Virag, Cristian: Cercetări Archeologice în Judeţul Satu Mare 2. (Satu Mare, 2015)
Tăsnad - Sere
south-western outskirts of the town, on the western bank of the Cehal river (a tributary of the Ier/Ér river). Towards west and south-west the Cehal valley is limited by relatively small hills, while upstream the valley is narrower and the hight of the hills reached ca. 330 metres. Today the Cehal valley has a regularized flow, the old river flowing in the past some hundreds of metres towards east close to the nowadays base of the hills. The Cehal valley (or Santău valley, as it is named downstream, near the village of Santău) has a large openning towards the Ier and Someş Plains, and the lower courses of the Ier, Crasna and Someş rivers, respectively). Until the recent past (until the drainage works from the 18-19th centuries) the Ecedea Marsh was situated at less than 30 km towards the north-west. Even today, the Cehal valley is preserving in part a marshy aspect, especially towards the confluence with the Ier valley. Of course, the appearance of this microzone changed through time. As an example, the older maps are indicating a bigger area covered by forests. Towards the end of the 18th century the area of the Neolithic settlement was also covered by forests. The habitations from different periods evolved on the first two terraces of the Cehal river (up to an altitude of cca 140 m. Since the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the northwest side of Romania drew an interest for some historians who have published several informative articles on these issues as they came into contact with many chance findings. In this respect we mention the articles of E. Orosz (Orosz 1909. 10) and M. Roska (Roska 1910. 354-361.) on Neolithic discoveries from Tăşnad area. After the establishment of the Museum of Tăşnad, several incidental findings from the area in question entered the museum’s collection. Also, the works performed in the area of the thermal spa led to the discovery of materials from the Neolithic and Bronze Ages to the 2nd and 4th centuries AD. In 1986, Neţa Iercoşan made a survey of the area, discovering some features on the banks of the Cehal channel. First excavations took place in 1989, directed by Neţa Iercoşan (Iercoşan 1994-1995. 9-23): trench SI/1989 and the partial survey of 2 large pits (G1-G2) out of 6 features crossed by the Cehal channel, all of them identified on the bank of the channel (Starcevo- Criş culture). He continued the excavations in 1995 (Iercoşan 1996) [(4 sections (SII-V); important results: LI, a surface dwelling (in S III and the pits A and B), a garbage pit (in S III)], 1996 (Iercoşan 1997) [(S VI-VIII, a pit MUZEUI. lUOEŢEAN SA W MARE
