Virag, Cristian: Situl neolitic Halmeu - Vamă (Satu Mare, 2015)
Abridged version
Cristian Virág The fortification system A. The ditch The archaeological research of the year 2000 led to the discovery and partial investigation of a feature shaped like a ditch that gradually deepened (fig. 12). At that time15 we believed that we were dealing with a fortification ditch of the settlement and that we captured the entrance area in the site. The researches of 2003 raised the first questions about our first interpretation, given that we missed the rest of the ditch in the surface under study (fig. 35). Here we captured Cx. 4/2003, an oval shaped feature whose western side was not dug out in the excavation and that seemed to be the end of the ditch Cx. 2/2000. The researches of 2008 provided the opportunity to study the area excavated in 2000 and 2003 on the Duty-Free store expansion. Cx. 2/2000 ended in an oval shape without correlation with Cx. 4/2003. Cx 2/2000 proved not to be a settlement fortification ditch. However, our intuition about the existence of a fortification system was confirmed in 2006 during the rescue excavation where the checkpoint of the National Sanitary Veterinary and Food Safety Authority was to be built (2006 - fig. 61). Cx. 2/2006 is a ditch oriented SE-NW, and we dug it on a length of 18.60 m without finding its ends (fig. 61, 62, 147). The trajectory of the ditch was slightly arched; the width (at the identification level) ranged between 3.90 and 5.50 m. At the south-east end of the excavated area, the ditch widened towards the east taking the shape of a pit. The walls of the ditch were uneven but maintained constant inclinations inwards. Its bottom was flat, but its width varied between 0.30 and 1.30 m. The depth of the ditch was 2 m from the identification level. The section is trapezoidal. The fill was dark brown. We found feature Cx. 7 in its vicinity. We found another segment of a ditch in 2008 in a preventive field research for the construction of a Duty-Free shop. Cx 4/2008 (fig. 91) consisted of two trapezoidal ditches; C4/A - identified accros the width of the investigated area (5 x 3 m) with a maximum opening of 3 m at its top. Its lower side was 40 cm wide. The fill of the feature was dark brown. The maximum depth was 2.30 m from the present trampling surface. C4/B - was also identified accross the width of the investigated area (5 x 3m). It was slightly oblique against C4/A, bounded by the latter with aim wide step. The fill was dark brown. The maximum depth was 2.20 m from the current trampling surface. As in the case of the ditch segment Cx. 2/2006 (fig. 61, 62, 147) in its immediate vicinity, we captured a posthole, namely Cx. 4/C, which was a circular feature with an approximate diameter of 1 m and with a dark brown fill. The double ditch raises questions about how it was made, if we correlate it with the ditch segment of 2006 which was a simple ditch. A similar situation is found in Iclod where the third and fourth fortifications were formed by double ditches16. The third segment of a ditch was discovered during the research of 2012 (fig. 119, 120) in Cas A (15 x4 m). We opened it on the left side of the road, via the way out of the country. The trench dug for the optical fiber was conducted at 0.30 m far from the borderline and for this reason we could open an excavation area only on the Romanian side. Cx. 1/2012 (5 X 4 m) - the ditch deepened in steps in its upper part and V-shaped onwards (fig. 120). The ditch was in line with the ditch segment captured in the DNSV building area (the 2006 excavations, fig. 61, 62, 147) and the Duty-Free Shop area (the 2008 excavations, fig. 90) forming a semicircle. The width of the feature in the upper part had about 5 m and a maximum depth of 1.80 m. The fill of the feature was a dark brown clay with many pottery and lithic materials, especially quern fragments and polished pieces. Starting from the fortification elements identified in 2006,2008, and 2012, we made in 2014 geomagnetic measurements in order to observe the connections between the ditch segments and its continuation in the area where we assumed it ends in the Egher Valley. The area accessible 15 Virág 2004a. 16 Lazarovici 2013, p 77, fig. 33-36. 106
