Tyragetia

9-28

Authors: Mihail Videyko

In the second half of the 20th century, and in particular at the beginning of the 21st century, archaeological discoveries were made, unveiling when, where and why the oldest cities were emerging. For a long time it was believed that the processes of early urbanization should be studied primarily on the example of Mesopotamia, the Nile or the Indus Valleys. However, it turned out that a lot of interesting things happened in this respect in Copper or Early Bronze Ages in Old Europe, not to mention the valleys of the Yangtze River or the banks of the Mississippi River far away from the Old World. Wherever the production economy has made significant progress, people sooner or later started creating unprecedented so far large settlements – mega-sites with thousands of residents, intended to be economic, political, military, religious centers. Some of them became cities, others, for various reasons, disappeared. The appearance and decline of early urbanized structures fit into the rhythm of climatic and cultural changes. The way it happened in Old Europe between 5000-3000 BC will be discussed in this article. Archaeological investigations over the past 20 years show us that the proto-cities of Trypillia culture are part of some global event that began in Europe around 5000 BC.

41-70

Authors: Liana Oţa

The studies on the social organization of the Sarmatians are still very few. The aim of this paper is to analyze children graves, in an attempt to complete, as much as possible based on the current archaeological data, the image of the Sarmatian communities in Wallachia and Moldavia, outlined in several previous studies. The discussion will be limited to only one case study – that of the Sarmatian children burials in Wallachia (territory between the Danube and the Carpathian Mountains, bordered to the west by the Olt River) and Moldavia (more precisely the area between the Prut River and the Carpathian Mountains). After an overview of Sarmatian discoveries in Wallachia or Moldavia (emphasizing the presence or the absence of anthropological analysis), the author tries to outline the image, as shown by the age ratio, of some Sarmatian grave clusters. The analysis of the funerary ritual and inventory of the 65 children burials attributed to the Sarmatians in Wallachia and Moldavia led to the general conclusion that, speaking strictly from a funerary point of view, the children do not benefit of special funerary rules by comparison to the adults. The same funerary ritual characterizes both adults and children – the inhumation, there are no orientations or positions for depositing the body that can be found only in the case of children and the inventory did not contain items that could be considered as specific to the childhood universe.

89-96

Authors: Igor Pistruil

The Zaliznichnoe site was discovered by M. Agbunov in 1970. The collection of the surface finds (692 pieces), published by V.N. Stanko and L.V. Subbotin in 1979, was dated to the Mesolithic epoch and attributed to the Grebeniky archaeological culture. In 1998-2000, the excavations of the site were continued. As a result, the amount of flint collection increased to 7711 pieces. On the basis of the examined flint assemblage, the interaction of bearers of two cultural traditions (Grebeniky and Kukrek) on this site was presumed (E. Smyntyna). The article examines the flint assemblage from the site (505 surface finds in 1970), previously considered as lost. As a result of examination of these surface finds, the items of the later archaeological epochs (e.g. Eneolithic) were distinguished, while its comparison with the similar materials from sites of the region enables to date it to the later Neolithic epoch.

115-120

Authors: Elena Izbitser

The recently published book on appropriating innovations in prehistoric Eurasia includes in it a chapter entitled “Contextualising Innovation: Cattle Owners and Wagon Drivers in the North Caucasus and Beyond” by a group of authors (Reinhold et al. 2017). The task of analyzing this article is beyond standard academic review because works the level on which this article is written are generally not included in a bibliography, pretending they do not exist. However, this book is issued by a respectable publisher, and the article can be used as a source by scholars and students, reproducing and disseminating the erroneous facts and unsupported statements, adding to other misinformation about steppe prehistory roaming through Western-language publications.

141-148

Authors: Vasile Diaconu, Mariana Sîrbu

This article examines the typological features of some Bronze Age stone axes with obvious signs of re-use, discovered in the area between the Carpathians and the Dniester. For these objects, two ways of re-use are known: the use of damaged axes as rubbing stones / hammer stones or re-perforation of the worn-out specimens. The authors of the article present nine artifacts discovered in settlements and cemeteries or as a result of chance finds. Most of the specimens were made of volcanic rocks; some have preserved decorative elements. The re-use of such items was determined by economic and technological reasons. Some communities of the Bronze Age were forced to re-use damaged stone axes due to a lack of high-quality raw materials. The fact that axes with traces of re-use are also found in cemeteries may indicate the symbolic significance that these objects acquired when they were put next to the dead.

155-185

Authors: Viktor Grebennikov

The article addresses the sites of the Late Bronze Age located in the Steppe Pobuzhye: from the northern border of the Nikolaev Region, which passes near the forest-steppe zone, to the estuary of the Bug inlet. All the settlements are located by the rivers and in the beams entering the basin of the Southern Bug River. Thanks to many years of research, all the information on monuments is collected and a brief general description is given. The bibliography provides an opportunity to get acquainted with each described object.

209-218

Authors: Eugen Uşurelu, Andrei Nicic

The article introduces into the scientific circulation data on new random finds of bronze products on the territory of the Republic of Moldova. The found objects are represented by two celts-axes, a celt-hammer, a pin, and a fibula. Both celts-axes typologically belong to the group of one-tab celts-axes with vertical ribs on the facets, synchronous to the early-Hallstatt culture with fluted Corlăteni-Chişinău pottery. Based on morphological and ornamental analogies common in the Sabatinovka-Noua-Coslogeni cultural environment, the celt-hammer is attributed to this group of cultures and dated to BzC2-BzD. The pin has analogies in the early Hallstatt cultures of the Danube-Carpathian and Dniester- Carpathian regions and dates back to HaA1. The semi-finished fibula of the so-called Thracian type corresponds in its morphological characteristics to the subtype I 3 by the Măndescu’s typological scheme and to the Id variant by the Zirra’s classification; the latter dates from the first half to the middle of the 3rd century BC.

237-248

Authors: Octavian Munteanu, Nicolae Batog, Valeriu Prohniţchi

As a result of preliminary research conducted in Butuceni in 2013, information was obtained on the organization of a defensive system that proved to be totally different from those that were known until that time. The discoveries made predetermined the continuation of the field work, which was carried out until 2018 and is still far from completion. New defensive lines were discovered and investigated; their configuration, correlation and synchronization are far from completion, and this determines the minimum set of tasks that need to be solved. One of the key issues considered in 2017–2018 was to explain the possible trajectory of the Butucen-West No. 2 defensive line. The working hypothesis, which implied a semicircular trajectory of the fortification, was confirmed by the results obtained from several test pits. These studies have revealed the remains of a complex palisade (consisting of two rows of pillar pits and a stone wall), a berm and a ditch filled with stones from a destroyed fortification structure.

267-270

Authors: Sergiu Matveev, Ana Boldureanu

In 1958, the Department of Scythian Archaeology of the Moldavian Expedition of the Institute of History and Material Culture and the Moldavian branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences under the direction of A.I. Meljukova conducted field research in the southern part of the MSSR. On the right bank of the Dniester River, studies were carried out in the area of the Olăneşti and Palanca villages, particularly in the territory of the village of Tudora. As a result, 14 settlements were studied, three of which were of the pre-Scythian time, four attributed to the Scythian period, six to the first centuries of Christianity, and three of the medieval times. The site Tudora I was located at the entrance to the village from Olăneşti and in 1958 was in better state of preservation. There were identified 2 habitation layers – one of the period of the existence of the pre-Scythian fortress and the second of the Roman period. Among the individual finds from this site there is a bronze coin attributed by A.I. Meljukova to the issues of Macedonian King Philip II. On the front side there was an image of the head of the beardless young man (Apollo?), with the hair tied, and on the reverse side - the rider on horse galloping to the right, the legend at the top: О, and in the lower part - monogram NE. The ratio of the obverse and the reverse was 45°. The analysis of the image taken from the original research report shows that the coin from Tudora I belongs to type SG 6696v, whereas items of this type usually have the diameter about 17-18 mm and the weight varying between 5.5 and 7.5 g, and are dated between 359 and 336 BC. We would like to point out that the polis that used the monogram NE was Neonteichos, but it is very unlikely that this town produced bronze imitations of the coins of King Philip II the Macedonian. In the neighboring south Danube areas, this type of coin is well-known, both in Dobrogea, but especially on the territory of Bulgaria. Prof. Ilya Prokopov considers that the respective monogram is rather a combination of letter N and a trident. The authors of this study support the Bulgarian researcher’s opinion. The bronze Macedonian coin presented in the 1958 archaeological report on Tudora (Ştefan Vodă District) is the first such find between the Prut and the Dniester. Unfortunately, the coin itself was not found in any of the museums of the Republic of Moldova. Its fate remains uncertain, with a minimal chance of recovery. The analysis of the image in the photograph allows us to date the coin the second half of the 4th century BC, even near the end of it. The brevity of the text of the report does not allow us to identify other chronological elements, the moment and conditions for the penetration of the coin into the Barbarian World.

293-302

Authors: Ion Tentiuc, Valeriu Bubulici

Systematic archaeological research and surveys carried out over the last decades in the eastern regions of the Oriental Carpathians have led to the accumulation of important vestiges of the last centuries of the old era and the first centuries of the new era. The inclusion of the materials discovered in settlements and necropoleis in the scientific circuit allowed the reconstruction of new aspects of the economic, social and political life of the local communities, of their relations with the populations that periodically penetrated the Northwestern Pontic space, coming from the west, north or east. In this context, a special category of vestiges, which can be linked to the level of social-economic development, but also to the spiritual life of human communities, are precious metal vessels. This category of vestiges, rather rare in the settlements, is most often found in the funeral complexes where they were used both as a funerary urn, as cover for the funeral container and for the funeral banquet.

319-330

Authors: Mihail Verevkin, Yuri Pyatnitsky

The publications of objects from the collection of Oriental silver in the State Hermitage Museum rarely include a professional expertise on their making. The few exceptions are the works of R.F. Minosyan and, especially, B.I. Marshak, in which techniques used by craftsmen were taken into account in the attribution and dating the objects. In several articles Marshak discussed a plate found in 1880 near the city of Irbit, the Perm Province; he dated it to the 12th century and considered it as a product of one of the workshops which existed in the territories of the Crusaders in northern Syria. The use of modern instruments and research methods makes it possible to return once again to the technical expertise of the place. Such expertise was done at the State Hermitage, in the Laboratory for Scientific Restoration of Precious Metals. This article offers the results of the study, and stresses the necessity of similar expertise for the objects that display stylistic parallels with the Irbit plate, namely Wawel’s casket in Krakow, and a bowl from Rzhyshchevo (now in Kiev), as well as two less artistic bowls of the 12th century – one with an image of an allegoric personage from the Yamal-Nenets District Museum, and the one from Arilje, Serbia.

347-359

Authors: Igor Prohnenko, Maria Zhilenko

A fragment of a knight’s tombstone, a massive piece of marbled limestone bas-relief, has been discovered at the floor level under the walls’ debris during a study of room 3 of the castle of Nyaláb in Korolevo. Similar monuments appeared in Europe on the turn of the 13th - 14th centuries, while in the Carpathian region they were known since the last third of the 15th century. Tombstones depicting a full-height knight on his deathbed were wide-spread in Hungarian Kingdom during the last years of reign of King Matthias Corvinus and were associated with the workshop of the royal court sculptor from Italy Giovanni Dalmata. They are divided into three chronological groups. The first group dates from the 1480s and differs in that the deceased is depicted in Gothic plate armor with a lion at his feet and the coat of arms that angels usually hold. The most characteristic of the group are the tombstones of the following noblemen of King Matthias: Szapolyai Imre, Perényi István, and Pálóczi Imre. The second group has a more realistic depiction of details: the naturalistic image of the deceased on his deathbed, the lion lies in a natural position, and the shield rests on the sword. This group chronologically varies from the last decade of the 15th century to the first years of the 16th century and is represented by the bas-reliefs of Báthory István, Kinizsi Pál, and Beriszló Bertalan. The recently discovered tombstone of Perényi János from Korolevo belongs to this group in terms of style and quality of work. The third group is stylistically diverse. Although it is based on the traditions of previous groups, the quality of work here is worse. It dates from the first third of the 16th century.

373-381

Authors: Alexei Furasiev

At December 1, 2017, a permanent exposition of the State Hermitage (St. Petersburg) was opened after the reconstruction, under the title “Europe in the Great Migration Period and Early Middle Ages”. This exhibition presents materials illustrating the culture of the nomadic peoples of Eastern Europe (Huns, Khazars, Alans, Cumans), of the late Antiquity population of the Northern Black Sea region (Bosporus), of the Germanic tribes of the Dnieper region (Chernyakhov culture), the southern Crimea (Crimean Goths), and partly Western Europe (Franks, Alemanni, Bavarians). The finds cover a significant period – almost the entire first millennium AD, and are united by a common theme: the interaction of various barbarian peoples (nomads and sedentary population) and the Roman (Byzantine) empire in the Great Migration Period and immediately after its termination. Among the presented materials there are such famous archeological complexes of this time as the burials of the Bosporus (Kerch), Suuk-Su and Saltovo, the grave of Conceşti, the treasure of Zamość, “the gold of Huns”, the Sarkel and Tsimlyanskoye sites.