Journal Analele Banatului N.S. Archaeology-History

Daniela Tănase

O AŞEZARE DIN EVUL MEDIU TIMPURIU DESCOPERITĂ LA PIŞCHIA (JUD. TIMIŞ) ÎN ANUL 2010

Jan. 1, 2022

Abstract

In 2010 and 2011, rescue archaeological research took place on the route of the Arad-Timişoara highway in site 7, located in the hilly area of northern Banat, in the southwestern part of the bounds of Pişchia commune in Timiş County. It was identified to the east of the European road E69, Arad-Timişoara, and at a distance of 400 m north of the Măgheruş channel. The archaeological site is a successive overlap of settlements from the Eneolithic, the Bronze Age, from the second Iron Age (La Tène), from the ancient period (3rd–4th centuries AD), from the early medieval period (9th–10th centuries AD), as well as from the medieval era (12th–13th and 16th centuries). Archaeological features from the early medieval period are few, only nine out of a total of about 625: six dwellings (locus 83, locus 92, locus 130, locus 150, locus 177, locus 600), two storage pits (locus 149, locus 602) and an oven outside the dwellings (locus 133). The vast majority of the pottery discovered was modeled with a slow wheel, from a semi-fine paste, usually with mica in the composition, but also with pebbles, from which they have a slightly rough appearance. The ceramic was oxidizing burnt, it has a brick and brown color, of various shades. There are very few fragments from gray or black vessels, reducing burnt. Pots predominate in form, but there are also fragments of bowls. There are also redbrick oxidizing ceramic fragments shaped on a high-speed wheel from a semi-fine paste with pebbles in the composition, which gives it a rough appearance. Of course, there are also hand-made ceramic fragments from the pots. We note the presence of clay trays, usually of large and medium sizes (from locus 149, locus 600, locus 602), as well as clay rollers (from locus 150 dwelling). The settlement dates back to the 9th–10th centuries AD, in the chronological range between the second half of the 9th century and the beginning of the 10th century. Of course, the objects cannot tell who their producers and users were, but in the early medieval period populations of different origins and traditions through processes of acculturation gave rise to the communities that medieval written sources recall: Slavs, Bulgarians and Blachii i.e. shepherds of the Romans lived in the territories once ruled by the Avars in the Danube and Tisa/Tisza region (source from the 12th century: Chronicle of the Anonymous Notary, IX).