The Haban ewer presented here is an exceptional archaeological find that became part of the herit... more The Haban ewer presented here is an exceptional archaeological find that became part of the heritage of the National Museum of Transylvanian History following the rescue excavations on Gaál Gábor Street in 2021. The piece, inscribed with the production year 1700, was recovered from the decommissioned well of the old Calvinist parsonage in Cluj (the Herepei House). Archival documents from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, together with artifacts preserved in public or private collections, prove the widespread popularity of Haban pottery due to its technical and aesthetic qualities during the heyday of the craft of Anabaptist potter communities in Moravia, the Hungarian Kingdom, and the Transylvanian Principality. The formal and stylistic analogies, together with the dating of the piece, point to its most likely production in the pottery workshop from Vințu de Jos (Alvinc/ Unterwinz, Alba County). This specimen is of the blue-glazed ceramic type, which became popular on the Transylvanian market during the second half of the seventeenth century and at the beginning of the subsequent one.
The successive administrations of Lipova (Lippa) from the end of the Middle Ages until the modern... more The successive administrations of Lipova (Lippa) from the end of the Middle Ages until the modern period determined numerous changes relative to its historical topography and urban structures, including its fortifications. The direct association of the settlement with the Hungarian royalty in the fourteenth century, the transition from the fifteenth-century oppidum to the urban status of the sixteenth century and the shaping of a regional administrative centre according to Ottoman traditions generated a highly dynamic historical topography. The scholarly debate on the fortified structures of Lipova can be traced back to the second half of the nineteenth century. Its unknowns and discussions range from the simultaneous number of fortifications directly connected to the late medieval urban centre, their dating, exact location, extent, and particular architectural components. In the last century, scientists revisited the topic circumstantially. It remained problematic, primarily because all the material traces of the fortifications were demolished at the beginning of the 1700s, and they still await archaeological investigations. In the stated circumstances, we resume discussing the available sources that can help us reconstruct the configuration of fortifications during the fifteenth-seventeenth centuries by presenting their potential. Our preliminary study confronts the sparse archaeological data with pragmatic literature, narrative sources, and highly overlooked cartographic documents. Above all, we examine the cartographic sources of the late seventeenth century and their historical context because they recorded the spatial outline and the coexistence of three fortified precincts one inside another. The combined sources show that the medieval castle persisted at the very core of a mid-sixteenth-century bastion fortification encircled by the ample town precinct. Rezumat: Administrațiile succesive sub care Lipova (Lippa) s-a aflat de la finalul Evului Mediu și până în perioada modernă au determinat multiple evoluții ale zestrei sale urbane. Asocierea directă a așezării cu regalitatea maghiară în secolul al XIV-lea, trecerea de la statutul de oppidum din secolul al XV-lea la cel urban din veacul următor și conturarea unui centru administrativ regional în spiritul tradițiilor otomane, în secolele XVI-XVII, au determinat și o dinamică a topografiei istorice. Abordările științifice referitoare la structurile fortificate din Lipova pot fi urmărite încă din a doua jumătate a secolului al XIX-lea. În legătură cu subiectul tratat, necunoscutele privesc numărul de fortificații existente simultan în perimetrul centrului urban medieval, datarea acestora, localizarea exactă, întinderea și componentele arhitecturale specifice fiecăreia. Subiectul a fost abordat doar circumstanțial în ultimul secol și a rămas problematic, în primul rând, datorită demolării majorității urmelor materiale ale fortificațiilor la începutul secolului al XVIII-lea, în vreme ce, investigarea lor arheologică se lasă încă așteptată. În condițiile expuse, prin cercetarea de față ne propunem o reluare a discuției legate de sursele istorice relevante pentru reconstituirea sistemului defensiv din secolele XV-XVII. Demersul nostru corelează puținele informații arheologice cu date extrase din literatura pragmatică, cu sursele narative și cu documentele cartografice, care ne oferă o imagine detaliată despre situația de la finalul secolului al XVII-lea. Sursele cartografice și contextul lor istoric sunt examinate în mod deosebit, deoarece au consemnat dispunerea spațială și prezența simultană a trei incinte fortificate una la interiorul celeilalte. Confruntarea surselor indică persistența castelului medieval în însuși miezul unei fortificații bastionare de la jumătatea secolului al XVI-lea, înconjurată la rândul său de mai ampla incintă a orașului. Motivation When observing the present-day built heritage of its historical centre, one is left utterly ignorant of the rich medieval and early modern history of Lipova (Lippa). The eighteenth-and nineteenth-century provincial aspect of this small town from Arad County is unrepresentative of its older days. The settlement's early onset remains a mystery for the most part, but the late medieval and early modern developments must be revisited due to some scholarly confusion and vagueness. The few scientific attempts to reconstruct the town's topography were too general or presented conflicting and unsupported conclusions. For over a century, contradicting plans of the town's early topography and fortification outline have circulated, with no detailed confrontation and systematic analysis of the two available variants of interpretation. Most contradictions are relative to the general aspect of the fortifications in Lipova, of which no physical traces are left due to their complete demolition by the early 1700s. These medieval and early modern defensive structures defined urban systematisation and spatial organisation. Any attempt to interpret other urban features still lacks a general coherent context. The unknowns range from the simultaneous number of fortifications directly connected to the late medieval and early modern settlement, their dating, exact location, extent, and particular architectural components.
Over the past two decades, the accelerated development of historical urban centers in Transylvani... more Over the past two decades, the accelerated development of historical urban centers in Transylvania has determined an increase in archaeological rescue interventions. The phenomenon was also documented in Cluj-Napoca. However, the legislative framework and the attitude of local decision-makers remain deficient in protecting and capitalizing on the built historical heritage and archaeological remains in the urban area. The lack of complex research programs focusing on Transylvanian urban environments has also enabled widespread ignorance regarding the archaeological remains of the modern period. The development of the entire field of study of urban historical archaeology has thus been inhibited. This field of archaeology provides the theoretical framework and methodological background for the research carried out in the second part of 2021 on three of the secondary streets of the historical center of Cluj:
The boat imprint unearthed at the site of the Benedictine abbey from Bizere (Frumuseni, Romania) ... more The boat imprint unearthed at the site of the Benedictine abbey from Bizere (Frumuseni, Romania) is a unique discovery for two reasons: its preservation as a negative imprint, due to its reuse for preparing mortar, and its dating back to the 12th century, based on the context of its discovery. It has been identified as a logboat, due to the absence of any technical details specific for plank boats, and now stands as the only vessel of this type with known dating for the territory of Romania. The article also enquires into the wider historical context of the discovery, thus bringing forth the archival data available with regard to medieval inland navigation.
As part of the historical landscape of the Transylvanian voivodat, the medieval road system benef... more As part of the historical landscape of the Transylvanian voivodat, the medieval road system benefits of scattered details and general information that scholars can use when attempting at its reconstruction. While the overall situation regarding major trade routes and public roads has been looked into based on archival data alone (due to their occurrence in late medieval charters and travel accounts or reports) almost no enquiry has been conducted with the aim of retrieving accurate details about the material aspects of the presumed routes. This paper is aiming at outlining the sources available for the study of the actual road tracks, by highlighting the importance of written, archaeological and cartographic evidence when it comes to identifying and rendering these particular landscape features. Despite the general impression of neglecting the development of engineered roads, late medieval local communities, individuals and even official authorities have sometimes addressed traffic problems by developing road segments, or by commanding maintenance work for already existing ones, including some special features found along the route ways, such as bridges. Apart from general archival information on the maintenance of bridges, ferries, fords and other facilities near toll-collection points, there are also examples as concerns the construction of new road segments, the reopening of dilapidated or blocked ones, as well as dugout road lanes, engineered access roads and paved roads. However, not all of these data can be obtained from written sources, thus, compelling one to have a look at the evidence found on the field and retrieved by archaeological and cartographic research.
The topic of medieval and early modern Transylvanian communication routes belongs to the research... more The topic of medieval and early modern Transylvanian communication routes belongs to the research fields of historical geography and landscape archaeology and it is difficult to approach from the perspective of certain categories of sources alone, as it was so far the case. While mostly handling written sources, historians have dealt especially with the questions regarding the major trade routes of the area, almost completely ignoring the exploration of the topic concerning local roads. This is the reason why the reconstruction of routes was seldom accompanied by field surveys. The present article seeks to fill in this particular gap in the case of the Râşnov Castle micro-region (Braşov County), where we have identified several hollow-ways carved in the mountain bedrock, with features pointing out towards an original destination as carriageways. The archaeological investigation focused on two segments, where the wheels of carriages have created deep erosion traces, especially in the steep slope areas. These were part of a dense road system, ranging across the northern and eastern areas surrounding the castle, and connecting it with the Saxon town of Râşnov as well as with some mountain roads running eastwards. The fortress has simultaneously or successively benefited of two access roads, of a segment connecting The Castle Valley with the old market town and crossing on the west end of The Castle Hill. A summit road ran in the direction of the northern hill, probably allowing a secondary communication way, with the outskirts of Râşnov and the route on The Ghimbăşel Valley, while a bifurcation of it went eastwards, towards the higher areas of the mountain massif. Apart from the Castle Valley road, each of them is defined by steep slope sectors, where the crossing was solved by carving out the stone. This particular feature allowed us to identify the tracks and to precisely map them. The retrieved field data gained credit as five of the identified roads have been depicted on the fist Austrian military survey of the region. This stands proof of the fact that the roads have been build and already in use by the second half of the 18th century, when, seemingly, the castle ceased to be inhabited. The dating of the road tracks during the late medieval and early modern periods considered the archaeological and the scarce documentary sources. The access road through Báthory Tower dates back to the building of the fortification, during the 14th century. The one reaching the Southern Gate, however, was built at a later date, concomitantly with the opening of the respective gate and the closing of the other entrances, at the beginning of the 17th century, if not prior. By the 16th century, at the latest, the inhabitants of Râşnov were aware of the advantages held by dugout passage ways. As mentioned by documents, they seem to have done maintenance work for the Bran road, in a sector where it had been carved in stone. This information allows us to assert that the local roads could have been built in the same period, if not at an earlier date. The technical features and traces of erosion identified in the hollowed segments allow the stating of general conclusions related to the dimensions of the wheeled vehicles and their standardization. All in all, we can assess that the roads in the surroundings of the castle effectively sustained local traffic, their identification and interpretation representing an important step towards the reconstruction of the area’s archaeological landscape.
The Haban ewer presented here is an exceptional archaeological find that became part of the herit... more The Haban ewer presented here is an exceptional archaeological find that became part of the heritage of the National Museum of Transylvanian History following the rescue excavations on Gaál Gábor Street in 2021. The piece, inscribed with the production year 1700, was recovered from the decommissioned well of the old Calvinist parsonage in Cluj (the Herepei House). Archival documents from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, together with artifacts preserved in public or private collections, prove the widespread popularity of Haban pottery due to its technical and aesthetic qualities during the heyday of the craft of Anabaptist potter communities in Moravia, the Hungarian Kingdom, and the Transylvanian Principality. The formal and stylistic analogies, together with the dating of the piece, point to its most likely production in the pottery workshop from Vințu de Jos (Alvinc/ Unterwinz, Alba County). This specimen is of the blue-glazed ceramic type, which became popular on the Transylvanian market during the second half of the seventeenth century and at the beginning of the subsequent one.
The successive administrations of Lipova (Lippa) from the end of the Middle Ages until the modern... more The successive administrations of Lipova (Lippa) from the end of the Middle Ages until the modern period determined numerous changes relative to its historical topography and urban structures, including its fortifications. The direct association of the settlement with the Hungarian royalty in the fourteenth century, the transition from the fifteenth-century oppidum to the urban status of the sixteenth century and the shaping of a regional administrative centre according to Ottoman traditions generated a highly dynamic historical topography. The scholarly debate on the fortified structures of Lipova can be traced back to the second half of the nineteenth century. Its unknowns and discussions range from the simultaneous number of fortifications directly connected to the late medieval urban centre, their dating, exact location, extent, and particular architectural components. In the last century, scientists revisited the topic circumstantially. It remained problematic, primarily because all the material traces of the fortifications were demolished at the beginning of the 1700s, and they still await archaeological investigations. In the stated circumstances, we resume discussing the available sources that can help us reconstruct the configuration of fortifications during the fifteenth-seventeenth centuries by presenting their potential. Our preliminary study confronts the sparse archaeological data with pragmatic literature, narrative sources, and highly overlooked cartographic documents. Above all, we examine the cartographic sources of the late seventeenth century and their historical context because they recorded the spatial outline and the coexistence of three fortified precincts one inside another. The combined sources show that the medieval castle persisted at the very core of a mid-sixteenth-century bastion fortification encircled by the ample town precinct. Rezumat: Administrațiile succesive sub care Lipova (Lippa) s-a aflat de la finalul Evului Mediu și până în perioada modernă au determinat multiple evoluții ale zestrei sale urbane. Asocierea directă a așezării cu regalitatea maghiară în secolul al XIV-lea, trecerea de la statutul de oppidum din secolul al XV-lea la cel urban din veacul următor și conturarea unui centru administrativ regional în spiritul tradițiilor otomane, în secolele XVI-XVII, au determinat și o dinamică a topografiei istorice. Abordările științifice referitoare la structurile fortificate din Lipova pot fi urmărite încă din a doua jumătate a secolului al XIX-lea. În legătură cu subiectul tratat, necunoscutele privesc numărul de fortificații existente simultan în perimetrul centrului urban medieval, datarea acestora, localizarea exactă, întinderea și componentele arhitecturale specifice fiecăreia. Subiectul a fost abordat doar circumstanțial în ultimul secol și a rămas problematic, în primul rând, datorită demolării majorității urmelor materiale ale fortificațiilor la începutul secolului al XVIII-lea, în vreme ce, investigarea lor arheologică se lasă încă așteptată. În condițiile expuse, prin cercetarea de față ne propunem o reluare a discuției legate de sursele istorice relevante pentru reconstituirea sistemului defensiv din secolele XV-XVII. Demersul nostru corelează puținele informații arheologice cu date extrase din literatura pragmatică, cu sursele narative și cu documentele cartografice, care ne oferă o imagine detaliată despre situația de la finalul secolului al XVII-lea. Sursele cartografice și contextul lor istoric sunt examinate în mod deosebit, deoarece au consemnat dispunerea spațială și prezența simultană a trei incinte fortificate una la interiorul celeilalte. Confruntarea surselor indică persistența castelului medieval în însuși miezul unei fortificații bastionare de la jumătatea secolului al XVI-lea, înconjurată la rândul său de mai ampla incintă a orașului. Motivation When observing the present-day built heritage of its historical centre, one is left utterly ignorant of the rich medieval and early modern history of Lipova (Lippa). The eighteenth-and nineteenth-century provincial aspect of this small town from Arad County is unrepresentative of its older days. The settlement's early onset remains a mystery for the most part, but the late medieval and early modern developments must be revisited due to some scholarly confusion and vagueness. The few scientific attempts to reconstruct the town's topography were too general or presented conflicting and unsupported conclusions. For over a century, contradicting plans of the town's early topography and fortification outline have circulated, with no detailed confrontation and systematic analysis of the two available variants of interpretation. Most contradictions are relative to the general aspect of the fortifications in Lipova, of which no physical traces are left due to their complete demolition by the early 1700s. These medieval and early modern defensive structures defined urban systematisation and spatial organisation. Any attempt to interpret other urban features still lacks a general coherent context. The unknowns range from the simultaneous number of fortifications directly connected to the late medieval and early modern settlement, their dating, exact location, extent, and particular architectural components.
Over the past two decades, the accelerated development of historical urban centers in Transylvani... more Over the past two decades, the accelerated development of historical urban centers in Transylvania has determined an increase in archaeological rescue interventions. The phenomenon was also documented in Cluj-Napoca. However, the legislative framework and the attitude of local decision-makers remain deficient in protecting and capitalizing on the built historical heritage and archaeological remains in the urban area. The lack of complex research programs focusing on Transylvanian urban environments has also enabled widespread ignorance regarding the archaeological remains of the modern period. The development of the entire field of study of urban historical archaeology has thus been inhibited. This field of archaeology provides the theoretical framework and methodological background for the research carried out in the second part of 2021 on three of the secondary streets of the historical center of Cluj:
The boat imprint unearthed at the site of the Benedictine abbey from Bizere (Frumuseni, Romania) ... more The boat imprint unearthed at the site of the Benedictine abbey from Bizere (Frumuseni, Romania) is a unique discovery for two reasons: its preservation as a negative imprint, due to its reuse for preparing mortar, and its dating back to the 12th century, based on the context of its discovery. It has been identified as a logboat, due to the absence of any technical details specific for plank boats, and now stands as the only vessel of this type with known dating for the territory of Romania. The article also enquires into the wider historical context of the discovery, thus bringing forth the archival data available with regard to medieval inland navigation.
As part of the historical landscape of the Transylvanian voivodat, the medieval road system benef... more As part of the historical landscape of the Transylvanian voivodat, the medieval road system benefits of scattered details and general information that scholars can use when attempting at its reconstruction. While the overall situation regarding major trade routes and public roads has been looked into based on archival data alone (due to their occurrence in late medieval charters and travel accounts or reports) almost no enquiry has been conducted with the aim of retrieving accurate details about the material aspects of the presumed routes. This paper is aiming at outlining the sources available for the study of the actual road tracks, by highlighting the importance of written, archaeological and cartographic evidence when it comes to identifying and rendering these particular landscape features. Despite the general impression of neglecting the development of engineered roads, late medieval local communities, individuals and even official authorities have sometimes addressed traffic problems by developing road segments, or by commanding maintenance work for already existing ones, including some special features found along the route ways, such as bridges. Apart from general archival information on the maintenance of bridges, ferries, fords and other facilities near toll-collection points, there are also examples as concerns the construction of new road segments, the reopening of dilapidated or blocked ones, as well as dugout road lanes, engineered access roads and paved roads. However, not all of these data can be obtained from written sources, thus, compelling one to have a look at the evidence found on the field and retrieved by archaeological and cartographic research.
The topic of medieval and early modern Transylvanian communication routes belongs to the research... more The topic of medieval and early modern Transylvanian communication routes belongs to the research fields of historical geography and landscape archaeology and it is difficult to approach from the perspective of certain categories of sources alone, as it was so far the case. While mostly handling written sources, historians have dealt especially with the questions regarding the major trade routes of the area, almost completely ignoring the exploration of the topic concerning local roads. This is the reason why the reconstruction of routes was seldom accompanied by field surveys. The present article seeks to fill in this particular gap in the case of the Râşnov Castle micro-region (Braşov County), where we have identified several hollow-ways carved in the mountain bedrock, with features pointing out towards an original destination as carriageways. The archaeological investigation focused on two segments, where the wheels of carriages have created deep erosion traces, especially in the steep slope areas. These were part of a dense road system, ranging across the northern and eastern areas surrounding the castle, and connecting it with the Saxon town of Râşnov as well as with some mountain roads running eastwards. The fortress has simultaneously or successively benefited of two access roads, of a segment connecting The Castle Valley with the old market town and crossing on the west end of The Castle Hill. A summit road ran in the direction of the northern hill, probably allowing a secondary communication way, with the outskirts of Râşnov and the route on The Ghimbăşel Valley, while a bifurcation of it went eastwards, towards the higher areas of the mountain massif. Apart from the Castle Valley road, each of them is defined by steep slope sectors, where the crossing was solved by carving out the stone. This particular feature allowed us to identify the tracks and to precisely map them. The retrieved field data gained credit as five of the identified roads have been depicted on the fist Austrian military survey of the region. This stands proof of the fact that the roads have been build and already in use by the second half of the 18th century, when, seemingly, the castle ceased to be inhabited. The dating of the road tracks during the late medieval and early modern periods considered the archaeological and the scarce documentary sources. The access road through Báthory Tower dates back to the building of the fortification, during the 14th century. The one reaching the Southern Gate, however, was built at a later date, concomitantly with the opening of the respective gate and the closing of the other entrances, at the beginning of the 17th century, if not prior. By the 16th century, at the latest, the inhabitants of Râşnov were aware of the advantages held by dugout passage ways. As mentioned by documents, they seem to have done maintenance work for the Bran road, in a sector where it had been carved in stone. This information allows us to assert that the local roads could have been built in the same period, if not at an earlier date. The technical features and traces of erosion identified in the hollowed segments allow the stating of general conclusions related to the dimensions of the wheeled vehicles and their standardization. All in all, we can assess that the roads in the surroundings of the castle effectively sustained local traffic, their identification and interpretation representing an important step towards the reconstruction of the area’s archaeological landscape.
Per la sede del convegno da Piazzale Aldo Moro 5 raggiungere la facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia -M... more Per la sede del convegno da Piazzale Aldo Moro 5 raggiungere la facoltà di Lettere e Filosofia -Museo dell'Arte Classica -Aula Odeion.
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