Absolute Dating of the Systematic Excavation from 2019 of the Archaeological Site: Tărtăria-Gura Luncii (Alba County, Romania)

The systematic research started in 2010 at Tărtăria continue to this day. To clarify the problem of the absolute chronology of the site we have researched on a checkered row (Carriage 25-32) from the SI surface (2019) and carried out sampling for this operation. On this occasion we obtained the evidence published in this article.

At the Turn of the Fourteenth Century: Sigismund of Luxemburg and the Wallachian Princely “Stars” of the Fifteenth Century

In late spring 1398, the noble judges of the Inner Szolnok County rejected John Toth as the legal representative of Stephen I, voivode of Moldavia. Toth (i.e. the Slav/ Slovak, chiefly in later centuries) was in fact merely the procurator of Stephen’s appointed procurator (representative), a certain John, the son of Costea. Mircea I the Elder, the voivode of Wallachia, was experiencing similar legal problems at the time in the Voivodate of Tran-sylvania. In January 1399, his procurator, Nicholas Dobokai of Luduş, the son of Ladislas Dobokai (the relative of Mircea’s step-uncle, Wladislaw I Vlaicu), had to admit he did not know the exact boundaries of the estate of the Hunyad castle, recently granted by Sigismund of Luxemburg to Mircea. The two documents, almost trivial in essence, point towards two neglected issues: the first Transylvanian estates granted by a king of Hungary to a voivode of Moldavia and to the transalpine origins of the Hunyadi family. Placed in the context of other edited and unedited sources (charters and chronicles), the documents in question provide new perspectives on the beginnings and actions of famed Wallachian personalities of the next century.

Ritual deposits of the Petrești culture in South-Western Transylvania

This article resents archaeological discoveries of ritual pits framed in Petrești culture, discovered in western and south-western Transylvania. The ritual of consecrating the dwellings, through banquets dedicated to fertility and fecundity, is so well known at the time around the Apuseni Mountains that is spreads in cultural environments, west of them.

The Central Area of a“ Square” from the Time of Turdaș Culture Turdaș-Luncă. 2011 Campaign. Sector C The Architectural Horizon before the great Migration from Turdaș

The preventive excavation from 2011, at Turdaș-Luncă, led to the discovery of over 2000 archaeological features. Among them is feature 959. Through this article we want to continue the series of publications related to the preventive excavation of 2011 and highlight certain aspects related to a possible organization of the communities that lived here.

Between Rudimentary and Artistic: Decorated Starčevo-Criș Pots

The article presents new information regarding the percentual distribution of Starčevo-Criș decorated pottery, using the information on the Early Neolithic discoveries from the sites of Miercurea Sibiului-Petriș (Sibiu County), Turdaș-Luncă (Hunedoara County), Săliștea (Alba County), Cristian I (Sibiu County) and Cristian III (Sibiu County). Excepting Miercurea Sibiului-Petriș and Cristian I sites for which, besides the information about the category, color, temper, surface treatment, firing and morphology of this pottery were published in different volumes or articles, also some data regarding the different percentages on types of ornaments were published. This time, the author discusses globally the total amount of decorated pottery, taking into consideration also the relative chronological framings for each of the sites

Are there cities and fairs in the neolithic? Part I – from PPN to late Neolithic (Part II is refering to Copper Age)

In this study we have resumed the problem of Neolithic settlements with a complex architecture (defense systems with ditches, palisades, towers, bastions; residential buildings; cult constructions; social constructions) which support the idea of a proto-urban organization since the PPN. We have analyzed current definitions of cities and fairs, which mainly reflect situations from classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, but they cannot be applied to prehistoric realities, which, according to interdisciplinary research, offer another perspective. We also believe that religion too has played an important part in these sites, some of them being real centers of worship.

Radiocarbon data from the archaeological site of Turdaş-Luncă (preventive research of 2011)(IV)

The preventive archaeological researches of 2011 led to sensational discoveries. These include evidence for the extraction of radiocarbon data. We analyze new evidence from the periods: neolithic and eneolithic (Turdaş culture), eneolithic (Petreşti culture) and classical dacian period (1st century AD).

The Making of a Holy Nation: Pastoral Activity, Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and Nationalism in Interwar Romanian Orthodoxy

After the end of World War I and the creation of Greater Romania, various actors tried to influence the official policy of the state by proposing political visions suitable to consolidate the Romanian identity and character of the country. The Orthodox Church, one of the most vocal of these actors, envisioned a variety of activities and programs with the goal of promoting the future development of the country alongside religious principles. In particular, in 1925 the Metropolitan of Ardeal organized the first “mass” pilgrimage to the Holy Land in the history of the Romanian people. Among the participants was Iosif Trifa, a close collaborator of the Metropolitan and the initiator and organizer of a widespread spiritual movement called the Army of the Lord. During the pilgrimage Trifa wrote notes that later constituted the basis of his travelogue Pe urmele Mântuitorului [In the Footsteps of the Savior], a book that, I will suggest, proposes a national – spiritual model for the building of the new political project inspired by the mythical image of the holy places. Trifa vested these pastoral concerns with political preoccupations that ultimately claimed the Holy Land as an ideal pattern for Greater Romania. Through a gradual literary process that morphed Palestine into the Christian Holy Land and reclaimed it for Orthodox Christians only, Trifa established a close connection between the holy sites and Romania by presenting the group of pilgrims and their itinerary as a symbol of the nation walking in the footsteps of Jesus Christ. A close reading of the narrative will show that Trifa aimed at using it as an exhortation to prompt Romanians’ commitment to Orthodoxy as the only successful solution to the national project.

Turdaş-Luncă. 2011 preventive campaign, Sector B. Feature 341-2. A ritual pit? Turdaş culture, phase III.

During the 2011 preventive research campaign, a clay statuette representing a woman giving birth was discovered – in a pit of the chronological and cultural horizon of Turdaş III. Its complex analysis is done in the rows below.