territory of the park, S. Berecki carried out a rescue excavation.2 The present paper plans to present the results of that research and, along with them, to re-discuss some issues regarding the cultural-chronological framing, the role and importance of the settlement in connection with the Copper Age from the eastern half of Transylvania. In 2007, the underground gas pipes from the Unirii Square had been replaced. On this occasion, at least three archaeological features had been affected, human bones and pottery fragments from the Copper Age and the modern era being collected from the trenches. Following these chance discoveries, in the course of the archaeological investigations six trenches (SI-6) of different dimensions were opened (PI. 2/4), conditioned by the terrain and the location of the industrial intervention (PI. 3/1). From these, only the four trenches (SI—4) from the margins of the plateau contained archaeological finds. Their stratigraphy was the following: At a maximum depth of 120 cm the virgin soil could be observed, an archaeologically sterile yellowish layer. It was superimposed by a dark brown layer down to 59-60 cm, from the Copper Age, containing archaeological features like pits and pottery fragments. Above this layer the modern age brown fill had a 20-22 cm thickness down to 39-37 cm, containing pottery fragments from the 18th-19th centuries, while at 18-37 cm depth a recent yellowish-grey fill could be observed, with lots of gravel. In the modern age the park was rearranged, the whole surface being levelled with small gravels and in some places with clayish sand. The humus in present days has 18 cm in thickness. On the whole area of the excavations four archaeological features were identified, all of them in SI (Pi. 3/2), but only two of them dated from the Copper Age. In the eastern part of SI, at a depth of 70 cm, in a shallow pit of 12 cm which did not reach the virgin soil (Af. 1), a pottery agglomeration could be observed (PI. 2/5; 3/2). The irregular shaped pit had a diameter of 140 cm, its walls were oblique, the bottom straight, and it contained dark brown, loose ground. At the inferior level of the Copper Age layer from the same section another pit deepened into the virgin soil was observed (Af. 3). It started from 100 cm, deepened to 125 cm (Pi. 2/7, 3/2), it had a relatively round shape with 60 cm in diameter, slightly oblique walls and straight bottom; its fill was the same dark brown soil as in the case of Af. 1. The two other features (Af. 2 and Af. 4) from SI were recent pits from the modern ages, which intersected the Copper Age layer, one of them reaching the virgin soil. The entire Copper Age level in this sector was disturbed by posterior interventions; therefore it was not possible to determine the precise depth from which the Copper Age pits were dug, and no other feature connected to these pits could be observed. The fact that the Af. 1 was dug starting from the middle of the Copper Age level indicates the initial existence of several - at least two - Copper Age soil depositions. At the same time, the hypothesis cannot be sustained by other field observations; also the archaeological finds can be separated neither stylistically nor chronologically. In the other trenches no features were identified. Only the stratum of the Copper Age settlement could be observed, with a larger quantity of materials in the trenches S2-4, the prehistoric traces becoming rarer towards south-east, to the centre of the park. The archaeological features, both the ones discovered at the beginning of the 20th century and those from the last years are scarce traces of the Copper Age settlement, consisting of small sized pits with fragmented archaeological materials. I. Kovácss opinion according to which the pits were sunken dwellings cannot be accepted, since their shape indicates that these were more 2 The site can be found in the National Archaeological Repertory (RAN: Repertoriul Arheologic National), code: 114328.11).
