Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 1. (2019)
Marius-Mihai Ciută: Two Sculptural Pieces Recently Returned to the National Cultural Heritage
76 М. М. Ciutä Fig. 4. Funeral lion head the time the store was built. According to him, in the freshly excavated earth and on the left side of the future construction there were many more other archaeological materials: bricks, tegulae, ceramic fragments, lucernae, fragments of square stones etc. This information is confirmed, at least partially, by another collector in Alba Iulia -from whom several archaeological artefacts were taken in 2006 - who mentioned that in this place, on the occasion of the same construction works, he gathered fragments of columns, votive altars fragments and even a limestone slate statue representing Jupiter. During the inquiry, this later collector provided even a set of photos taken during the excavations, photos wherefrom it was easily recognizable that there were archaeological finds and the market was build on a site with incontestable stratigraphy as shown by these photos.17 Therefore, these investigations revealed a Roman site on the place of the Penny store, located in the northern part of the administrative area of antic Apulum and at a distance of approx. 400 m north from Colonia Aurelia Apulensis, site destroyed during the construction of the store. Therefore, the lion head fragment without a doubt comes from to the antic city of Apulum, an A category archaeological site of national interest.18 In conclusion, the information regarding the conditions of recovery of the two sculptural pieces, as well as their typo-stylistic characteristics and cultural and chronologic dating indicate that they were probably gathered in time from two different locations, as it was also confirmed by the collector.19 Taking into consideration the circumstances of their identification in a ‘particular collection, their exact place of provenance cannot be undoubtedly defined. Our paper tried to synthesise the available information about the two pieces, also highlighting the danger of the amateur collecting phenomenon. Most of the amateur collectors lack ability or does not show interest in registering basic information about the collected archaeological artefacts or works of art. As such these usually outstanding and sometimes even unique pieces most of the time are archaeologically decontextualized. Regarding the two sculptural lion presented above further petrographic analysis or physical-chemical analysis of soil deposits could bring further relevant information regarding their place of provenance. 17 These photographs will be the subject of a forthcoming study regarding the real state of archaeological heritage protection in Alba Iulia in the last 15 years. These captures evidence the destruction by the mechanical excavation of an archaeological site on an area of approx. 1000 m2, without preventive archaeological research, although the pace is located in the protected area of an archaeological site (according to OG 43/2000 republished), respectively in the immediate vicinity of the administrative centre of Apulum (the current store is at 250 meters south of the Governors Palace on Munteniei Street and 150 meters southeast from a monumental building recently discovered on Traian Street, on the site of the former Vinalcool Factory, near Altip printing house). 18 According to the Order of the Ministry of Culture and Cults no. 2426 from 27.12.2005, the site of Apulum was included on the list of the top 10 archaeological sites from Romania. Yet, this normative act, along with other 15 similar normative acts, which were meant to regulate the archaeological activity at national level, has not been published in the Monitorul Oficial, so that it does not produce legal effects. 19 Together with the two sculptural pieces further prehistoric (a Neolithic hammer-axe), medieval (spears) and modern (book from the 19th century, wood and glass religious works of art from the 20th century) objects were confiscated.
