Lower Danube

Galaţi, a Danubian city and one of the most important Romanian ports, as well as an industrial center, attracted a large number of foreigners, including many Greeks, from the 19th century. This city flourished one of the largest Greek communities in the country with an important role in the economy, society and education. The Greeks of Galaţi,  founded a majestic church, clubs and many schools, making the city the educational center of the Greek diaspora in Romania. The Cemetery Eternitatea (Eternity) is the most important and oldest cemetery in the city. Apart from the Orthodox section, it includes sections for other Christian doctrines as well as many military monuments and memorials. In this cemetery, where many interesting funerary monuments are found, important members of the local community have been buried, including many Greeks. These funerary monuments provide many insights into the life and activity of members of the Greek community in Galaţi, based mainly on inscriptions. They are also testimonies  of the artistic activities of Greek marble sculptors who lived and worked in the port- city of Galaţi  and in neighboring cities. The paper  is a first presentation of the subject and it  is based on field research, archives and bibliographic sources.

Lids are a seldom discovered type of Neolithic vessels, which explains the lack of analyses of this category of ceramic assemblage. This study includes 41 unpublished fragments found at the settlements Samovodene, Kachitsa, Hotnitsa-Kashlata, Hotnitsa-Kaya bunar, situated in the Yantra river valley, as well as Koprivets which is located in the Rusenski Lom basin. They reveal certain changes in typology and decoration throughout the entire Late Neolithic period (according to the Bulgarian chronological system – 5400/5300-5000/4900 BC), namely the Hotnitsa and Dudeşti cultures in the Lower Danube region, plus some Early Vădastra elements. The absence of any Boian-Bolentineanu traces is not surprising, considering its vague specifics and even question-able existence. Most of the forms described come from Samovodene (34 pieces), as it is one of the few extensively excavated sites. The majority have cylindrical (with straight or bulging walls) and slightly conical lids with planar top surfaces. The few pieces from Kachitsa, the sites in the vicinity of Hotnitsa and the single from Koprivets show different shapes, characteristic of the very end of the period. Various ornamentations are encrusted with white or, at rare occasions, red, pastes. Moreover, due to the diverse decorations, every single fragment included has its own specific appearance. The lids from North Central Bulgaria, as well as parts of the ceramic assemblage, and their closest parallels in the Dudeşti and Vădastra material from the Western Muntenia and Eastern Oltenia regions in Southern Romania

The establishment of the Bulgarian Khanate along the Lower Danube River and the Northern Black Sea coast changed the geo-political situation in the early medieval Southeastern Europe. It is beyond doubt that the Bulgarians did not develop navy or commercial fleets at that time. However, one cannot reveal substantial reserves about the statement that Khan Asparukh' descendants were not completely disadvantaged by their Black Sea coastline that they managed to keep under control due to political and military reasons. This becomes clear if the prolonged series of clashes between Byzantium and Bulgaria in 750s-770s are taken into consideration. Despite an obvious usefulness of the cooperation between land armies and navy squadrons in those endeavors, as well as the nonchallenged Byzantine maritime supremacy along the Black Sea shores, the Imperial navy met substantial difficulties or did not completely accomplish its tasks on many occasions.

Poster presented by Philip J.E. Mills (Freelance/University of Leicester, UK), Nicolas Beaudry (Université du Québec à Rimouski, Canada) and Dominic Moreau (Université de Lille, France), at LRCW 7 - 7th International Conference on Late Roman Coarse Ware, Cooking Ware and Amphorae in the Mediterranean : Archaeology and Archaeometry. The End of Late Roman Pottery. The Last Centuries at the Crossroards (Valencia, Riba-roja de Túria and Alicante, 15-19 October 2019).

The archaeological landscape of the Lower Danube was changing with the importance of the Danube itself, which either became, or a cultural watershed, or an artery, connecting the ancient communities. In the Early Iron Age, it seems that the Danube did not become an invincible barrier for the spread of offensive weapons of Scythian origin. Moreover, Dobruja itself looks like a territory mastered by the Scythians, starting from the Archaic period. The Lower Danube group forms a separate “steppe” cultural assemblage together with the Lower Dniester, South Carpathian and South Danube groups, for which the spear became the main type of weapon. However, these preferences were reflected in the morphology of the Scythian akinakes. So, for this steppe or Danube enclave, swords are more characteristic than daggers. Daggers are connected mainly with the forest-steppe part of the Carpathian-Dniester region and Transylvania. The warrior graves of the Lower Danube region mainly belong to the Classical Scythian period, while the only exception is related to the right bank of the Lower Danube. However, there are no burials with akinakai and even stray finds in Classical time outside the steppe. The main funeral practice is the burial mound and inhumation (one exception of cremation was recorded to the west, in northeastern Bulgaria, near Branichevo). In Late Classical time (350—300 BC) the Scythian akinakes also evolves in the steppe: an original series of single-edged akinakai of the Chaush type appear; besides that, Thracian combat knives are borrowed. Then the Scythian akinakes dissolves with the disappearance of the Classical Scythian culture at the turn of 4th—3rd centuries BC. Something similar happens a century earlier in the forest-steppe between the Dniester and Siret rivers. The complete disappearance of akinakes dates back there in the late 5th century BC. Thus, in the Scythian time, the Lower Danube becomes kind of frontier, or the territory, where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power.

In Part II. I analize notions, observations and experiences of travellers who travelled on board of DDSG steamships in 1830s and '40s. At first I make some remarks on cultural context; i.e. what does it mean travelling by steamship. I take a closer look at spaces of steamships (like rooms, the deck, embarking and disembarking), then I show the reader the circumstances of dining on steamship and between Cernavodă and Constanța. Travellers from Ottoman Empire to Wallachia and to Habsburg Monarchy had to face quarantine measures, therefore I assess experiences of travellers who had spent time in quarantine. Finally I highlight the importance of travellers' mindsets in a sketchy mental map, in which notion of "East" and "West" are crucial.

of the newly established steamship-route between Vienna and Constantinople. From 1834 to mid '40 years there were significant hindrances when a traveller decided to go from one (European) capital city to another (strikingly non-European) one. In this Part I. I took a look at the political background, the problem with shipping through Iron Gates, the quaratine-system and I added to my study the landroute between Cernavodă and Küstendje (now Constanța).

The aim of this study is to present the results of the rescue excavations of three Bronze Age barrows in Vetrino region, Northeast Bulgaria.
Fourteen Early Bronze Age graves (4th–3rd millennium BC), two of Middle Bronze Age date (first half of the 2nd millennium BC) and one Late Bronze Age grave (second half of the 2nd millennium BC) were excavated in the region in 2020. The majority of the Early Bronze Age graves were relaxed hocker inhumations dating to the periods 3100–2900 calBC and 2900–2600 calBC. Their nature, characteristics and relationship to contemporary burials in other regions to the north and west are discussed. The dating of 2000–1500 calBC period of the tightly-contracted hocker inhumations from Northeast Bulgaria is argued as well.

Bronze cauldrons of the Scythian time are a rather rare find in the Northern Black Sea region, especially on its western borders. Scythian bronze cauldrons in the west area are concentrated in three main regions: Bukovina Podolia (Iacobeni, Avrămeni, Ivane-Puste, Shvaikivtsy), the Lower Dniester (Răscăieții Noi, Nikolskoe, Dubăsari, Cioburciu), and the Lower Danube (Ograda, Castelu, Scorțaru Vechi, Mresnota Mogyla, Ostrivne). Some Scythian cauldrons have no reliable archaeological context. Nevertheless, in combination with the same “stray” finds like the Scythian statues, the finds of Scythian cauldrons mark the Scythian presence, most likely, not earlier than the late 6th century or even the turn of the 6th-5th centuries BC. There is a significant chronological difference between the northern (forest-steppe, Bukovina-Podolia) group of cauldrons and the southern (steppe, Lower Danube-Lower Dniester). At the same time, a chronological priority is characteristic of the first, where the cauldrons are known since the middle of the 7th century BC. Bronze cauldrons (with their carriers) penetrate the steppe region 150-200 years later, as well as the “military” burials that appear in the western steppe regions no earlier than the middle of the 5th century BC. Most of the burials with cauldrons (and, apparently, the stray finds) are dated back to the second half of the 5th century BC. Then, at the early 4th century BC their quantity is reduced and after the first quarter of the 4th century BC, they will completely disappear from the cultural practice of the population of the steppes of the North-Western Black Sea region.

In this Hungarian language study I analize the framework of the newly established steamship-route between Vienna and Constantinople. From 1834 to mid '40 years there were significant hindrances when a traveller decided to go from one (European) capital city to another (strikingly non-European) one. In this Part I. I took a look at the political background, the problem with shipping through Iron Gates, the quaratine-system and I added to my study the landroute between Cernavodă and Küstendje (now Constanța).

Abstract: The author analysis, on the basis of contemporary unpublished documents, the attitude of the representatives in the European Commission of the Danube regarding the effects of a private competitive project, aimed to bring the Romanian grains into the great commercial route-ways: the Cernavodă – Constanţa railway. Thus, almost simultaneously with the establishment of the European institution, a British company obtained a concession from the Ottoman government, which allowed it to build a railway along the Dobrudscha isthmus. The sense of competition put pressure upon the ECD engineer-in-chief, Charles Augustus Hartley, compelling him to work with much expedition; in the same time, owing to the limited resources available, the railway was used as a pretext for abandoning the more resistant and durable, but also more expensive improvements necessary for rendering navigable the St. George branch of the Danube. Thus, the building of a not very profitable enterprise, the Cernavodă – Constanţa railway, resulted in permanent changes in the geography and economics of the Danube Mouths. Besides abandoning the more advantageous works from St. George in favour of the cheaper and easier adjustments from Sulina, the railway scheme of the British capitalists stimulated the commercial houses from Brăila and Galaţi, which, on the one hand, asked the ECD officials for improvements and modern harbour facilities, and, on the other, realised the necessity to consolidate their enterprises. The first phase in the competition between Rail and River was won by the latter, but the victory was gained by means of a debatable solution, which, on a medium and long run, proved fallacious from a technical and economic point of view.

Shipping Accidents at the Lower Danube (1856-1914)
This paper presents, on the basis of detailed information from the archives of the European Commission of the Danube, the circumstances which caused the shipwrecks of more than a hundred ships at the Lower Danube during the period 1856-1914 and classifies these disasters according to their main causes: human errors, adverse weather conditions, failure of ship equipment, etc. Comprehensive references to the major accidents are provided, with the names of the ships involved and the context of their occurrence.