Revista Analele Banatului S.N. Arheologie-Istorie

Andrei-Cătălin Dîscă

SITURI ȘI DESCOPERIRI DE EPOCĂ ROMANĂ DIN ÎMPREJURIMILE POTAISSEI (VIII). DATE NOI ȘI CLARIFICĂRI PRIVIND TERITORIUL SATULUI MOLDOVENEȘTI

1 Ianuarie 2022

Abstract

In 106 A.D. the kingdom of Decebalus was conquered by the roman emperor Trajan and upon its ruins was created the Roman province of Dacia. In about one century and a half the newly created province was so deeply transformed, that when Dacia was abandoned by the Roman administration around 275 A.D., the material culture dominating this area was the Roman one. These transformations are well illustrated by two Roman sites located several kilometres northwest of the junction between the Arieș and Mureș Rivers, namely the town of Potaissa and the legionary fortress of Legio V Macedonica. In the area where these two sites are located, only a small indigenous settlement is presumed to have existed prior to the Roman conquest. Nonetheless, at the end of the second century A.D., both the town of Potaissa, and the legionary fortress reached their peak, making this area of the highest importance for Roman Dacia. For this reason, these two sites were intensely investigated by the scholars over the last decades. As testimony to the intense processes of colonisation, urbanisation and Romanisation undertook in Dacia until the last quarter of the third century A.D. also stands the high number of settlements which developed during the Roman period around Potaissa. Most of these settlements are situated along the main ancient roads, specifically the imperial Roman road that connected the Danube to the northern limes of the province of Dacia and the road along the Arieș Valley, which provided access to The Golden Quadrangle of the Apuseni Mountains. Along the latter route, on the territory of the present-day village of Moldovenești, located on the right bank of the Arieș River, more precisely in the area where the river exits the Apuseni Mountains and enters the Turda Depression, developed during the Roman period one of the most important settlements around Potaissa. This is largely due to the topographical features of this area, which allow easy observation and control of the access road to the aforementioned resource-rich area. In addition to this privileged position, the area also boasts other advantages, perhaps the most important of which are the variety of natural resources available nearby. These include high-quality stone quarries, extensive forest areas, and land suitable for agriculture. Taking advantage of all these benefits and its proximity to Potaissa, the Roman settlement at Moldovenești extended over a considerable area. However, in the current stage of research, this settlement remains relatively unknown, especially in respect with its topography, inventory, and the density of settlement. To partially clarify the situation of Roman-era sites in the area, a series of investigations have been conducted in recent years. These investigations have focused on revisiting data from older literature and carrying out new field-walking investigations, documented with modern methods. These investigations were conducted as part of a broader project aimed at all Roman-era sites in the vicinity of Potaissa. Since 2019, the results of these investigations have been published in a series of studies, the present paper being part of this series.