A Nyíregyházi Jósa András Múzeum évkönyve 46. (Nyíregyháza, 2004)

Régészet - Dan Băcueţ-Crişan: Archaeological research in Northwest Romania. The Early Mediavel settlement from Nuşfalău/Szilágynagyfalu–Ţigoiul lui Benedek (Sălaj county)

Archaeological research in Northwest Romania The artefacts The artefacts were represented by pottery fragments (PI. V-VII, IX-XII): cooking pots (without handles), a dish, a bell shaped baking device, and baking plates. a) The cooking pots (without handles) The vessels are made either by hand or at fast or slow wheel. Fast wheel-made gritty pottery sometimes tempered with fine sand. Due to the fact that the pots were made at fast wheel, on the interior surface of the walls or on the bottom, we can distinguish many rings - traces of wheeling. Some pottery fragments also have these traces on the exterior surface (PI. X: 5). On the bottom of some vessels we can also distinguish the traces of cutting the vessel from the wheel (PI. XII: 10). The pots are brownish brick-red or yellowish brick-red. They are decorated by bands of straight and/or wavy lines. Slow wheel-made gritty pottery. The colour of the pots is brick-red or brownish brick-red with black spots. The ornaments are bands of straight and/or wavy lines. Hand-made gritty pottery. The colour of the pots is brick or brownish brick-red. Only two fragments were ornamented. They were tempered with fine sand and decorated with rows of stamped ornament (PI. XII: 8-9) with ornamental pattern being small squares in row, or one square placed into another. In one of the cases the stamp and the incision were used together (PI. XII: 8). b) Baking plates All of the baking plates - gritty or sometimes tempered with fine sand - were made by hand. They are yellowish brick-red and the breaking surface of the wall is brick-red. None of the fragments are ornamented. c) Bell shaped baking devices These gritty vessels were made by hand. They are brick-red. None of the fragments are ornamented. d) Dish One single brownish brick-red gritty pottery fragment was discovered. Under the rim there is a groove (PI. VII: 1). The dish was made at fast wheel. From Nu§faläu dwelling L

1/2001 (oven 2) we have a gritty, chaff tempered fragment of a circular baking plate with tall walls (PI. VII: 6). The fragment is yellowish brick-red with grey spots. The chronology of the site The results of researches from 1978 were partially described and published by Al. V. Matei in 1979 (MATEI 1979,481), by whom the site was attributed to the eighth and ninth centuries. In 2000, in a study on the fast wheel pottery from the eighth to tenth centuries in Romania, I. Stanciu presented a part of the artefacts discovered in 1978 (STANCIU 2000, 157, pi. V). The characteristic feature of the finds in question is the presence of the fast wheel-made pottery and of the fragments with stamped decoration. To determine the chronology of the site, we have to examine the finds attributed to seventh-eighth/ninth centuries from NW-Romania or from 119