Lascu Ilie

Studiul face referire la o descoperire făcută în cursul anului 2013, la Alba Iulia, cu
ocazia lucrărilor de modernizare a Staţiei de Epurare a Apelor, situată la cca. 350 m vest de
municipium Aurelium/colonia Aurelia (descoperirile de epocă romană de pe str. Dacilor). Cu
această ocazie a fost cercetat parţial un edificiu de tip mausoleu, în a cărui cameră funerară au
fost descoperite două sarcofage de marmură. Edificiul a fost parţial distrus de lucrările începute
fără asistenţă arheologică. S-a putut constata că acesta avea în plan dimensiunile de 11,1 ×
6,5 m, cu o cameră funerară în centru de 3,3 × 4,5 m. Din punct de vedere arheologic s-a observat
un pat de pietriş, care reprezenta fundaţia construcţiei, surprinsă pe profilul vestic, pe o înălţime
de 1 m. Sub aceasta a fost descoperită o reţea de gropi de stâlpi care “armau” stratul de pietriş.
Edificiul a suferit mai multe jefuiri, fiind spoliat de calcarul din care era ridicată partea
superioară, dar şi de marmura cu care era placat. Elemente de la intrare au fost refolosite la
sarcofagul unui mormânt de inhumaţie, descoperit la câţiva metri spre nord.
Pe baza analogiilor presupunem că mausoleul descoperit de noi avea o formă rectangulară,
cu intrarea pe latura de sud, poziţionat la drumul care intra în Apulum prin partea de
vest. A fost ridicat pe un teren aflat în proprietatea unei familii cu putere financiară însemnată,
pentru a cinsti cum se cuvine memoria unor membri ai acesteia trecuţi în Lumea de Dincolo.

This article analyses several medieval complexes discovered in 2022, 300 m east of the former Roman camp at Apulum. These include dwellings, garbage pits and an iron processing workshop, staggered in two stages of living: from the mid-tenth century to mideleventh century, and from the mid-eleventh to twelfth century. The authors suggest a connection between these dwellings and the Medieval cemeteries researched by Adalbert Cserni, dating from the tenth to twelfth centuries. These are associated with another medieval habitation found on the territory of the Alba Iulia municipality, along with others identified in the area of the former Roman fort or near it, on Dealul Furcilor and Horea Avenue. All these are contemporary with the Hungarian conquest of Transylvania and the consolidation of this rule.

The authors present an early Medieval dwelling, recently found in Alba Iulia, on 90 Calea Moților St, during preventive archaeological research on the construction of a house, from July-September 2020. Besides numerous archaeologic complexes dating back to the Roman period and pre-modern age (16th-17th centuries), a complex dating from the early Middle Ages was identified. It is a quadrangular home, with dimensions of 4,50 X 4,30 m, beaten clay floor and post pits on corners, but also at the middle of sides. Similarly, it also held a quadrangular oven of stone, located on the north-eastern corner of the complex. The inventory is poor and consists of ceramic material with incised decorations that comes from jar-like pots. The specificity of the decoration (grooves displayed all over the body of the vessel) and the morphological features of the vessels (sandy paste, globular shape, wide brims, yet less evolved) urge us to subsume the dwelling culturally and chronologically under the Balkan-Danubian culture, or Dridu (the cultural group Blandiana A) entered in Transylvania once with the expansion of the Bulgarian czardom in this area, up to the middle course of the Mureș River, around the mid of the IXth century. In this case, due to the decoration from the incised sockets, the dwelling may be dated to the mid-Xth century, or immediately after this phase, in the final phase of this cultural group, that we consider it exceeds the mid of the Xth century. The current habitation levels, belonging to the same cultural context, discovered on the territory of the old Roman fort, but also a district of Alba Iulia municipality (Micești - Cigașe), the graves from the first stage of the great early Medieval cemetery from Stația de Salvare, and that from Blandiana (inclusively the settlement) are evidence of a centre of power of a voivodeship under the protectorate of the Bulgarian czardom, that dominated the area until the arrival of the first Hungarian horsemen in the fourth decade of the Xth century. The archaeological discoveries from the last decade in Micești - Cigașe, as well as the materials from this home, may show the continuity of some cultural traditions also following the mid of Xth century when the relation of forces was reconfigured on the territory of the political party from the middle course of the Mureș Valley.

The Pantheon 3D cultural programme is the most ambitious initiative in the field of new technologies applied to archaeological heritage carried out by the National Museum of Unification in Alba Iulia, one of the few at national level. In concept, the programme aims to render valuable the Roman artefacts belonging to the museum, using interdisciplinary methods. Via modern technologies and 3D documentation, Roman art works are digitized with the goal of accomplishing a virtual collection and a 3D interactive platform. The Pantheon 3D exhibitions and publications offer examples of three-dimensional models using specific techniques of non-textured rendering of surfaces, useful within studies of art history and as virtual models for artistic and iconographic interpretation.