Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 25. (1996)
I. Arheologie
THE ROMAN RURAL SETTLEMENT OF CRISTE$TI 29 These sepulchral monuments reveal certain specific features. Owing to the preference for the types of monuments of Noric-Pannonian „origin“ (the aedicula, „family stelae“, the medallion with a smooth profile and the niche with flat bottom), the settlement of Criste§ti -as the whole Eastern zone of Roman Transylvania- seems to be closer to Porolissensis than to Dacia Superior, where the direct north-italic influences are most significantly outlined. Thus, in the figurative repertory of the sepulchral monuments found at Criste§ti the Noric-Pannonian motifs49 prevail: the simplified banquet of the Noric-Pannonian type, the horseman piercing the enemy at the feet of the horse (PI.V.3), the hunting horseman (PI.V.2), the lion attacking a horse (PI.V.5). A special signification has the image representing the Lupa Capitolina (PI.V.7), met on two sepulchral monuments from Criste§ti50. Such a representation -signum originis- has a clear social and cultural significance: the symbol of the Eternal City represented on the funerary monuments proves the proud of being a Roman citizen, of belonging to the Roman world51. As regarding the persons represented on the sepulchral monument the deceased and the participants to the coena funebris, it was pointed out some time ago52, that in majority of the cases, the clothes (the typical dress -long tunic covered by a shorter tunic fastened on the shoulders by fibulae, shirts with broad sleeves, girdle fastened round the waist), the hairdo and the ornamental pieces are proper to the Noric- Pannonian ethno-cultural area. All these evidences undoubtly certify the presence of the Noric Pannonian colonists in the settlement of Criste§ti. But, as at Criste§ti, and also in other zones of the Roman Transylvania, the Noric- Pannonian influence in the funeral art reveals itself, especially through the spreading of certain general provincial features, proper to the „European Art of Rome"-as being defined by R. Bianchi-Bandinelli-, it means that we deal with a contribution of the Noric-Pannonian Roman world. So, as it was pointed out, the funerary monuments -perhaps the most significant products of Roman provincial art- show that the Roman 49 O.FIoca, Wanda Wolski, in BMI, XLII, 1973, 3, p.18-21, 35-36; Lucia Teposu Marinescu, op.cit,. p.44, 46-47, 49. 5 0Lucia Teposu Marinescu, op.cit,. p.46. Concerning the monument representing Lupa Capitolina discovered in Dacia, see C.Pop, in ActaMN, VIII, 1971, p.173-185. 51 M.Bärbulescu, Potaissa. Studiu monografic, Turda, 1994, p.159. 52 O.FIoca, Wanda Wolski, op.cit., p.40-42.
