Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 1. (2019)
Aurora Peţan: News ont he Discovery of the Ruins from Grădiştea Muncelului int he International and Local Press from the Beginning of the 19th Century
52 A.Petan published by II corriere milanese, which made a summary of the information, yet sticking to several details.8 In October, in Brussels, a large excerpt was published from this letter, which was wrongly said to come from Armstadt (instead of Hermannstadt).9 In Paris the news was published in the same year, to the same length as in the publications mentioned before, under the heading Découverte de médailles et des mines dune ville ancienne en Transylvanie.10 11 The editor corrected the legend on the koson-type coins wrongly mentioned in the Viennese version of the press release. Towards the end of the year, a brief piece of news on the discovery of the ruins was taken from this report and included in a London monthly, on the 1st of January 1840." The same text appeared in Dublin in February 1805.12 A larger version was published by another London magazine in 1804,13 and, one year later, London readers were given access to the almost integral text of the letter sent by the Transylvanian Treasuriate.14 The news of the discovery of treasures and of an ancient city crossed the ocean in the autumn of 1804. At the beginning of September, a New York weekly 15 published it at length, and in the former half of 1805 one can find it in a publication from Philadelphia.16 The American public would have news on this site only more than a century later.17 The information spread at the slowness that characterized those times and until it got to England or over the ocean, the excavations had already been closed and the subject abandoned. Nevertheless, the fact that the news was spread all over the world within a year and a half, shows the high interest of the international press for this topic. NEWS IN THE LOCAL PRESS The news in the local press is more numerous. Very short after the press release made by the Treasuriate, on 1 August 1803, the Transylvanian newspaper Siebenbürger Bote published an article signed by Franz Xaver Hene18 about the coins found by the treasure hunters in the vicinity of the ruins from Grädi^tea Muncelului. Hene’s text announced the beginning of the diggings managed by the authorities, the mobilization of the appropriate institutions and it promised to publish the results at the proper moment (which, unfortunately, never happened). It was also in August 1803 that Zeitschrift von und für Ungarn19 published a text signed by the Saxon historian Joseph Karl Eder, under the title Antiquarische Erörterung neulich in Siebenbürgen gefundener Goldmünzen und Ruinen, about the gold coins discovered by the treasure hunters at Grädi§tea Muncelului. The discussion was focused on the interpretation of the koson-type coins, but it also gave some information on the ruins. The author mentioned remnants of walls and of a gate, carved stones and roof tiles and 8 II corriere milanese, lunedi, 5 settembre 1803, 570, Milano. 9 Le nouvel esprit des journaux franqais et étrangers, tome second, octobre 1803,124-125, Bruxelles. 10 Magasin encyclopédique, ou journal des sciences, des lettres et des arts, rédigé par A.L. Millin, IXe année, tome troisieme, 1803,219-220, Paris. 11 The Monthly Magazine; or British Register, 16, part. II for 1803, no 109, January 1, 1804, 6 of vol. 16, 565, London. 12 Walkers Hibernian Magazine, or Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge, for February 1805, 123, Dublin. 13 The Gentlemans Magazine: and Historical Chronicle for the year MDCCCIV, 74, Part the first, 1804, 58, London. 14 The Philosophical Magazine: comprehending the various branches of sciences, the liberal and fines arts, agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, by Alexander Tillich, 20,1805, 282-283, London. 15 Prospect: or View of the Moral World, for the year 1804, by Elihu Palmer, 1, no 40, Septembre, 8,1804, 320, New York. 16 The Literary Magazine, and American Register, for 1805, from January to June, 3, 1805, 477, Philadelphia. 17 In the summer of 1934, a special correspondent of The New York Times announced that, finally, the capital of the Dacian Kingdom, the legendary city of Decebalus, Trajan’s terrible opponent, was discovered. Although the ruins had already been known for over a century, their identification with Sarmizegetusa Regia, acknowledged only in the inter-war period, by archeologist D.M. Teodorescu, represented a sensational subject for the American press. Pejan 2018,463-464. 18 Siebenbürger Bote, 1 August 1803, no 29, apud Finály 1911, 349. 19 Eder 1803.
