Marta, Liviu (szerk.): Satu Mare. Studii şi comunicări. Seria arheologie 26/1. (2010)

Nagy József-Gábor - Körösfői Zsolt: Early Iron Age Storage Pit at Porumbenii Mari-Várfele (Harghita County)

Nagy József-Gábor - Körösfői Zsolt

remains in 1956, only a 10 x 2 m trench, oriented East-West, was researched.12 During the excavation in 1957, in the 30 cm thick culture layer, circular shaped spots covered with ash and daub were found. On the western side of the terrace at the end of trench no. 1, a 5 x 3.5 m irregular oval shaped pit-house was revealed.13 As parallels of this latter archaeological site Zoltán Székely mentioned the Early Iron Age pit-houses from Teleac,14 Mediaş-Cetate15 and Aiud16. According to the researcher the short-lived occupation site with a single layer was surrounded by a ditch on the southern side. In the opinion of the researcher, the houses situated 10-15 m from one another, indicate a pastoral-farming community.17 The documentation and the archaeological material from the excavation can be found in the Molnár István Museum in Cristuru Secuiesc.18

The analysis of the finds from Porumbenii Mari was first published by Zoltán Székely in 1966, together with the archaeological materials of two other settlements, Cernat- Vârful ascuţit (Csemáton-Hegyes) and Reci (Réty-Telek).19 20

Elek Benkö, during his field walks in the area, made surface collections on several occasions at the Porumbenii Mari site, but he couldn’t locate the ditch indicated by Zoltán

Székely, on the south—south-west slope of the Vágás stream, at the southern edge of the left

20terrace.

As a premise to our research, on the 1st of April 2007, Lajos Kuti, a local resident brought Early Iron Age pottery fragments to the Molnár István Museum. The donator of the finds narrated that he first collected the pottery having been emerged in the hole that was dug by wild boar. Subsequently, he dug a hole at this place and found a large quantity of restorable vessel fragments.

After arriving at the site, Zsolt Körösfői opened a 3.5 x 3.5 m box trench including the looter’s pit to verify the stratigraphy. After removing the upper 25 cm thick yellow clay layer, he observed an irregular circular shaped pit with a diameter of 165 cm. There were ash, charcoal filling, animal bones and fragments of large storage vessels in this homogenous pit (Figure 2/A). Zsolt Körösfői observed that the pottery fragments were located at the sides of the pit. The feature turned out to have a bell shape in cross section with an internal depth of 36 cm. On the south side of the pit there were four large flat stones, but it couldn’t be determined whether they were placed intentionally in the pit (Figure 2/B).

Following the rescue excavation, Lajos Kuti donated an animal figurine to the museum that according to him stemmed from the Early Iron Age pit.

Description of finds

The findings of the pit consisted mostly of pottery fragments:

1. Large vessel (INV. 17.591, Figure 3/1), with outcurved rim, cylindrical neck and rounded, biconical body, well smoothed and polished surface, brown-greyish colour and crushed sherd temper. Below the junction of the neck and the body there is a pair of horizontal and vertical knobs, oriented upwards, surrounded with semi-circular channeling. H.: 79 cm, Rd.: 49.5 cm, Bd.: 15.5 cm21.

2. Medium size vessel (INV. 17.592, Figure 3/2), with outcurved rim, arched neck, globular, rounded biconical body, well smoothed, polished inside the rim, brown-greyish coloured, crushed sherd temper. It is decorated with garland channeling on the upper third and horizontal

12 Székely 1966, 29-31. The maximum depth of the trench was 0.60 m.

13 Székely 1966, 31-33; Benkö 1992, 113.

14 Vasiliev et al. 1992, 37.

15 Zaharia 1965, 84-85; Blăjan et al. 1979, 35.

16 Ciugudean 1976, 9, fig. 3.

17 Székely 1966, 34-35.

18 Popescu - Dumitrescu 1957, 355, 27; Popescu - Dumitrescu 1957a, 339, nr. 27; Székely 1959, 237, nr. 3; Benkö 1992, 113 (INV. 919-987, 1011-1012, 1023, 1025-26, 2697-2718).

19 Székely 1966,5-47.

20 Nowadays only the erosion of the terrace edge is visible (Benkö 1992, 113).

21 H = Height, Rd = Rim diameter, Bd = Base diameter.

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