Iron Age Connectivity in the Carpathian Basin Târgu Mureş
13–15 October 2017

Iron Age Conectivity

Friday, 13th October 2017

–16.30 Arrival
17.00–17.20 Opening
17.20–18.40 Session 1
18.40–19.00 Break
19.00–20.40 Session 2
20.40– Dinner

Saturday, 14th October 2017

09.00–10.40 Session 3
10.40–11.00 Break
11.00–12.40 Session 4
12.40–15.00 Lunch
15.00–16.40 Session 5
16.40–17.00 Break
17.00–18.40 Session 6
19.30– Dinner

Sunday, 15th October 2017

09.00–17.00 Castles Tour:
Gorneşti / Brâncoveneşti / Gurghiu
Lunch at White Horse Restaurant Gorneşti

Program

Friday, 13th October


Session 1

17:20–18:40
Chair: Marija Ljuština

Sylvie Griot (Paris, FR) – Nathalie Ginoux (Paris, FR)

Trans-Carpathian connections in long-distance and interregional context during the Second Iron Age

Maciej Karwowski (Vienna, AT) – Jiří Militký (Prague, CZ)

The Oberleiserberg and its cross-regional connections

Peter C. Ramsl (Vienna, AT / Nitra, SK)

Interregional relations and connections in Central Europe’s Iron Age

Discussions


Session 2

19:00–20:40
Chair: Marko Dizdar

Marko Dizdar (Zagreb, HR)

Reflections about some specific finds of the female costume in the South-eastern Carpathian Basin – Can we recognize female mobility in the Middle La Tène?

Ivan Drnić (Zagreb, HR)

Iron Age settlement in Sisak (Croatia) and its position in the Iron Age communication network

Vladimir Mihajlović (Novi Sad, RS)

Changing connectivity in the Late Iron Age south Pannonia

Marek Budaj (Bratislava, SK) – Radoslav Čambal (Bratislava, SK) – Branislav Kovár (Nitra, SK)

Late La Tène oppidum in Bratislava

Discussions


Saturday, 14th October


Session 3

09:00–10:40
Chair: Mitja Guštin

Károly Tankó (Budapest, HU)

Celts and Scythians in the Late Iron Age cemetery at Gyöngyös

Attila Horváth M. (Budapest, HU)

Southern connections of the Celtic cemetery in Csepel

Péter Kovács F. (Szolnok, HU)

Traces of local interactions and regional connections in the Middle Tisza Region

Sándor Berecki (Târgu Mureş, RO)

Connected elites. Middle La Tène chariots in the Carpathian Basin

Discussions


Session 4

11:00–12:40
Chair: Maciej Karwowski

Aurel Rustoiu (Cluj-Napoca, RO) – Sándor Berecki (Târgu Mureş, RO)

Silver jewellery in the early La Tène cemeteries from Banat. The hybridization of body ornaments

Andrei Georgescu (Timişoara, RO)

A warrior’s beauty? Variations of a burial custom throughout the Carpathian Basin

Malvinka Urák (Cluj-Napoca, RO) – Corina Ionescu (Cluj-Napoca, RO / Tatarstan, RU) – Ágnes Gál (Cluj-Napoca, RO)

Setting or following the trend? Double-lyre stamped pottery from settlement features of the Middle Mureș Valley

Paul Pupeză (Cluj-Napoca, RO)

Between Celts, Thracians and Greeks. The cemetery from Cepari, Romania

Discussions


Session 5

15:00–16:40
Chair: Peter C. Ramsl

Horea Pop (Zalău, RO) – Iosif Vasile Ferencz (Deva, RO)

La Tène mobility in the Şimleu Depression. About a Celtic grave found in Zalău, Romania

Iosif Vasile Ferencz (Deva, RO)

Middle La Tène settlement network in south-western Transylvania

Mariana Egri (Cluj-Napoca, RO)

Between contact zones and contested peripheries – meanings and functions in the eastern Carpathian Basin during the Late Iron Age

Andreea Drăgan (Cluj-Napoca, RO)

Connecting land, connecting people. The role of the Danube in the flow of objects into Dacia during the late La Tène

Discussions


Session 6

17:00–18:40
Chair: Mariana Egri

Adrian Cătălin Căsălean (Cluj-Napoca, RO)

Mureş valley as a route of interactions between southern Transylvania and northern Italy during the Late Iron Age

Marija Ljuština (Belgrade, RS) – Teodora Radišić (Belgrade, RS)

La Tène agricultural implements in the Vojvodina Region, Serbia: tradition and innovation

Ivan Vranić (Belgrade, RS)

‘Celtic’ connection in the Central Balkans during the 3rd–1st centuries BC: a case study of the site Kale-Krševica

Daniel Spânu (Bucharest, RO)

Two batches of late La Tène weapons and adornments discovered around Târgu Jiu, Romania

Discussions


Abstracts

Trans-Carpathian connections in long-distance and interregional context during the Second Iron Age
Sylvie Griot – Nathalie Ginoux

This paper examines the Trans-Carpathian connections during the Second Iron Age in order to enlighten some issues related to mobility, frontiers and relationships between West and East Celts and their neighbouring peoples during the Second Iron Age. In this purpose the focus will be on metal artefacts found in funerary contexts dated from the third century BC to the beginning of the first century AD, in the geographic area referring to the current Transcarpathia. The aim is to provide a renewed methodological framework integrating new approaches in the analysis of the objects and artefacts in order to explore the historical, economic and cultural issues related to the reception of the La Tène culture in this geographic area, as a complex intercultural process involving institutions, social models, technical and communication systems (including non-verbal such as costume and clothing) and iconography.

The Oberleiserberg and its cross-regional connections
Maciej Karwowski – Jiří Militký

The La Tène culture hilltop settlement on the Oberleiserberg in Lower Austria has a special significance for the subject addressed during this year's colloquium in Târgu Mureş. Long-term archaeological excavation and regular surface surveys of this site have produced an exceptionally rich archaeological and numismatic assemblage attesting occupation by the people of the La Tène culture. The analysis of finds from the Oberleiserberg demonstrates the relations and contacts between the Middle Danube region and the neighbouring areas, most of all those inhabited by the Celtic tribes of Taurisci and Scordisci, but also with the ‘Germanic North’. Some of these finds represent imports, others point to the spread of ideas or supra-regional stylistic influences. No other site of the La Tène culture north of the Danube displays such an extensive collection of archaeological and numismatic finds pointing to close contacts with the Celtic south. At the same time, no other site on the Middle Danube delivered so good evidence of intensive relations with the areas north of the of the La Tène culture.

Interregional relations and connections in Central Europe’s Iron Age
Peter C. Ramsl

Starting with the La Tène cemeteries in Lower Austria I want to show some lines of connections and postulated relations between selected areas in central Europe. As mentioned before, the so-called La Tène culture seems to be a big network of local cultural phenomena, hence a communication system.
The first part of this paper deals with the late Hallstatt and early La Tène burials: here, we can see strong connections between Lower Austria and western French areas like Champagne, Ardennes, Picardie and Ille de France. Next to it, also in settlement material can be seen long distance connections and innovations in ceramics.
Another point are the evident connections of ‘armed persons’ between Eastern Austria and other parts of the Keltiké like todays Hungary, Croatia, Romania, France and Swiss. At this part, also the discussion about the sense and meaning of the term ‘warrior’ will be mentioned.
Finally, it will be discusses how these networks, communication systems etc. worked and what was their influence to people and society.

Reflections about some specific finds of the female costume in the south-eastern Carpathian Basin – Can we recognize female mobility in the Middle La Tène?
Marko Dizdar

A characteristic part of the female costume in the south-eastern part of the Carpathian Basin during the Middle La Tène phase are various types of iron and bronze belts and fibulae. Unfortunately, for the greatest number of finds we are missing any data of the circumstances of discovery, except how probably they coming from destroyed cremation burials because very often they show traces of burning. Some finds of bronze belts (i.e. belts composed of lyra-shaped segments with variants) clearly demonstrate a local female costume in the observed area, while some finds belongs to the wider distributed types in the eastern part of the Carpathian Basin (i.e. so-called Hungarian type of belts composed of rectangular segments). Interestingly, finds of some specific belt segments at sites in the south-eastern Carpathian Basin have analogies which are documented in Central Europe and south-eastern Alpine region (i.e. belts composed of rod-shape segments, belts of the Nĕmčice type etc.). These finds probably indicate existence of contacts, but also open up the possibility of female mobility during the Middle La Tène phase.

Iron Age settlement in Sisak (Croatia) and its position in the Iron Age communication network
Ivan Drnić

The settlement around the confluence of the Kupa and Sava rivers was established in the Early Iron Age at the prominent position at the crossroad between Pannonia, the eastern Adriatic coast, south-eastern Alps, and the middle Danube region. Recent excavations, combined with the results of geophysical survey, suggest that in the late Hallstatt period (6th – 4th c. BC) the settlement had well organized internal structure with dwellings organized in rectangular grid. The material from this period, originating not only from the excavations but also from the dreadgins of the Kupa River, indicates connections with several neighbouring cultural groups, such as Dolenjska Hallstatt group in the west, Iapodi group in the south, and also with the communities in the middle Sava basin (Donja dolina) and western Balkans (Sanski Most) in the east.
The settlement kept its role as an exchange and production centre also in the Late Iron Age, when the Carpathian basin became an integral part of the La Tène culture. Archaeological material, primarily metal finds, confirms contacts not only with the neighbouring Mokronog group of the Taurisci, but also with communities in the upper Kupa (the Vinica group) and middle Una valleys to the south. The finds that are indicating certain contacts with the south-eastern Pannonia, which was inhabited by the communities known from the classical sources as the Scordisci, are of the special interest. The role in the supraregional network of the Late Iron Age is confirmed by the presence of the various ‘Celtic’ coins, Roman Republican denarii and drachmas of Dyrrhachium, as well as the rare fragments of the Late Republican bronze vessels. The site’s exceptional position in the Pannonian Late Iron Age communication network is also confirmed by the ancient texts (Strabo, Appian) which mention it under the name of Segest(ic)a. In 35 BC the Late Iron Age settlement was conquered by the Roman army which established the garrison at this position as the key point for further advance into the Pannonian plain.

Changing connectivity in the late Iron Age south Pannonia
Vladimir D. Mihajlović

The late Iron Age of the southern Pannonia and the central Balkans is the period whose dynamics are traditionally explained by turbulent ethnic changes and turnovers of domination of various ‘tribes’. By uncritical acceptance of ancient narratives on ‘barbarians’, and simplistic understanding of collective names preserved in written accounts as clear ethnic denominations, archaeologist tended to explain the late Iron Age through the discourse of autochthonous and/or foreign tribal groups which had successively risen and spread, fell and shrank, living specific material culture as apparent ethnic indicator. While this (culture-historical) paradigm implicitly recognizes connectivity as a sort of socio-cultural driving force, it does so exclusively by ethnic criteria, which is standpoint fraught with many serious flaws and methodological difficulties.
Against traditional perspective it is possible to argue that the late Iron Age of southern Pannonia and central Balkans operated not by ethnic or tribal alterations but through construction and negotiation of various types and levels of overall connectivity. I will try to propose the outline of three mayor switches of how these relationalities worked and were changed in the course of last 500 years BCE. Starting from the period of so called princely graves the first substantial transition took place in 4th c. BCE and led to the era of long distance, highly volatile and short-termed connections of very mobile, heterogeneous and predominately martial groups. The networks they had constructed were characterized by changeable and ‘week’ mutual links which have left specific archaeological picture of very rare and ephemeral settlement traces, necropolises of relatively long timespans but generally small number of deceased, and roughly similar material culture in wide geographical area (so called La Tène koine). This kind of connectivity was replaced during 2nd c. BCE with a different type of networking characterized by higher sedentism and binding to land (through newly established settlements), entrenched settlements as social focal points, diversification and intensification of economic activities, increased number of necropolises and buried individuals, and possible emergence of micro-regional polities. The period was marked by stronger connections inside local or short-distance level, meaning more stable, profound and interdependent relations of the actors involved. In the same time, this modus operandi could have enabled increased territoriality of the late La Tène communities as well as greater social diversification within them. The final change came with incorporation of the southern Pannonia and the central Balkans with the Roman Empire when social connectivity was determined by Roman administrative and hierarchical structure. This meant gradual definition of relationalities built through differentiations peculiar to imperial socio-political order which involved specific determination of statuses of population, land and settlements deeply transforming local social life.

Late La Tène Oppidum in Bratislava
Marej Budaj – Radoslav Čambal – Branislav Kovár

The oppidum of Bratislava is the most intensively explored late La Tène site from the area of current Slovakia. In spite of this simple fact, new archaeological excavations, often conducted as a result of intensive building activity, are resulting in new information about settlement character of the late La Tène period.
In the area of Bratislava, late La Tène period is connected with Celtic tribe of Boii, who may have settled in the area of current capital of Slovakia either after their defeat in northern Italy in 191 BC, or they had penetrated here under the pressure of the Old Germans from the northwest, in the second third of the 1st century BC. It may be this second migration that Caesar is mentioning in his writings as an attack of Boii on the Noreia, the centre of the Celtic kingdom of Noricum, between the years 64/63 BC.
Roughly in this time, or shortly before, the second wave of Boii settled in the wider area of today's Bratislava. Obviously an important role was played by region's advantageous location at the crossroads of trade routes – a Danubian route, leading from the west to the east, and the Amber route, commencing in Aquileia and heading north, along the Morava river, up to the Baltic Sea.
The centre of tribe was at the oppidum of Bratislava, which acropolis was located at today’s Castle Hill. Foundations of stone architectures, undoubtedly works of Roman builders, were discovered in the area of Bratislava Castle. Some of the buildings had mosaic floors. They testify very tight commercial and perhaps political relations of the local elite with the territory of the Roman Empire. Mutual trade is also documented by countless findings of Roman amphorae.
La Tène archaeological finds are not concentrated solely on the acropolis. From Bratislava we know several other places with intensive Celtic presence. From the area of Old City we have a documented existence of a massive stone wall. We know about a specialised settlement engaged in the production of ceramics in wider city centre.
From the area of Bratislava, there are several depots of silver coins, which were minted in several sizes and followed examples of ancient Roman coinage. In the period of the flourishing of the oppidum, large silver tetradrachs of Biatec-type are minted, dated back to the 70–40 BC. The archaeological material contains several foreign imports (Dacian, Germanic, Norician and Roman origin).
The power of Boii tribe was broken by the wars with Dacian king Burebista, which could have taken place between the years 48–44 BC. According to the most recent knowledge, the occupation was only short-lived, and the area of today's Bratislava soon came under the influence of the neighbouring Celtic tribe of Norici, what could be assumed looking at some archaeological finds (bronze imports, pottery with thickened club-shaped rims, etc.).
The intermittent times during the conflict from the middle of the 1st century BC are also proven by the find of the catastrophic horizon under the rock-cliff of the Castle Hill, at the site of historical suburb of Vydrica. Several scattered human skeletons were found there, all unburied. Two catastrophic horizon were found in Old Town, too.
In 15 BC, the kingdom of Norici was incorporated into the Roman Empire. This is probably related to the presence of the Roman outpost on the nearby Devín Castle Hill, where the remains of the Celtic population survived up to the first third of the 1st century AD. With the arrival of the Germans, Celtic occupation of the south-western Slovakia came to end in the first half of the 1st century. Descendants of the Boii lived under Roman domination only in the areas south of the river Danube, where they gradually assimilated.
All these contexts are confirming a privileged position of the oppidum in Bratislava in the late La Tène period.

Celts and Scythians in the Late Iron Age cemetery at Gyöngyös
Károly Tankó

In the foreground of Mátra Mountains – a few kilometres to the west from the recently published Celtic necropolis of Ludas–Varjú-dűlő – several graves of a Late Iron Age cemetery were discovered by the cooperation of István Dobó Castle Museum (Eger) and Eötvös Loránd University (Budapest) during the winter of 2015–2016. At the site of Gyöngyös–Külső-Mérges-patak 1, a biritual cemetery of the La Tène period was unearthed. In some cases the burials can be connected without doubt to the population of the Vekerzug Culture (or Alföld Group) featuring Scythian characteristics. This is not surprising since the excavation of the Late Iron Age settlement at Sajópetri–Hosszú-dűlő, where according to the finds a significant population of Scythian origin lived beside the Celts during the La Tène period. The ceramics recovered here represent both the western traditions of the Celts as well as the conventional pottery making of Scythian origin. The necropolis contained both cremation and inhumation graves and also two symbolic graves – a proportion which corresponds to other cemeteries in North-eastern Hungary. The unearthing of 154 burials from the Late Iron Age is an unexpected result, and the cemetery of Gyöngyös should be considered among the important necropolises of Hungary according to the richness and high quality of finds.

Southern connections of the Celtic cemetery in Csepel
Attila Horváth M.

It seems, that a number of the 107 object which were found in the LT B-C period cemetery on Csepel Island in the XXIst district of Budapest are closely related to the southern groups of the early Celtic era. Similar findings have mainly appeared among the inhumation burials. It is important to mention that the archaeologists has a difficult job since in Central Europe and in the middle of the Carpathian Basin there are several impacts which can be pointed out among findings of the different ethnical groups. Through the proceeding of the publication, possible blunders can occur since it is very difficult to make a difference between the western and the southern elements of the Celtic inheritance on Csepel Island.
Even so, it might not be a bold statement that the findings of the Celtic cemetery on Csepel Island produce a European collection that cannot be fitted into any Celtic findings as a whole, however, it can be connected to the whole culture of the eastern Celts.

Traces of local interactions and regional connections in the Middle Tisza Region
Péter F. Kovács

During the Iron Age three different cultural blocks can be distinguished in the Middle-Tisza Region. In the turn of the 9/8 century BC the Pre-Scythian culture appears, although remains of the culture are sporadic. The number of known and investigated sites are rather small also there are no published archaeological material from this region. The only exception is the notable Besenyszög–Fokoru puszta site where a Pre-Scythian gold hoard was found. Its cultural roots were deeply and widely researched and published by well-known scholars.
In the period of Middle Iron Age the settlement finds and the burial costumes alike reflect the earlier autochthone population and the cultural impact of ‘new comers’ from the Eastern European steppe region. Its new mixture shapes the main attributes of the Vekerzug culture in the Middle Tisza Region. In a unique case the influence of classical Hellenistic civilisation can also be detected on a Scythian pseudo kylix shaped bowl.
The interaction between the local Scythian or Vekerzug people and the Celts or La Tène people is more visible during the first part of the Late Iron Age. Well known examples known from the cemetery of Jászberény–Cserőhalom. The cultural exchange can be illustrated with several grave goods, i.e. handmade potteries with strong Vekerzug style attributes. Another example can be mentioned from the vicinity of Kunszentmárton where the burial costumes show the result of cultural exchange. The interaction is less visible on the settlement sites. Since the first steps of archaeological processing (washing, restoration, inventorying) is still backward only a few example can be mentioned. Such as Tiszapüspöki–Holt-Tisza-part site, where a small settlement section and a house with mixed style potteries were excavated. Other examples can be found at Jászberény–Almási tanya, Túrkeve–Burkus or Jászkisér–Ludas.
However, no doubt that examining of identity and its changes is one of the most important and difficult crucial points of the Late Iron Age archaeology of the Great Hungarian Plain.
Another point is to map extra- and intraregional contacts and study non-local goods and materials. During the Iron Age stone tools i.e. millstones, grindstones, wet stones could form one of these groups in question as being originated in the North Hungarian Mountains. In the Middle Iron Age cowry also shows different connections, as it most likely came from the Pontic area. In the La Tène period there are two other material groups: a raw material, namely the graphite and a product, the sapropelit bracelet. Both most likely come from the territory of Bohemia. In the case of graphite archaeometrical studies confirm the origin, while the sapropelit show a more complex background.
Coins form another source to imagine networks of the Late Iron Age. However there are only three coins in the study area with a probable connection to Transylvania.
Through these examples it is possible to recognize a multidimensional and transforming network during the Iron Age. In the early period Besenyszög hoard shows dominant eastern influences and local styles, and in the middle phase local traditions are still detectable along with links to the Pontic region. During the Late Iron Age the system has deeply changed. Interactions between the two cultural blocks, i.e. the Vekerzug and the La Tène cultures can be sporadically but clearly detected, and in some cases emergence of a new identity is also visible. The strong eastern and Pontic connections became weaker, and limited to Transylvania, while Western influence dominates the raw materials, and non-local goods.
Consequently, the Middle Tisza region is adapting the cultural trends of the Great Hungarian Plain in the first millennia BC, which will be presented through a number of local examples.

Connected elites. Middle La Tène chariots in the Carpathian Basin
Sándor Berecki

Chariots are outstanding product of the Late Iron Age craftsmen all over Europe, with complex cultural, military and religious role in the self-identification of the military elite. Our paper is analysing the chariots and chariot parts dated to the fourth–second centuries BC discovered in the central and eastern area of the Carpathian Basin, east of the Danube. These finds are the two chariot tyres from Hatvan/Boldog, the chariot parts dated to the LT C1 period from Arnót, the LT C1 grave from Balsa, the graves with chariot elements from Curtuiuşeni, Dezmir, Toarcla and Cristuru Secuiesc, the grave with a linch pin from Fântânele, the incidentally discovered linch pin from Gălăoaia and the linch pins from Apahida. Even if most of these finds were unearthed before the IIWW and the information regarding the details of their discovery are scarce, chariots in graves are important markers of the Late Iron Age elite all over Europe.

Silver jewellery in the early La Tène cemeteries from Banat. The hybridization of body ornaments
Aurel Rustoiu – Sándor Berecki

The analysis of silver jewellery from the La Tène cemeteries in Banat indicates that the finds come from different cultural areas. Some of them, for example the saddle-shaped silver rings, belong to the La Tène cultural areas in Central–Western Europe, whereas others, for example the twisted neck-rings and bracelets, originate from the indigenous environment in the north-western Balkans. At the same time, the ornaments made in the filigree technique illustrate the contribution of jewellery workshops from the eastern Mediterranean and the northern Balkans. The manner in which all of these jewelleries were integrated into the costume assemblages identified in Banat points to the hybridization of bodily ornamentation that is part of the more general process of cultural amalgamation which started after the Celtic colonization of the eastern and southern Carpathian Basin.
The integration of indigenous population into the new communities which appeared after the arrival of the Celtic groups differed from one area or social group to another. In some cases the locals adopted costumes or body ornaments specific to the newcomers, pointing to the tendency to integrate themselves into the new communities, even if certain funerary practices of local origin were still preserved. In other cases, mostly within the elites, certain traditional ornaments were combined with costume accessories of LT origin, leading to the hybridization of costume assemblages which were meant to ‘communicate’ a particular social identity in relation with both the indigenous population and the newcomers.
On the other hand, the colonist groups preserved in general their own dressing style which is illustrated by the unchanged use, typologically and functionally, of certain ornaments and garment accessories specific to their Central European homeland. Moreover, the social contacts established between the elites of the communities from Banat and those from the northern and north-western Balkans, as well as the individual mobility, played an important role in the circulation of certain ‘fashionable’ elements, like jewellery and garment accessories. These were taken over and adapted to the dressing requirements of each community or social group.

A warrior’s beauty? Variations of a burial custom throughout the Carpathian Basin
Andrei Georgescu

A little over 20 years have passed since P. Treherne wrote his paper concerning beautification as a mean of emphasizing the status of the individual. Although it focused on the Bronze Age elites, his paper was often used as reference when Late Iron Age toiletries accessories where being discussed. During the early and middle La Tène period in the Carpathian Basin, toiletries have often been associated with male warrior elites. However, due to the heterogeneous nature of the communities the custom of placing beautification items in graves has varied from one community to another.
The aim of this paper is the study of the distribution and variation of this burial custom in the Carpathian Basin, from a statistical and contextual point of view. The methodology relies on the analysis of variables of the individual burial (objects association, position, funerary rite etc.) but also on some of the structural aspects of the entire community (percentage of warriors, geography etc.). Due to this aspect, the study focuses on the major necropolises from different areas of the Carpathian Basin. These kinds of cemeteries offer a good insight into the social structure and cultural connections of the communities that were buried there. Another purpose of this paper is to observe how this custom is influenced by the social status or gender of the deceased and how these manifestations vary from one community to another.
Burial rituals are dynamic phenomena that are subject to both change and continuity especially in environments characterized by high degrees of individual and group mobility. It is for this reason that the present paper tries to bring new insights into the cultural connections and the construction of individual and group identities by pointing out the similarities and difference, the presence or absence, and the frequency of a burial custom present in the entire Carpathian Basin.

Making or following the trend? Middle La Tène double-lyre stamped pottery from the Middle Mureş Valley (Romania)
Malvinka Urák, Corina Ionescu, Ágnes Gál

The two newly discovered sites from Orosia and Cuci (Kutyfalva), in the Mureş County (Romania), include Late Bronze Age and Late Iron Age (Middle La Tène) settlements. The latter contain a high number of potsherds, some of them displaying interesting decorative stamped elements, e.g. in the shape of four separated S-letters, so-called ‘double-lyre’ motif. This specific pattern for the Middle La Tène pottery, connected to funerary practices is presumed to originate in the area occupied by Easten Celts. So far more than ten similar findings are recorded across Europe.
The Orosia stamped brownish-cream potsherds were unearthed in a dwelling and in a bi-chambered pottery kiln, therefore are not related to a funerary site. The stamped sherds were stacked within the firing chamber together with other pottery remnants, such as graphite-coated and burnished ones. The stamped pottery from Cuci has a brownish-cream body coated with a black slip. The sherds were found also in a dwelling.
Archaeologically, there several questions arising here. Is this stamped pottery imported or local product? In the latter case, did the local potters copy the motifs due to a ‘fashion trend’ reason? Or these sites were really production places from where the motifs have been spread? Are the sherds in a secondary position, being deposited after the kiln wasn’t used anymore, or are kiln wastes? Are the sherds and their stamped motifs found in the dwelling similar to those found in the kiln? Did the potters use one or more stamping tools, at the same time?
Our preliminary study aims to answer at least to some of the above mentioned questions. Besides the basic archaeological methods, other investigations have been performed. Stereoscopic macroscopy, polarized light optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction studied the macroscopical features, the mineralogical composition, microstructure and microtexture of the ceramic sherds. The changes in the diffraction patterns allowed inferring some technological aspects, in particular the firing conditions.
Acknowledgments. C.I. and A.G. acknowledge support of project PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2016-0229 (Romanian Ministry of Education and Ministry of Research). C.I. thanks for the support of “Program of competitive growth of Kazan Federal University among world class academic centers and universities".

Between Celts, Thracians and Greeks. The cemetery from Cepari, Romania
Paul Pupeză

Cepari is located in the northeast of the Carpathian Basin, in a relatively rich area in Celtic discoveries. The cemetery was discovered accidentally in 1941, when the first archaeological researches were made, followed by new campaigns in 1969 and 1979. The graves were of cremation in urns. The total number of graves found is difficult to establish (12?), because the recent findings were not yet identified. This presentation is about the 7 graves discovered in 1941; the funerary inventories of these graves are deposited at the National Museum of Transylvanian History. Although the funerary inventories are modest (ceramic fragments, objects of iron and bronze), they are diverse in origin: Celtic, Thracian and Greek.

La Tène mobility in the Şimleu Depression. About a Celtic grave found in Zalău, Romania
Horea Pop – Iosif Vasile Ferencz

From geomorphological point of view Şimleu Depression is a well-defined, closed area. This geographical territory has a tectonic origin, delimited by the Meseș Mountains, Plopiș Montains, Șimleului Hummock and Sălajului Hills, where the Crasna and Barcău rivers are the main watercourses. Though archaeological discoveries indicate the settling of the region from the earliest times, until recently La Tène discoveries were almost missing.
During the small scale rescue excavations which strictly followed the path of the pipe ditch from Zalău–Dealul Lupului (Wolf Hill) lead by Sanda and Dan Băcueț Crișan, in 2005 among other finds – severely affected by agriculture – from the Stone and Middle Ages (8th century) two Late Iron Age cremation graves were also uncovered. While one of them was almost entirely destroyed by agriculture (only a few pottery fragments and the burned bones were kept), the second was much better preserved, its inventory consisting of a sword with scabbard, pottery and other objects.
It was supposed for the Şimleu Depression that during the 4th–2nd c. BC ‘Celtic’ La Tène communities did not colonise this region, since discoveries were only known westwards and eastwards of it. The two recently investigated features shred a new light on the importance and the role of this region, allowing us to rethink individual and collective contacts and mobility during the Late Iron Age in Transylvania and northern Romania.

Middle La Tène settlement network in south-western Transylvania
Iosif Vasile Ferencz

Mureș River is playing an outstanding role in the history of South-western Transylvania. On it’s two banks established and habited human communities during the time on many historical epochs, facilitating traveling upstream, to the Transylvanian plateau or downstream, towards Pannonia. The Late Iron Age discoveries are documented on the Mureş River’s terraces and on its main tributaries. This paper presents the La Tène discoveries on a sector placed between Șeușa and Tărtăria – an intensively investigated region – beginning with the LT C1 period (more or less the second half of the 3rd century and the first half of the 2nd century BC).
Settlements were established on the high terraces and very rarely in the flood plain of the rivers. Settlements are formed by small groups of houses found at considerable distances one from another, like at Lancrăm–Glod, where there were 100 m between two pit houses, or at Morești, where all of the houses were concentrated on a quarter of hectare.
In the analysed micro-region from the Mureş Valley settlements are situated close one to the other, forming a small network of communities with similar habitation characteristics and lifestyle.

Between contact zones and contested peripheries – meanings and functions in the eastern Carpathian Basin during the Late Iron Age
Mariana Egri

The ‘contact zone’ and the ‘contested periphery’ are two concepts invented by social anthropologists aiming to understand the mechanisms that shaped the interactions between various social-political entities in the past and present. Both concepts were developed within the so-called World Systems theory and its more recent offshoots, and both were also taken over and used by archaeologists, especially by those interested in the relationships between powerful social-political entities and their supposedly less-developed neighbours. Although the World Systems theory and its variants, including the so-called ‘core – periphery’ interpretative model, were criticised during the last couple of decades for putting too much emphasis on foreign goods as status symbols driving social change, while the internal socio-political and economic structural transformations experienced by many local communities tended to be overlooked, the aforementioned concepts seem to have retained their interpretative value.
Thus a few recent theoretical studies underlined their potential within the so-called network theory, which offers an alternative approach that looks for structures which facilitate the development of intensive connectivity at different spatial and social scales, and consequently, is less focused on economic factors or elite actions. Network analysis provides a series of useful tools that helps our understanding of the variable spatial, social and cultural dynamics of human interactions and their equally different outcome.
Some recent anthropological and archaeological studies have shown that both the ‘contact zones’ and the ‘contested peripheries’ are characterized by very dynamic environments which facilitate the development of different types of more-or-less formal connectivities between various social groups or even individuals, often reaching distant territories and communities. They also contributed significantly to the perception of the ‘other’ far away from their formal reach. Thus, at interpretative level, they are especially useful for understanding the relationships established between expanding social-political entities, like the empires, and their neighbours.
Accordingly, the paper is going to analyse, on the basis of some case-studies, the specificities of certain ‘contact zones’ that emerged at the periphery of the eastern Carpathian Basin during the Late Iron Age, as a consequence of the Roman expansion. The analysis is also going to bring into discussion the impact of these ‘contact zones’ on the evolution of local and regional networks of social-political and economic interaction, and their role in shaping the various localized images of the Roman power through time.

Connecting land, connecting people. The role of the Danube in the flow of objects into Dacia during the late La Tène
Andreea Drăgan

The Danube is the largest waterflow that connects the central and eastern Europe. Its importance in this purpose is easily recognised and has been largely recorded by the Greek or Roman texts. Particularly, with the Roman advance towards the borders of Dacia, the river played an essential role in the circulation of troops and with it of objects. The arrival of Roman objects was however recognized already before. In this process, the large tributaries of the Danube, particularly the Sava river, were paramount. The Danube and its tributaries favoured the development of centres through which Italic products and of another provenience were redistributed (see for example Nauportus). However, some of the large centres established on the Danube had a similar importance during the Late Iron Age (of particular importance to us is the settlements in the area of Budapest). These centres will gradually develop their market on the Dacia territory, sometimes acting through agents installed in the Dacian settlements. The use of a Roman monetary system in Dacia starting around the rule of Burebista suggests the adaptation of the local market to the main commercial sources.
Beginning with the first century BC the preponderant influence of the southern Hellenistic cultural milieu in Dacia, signalled by the direct presence of objects or indirectly by the emulation of Hellenistic elements, is replaced by an increasing presence of artefacts from the west, particularly provincial products. Just as before, the introduction of objects into Dacia triggered the creation of original products taking after the new arrivals. The aim of the presentation is to index the finds whose main area of use and production can be identified on the Middle Danube. Based on the distribution of the finds, communication and exchange routes along the Danube and its tributaries will be drawn. In the end, this allows us to observe patterns and phases of interaction between the Middle Danube and the Dacian area, as well as the role played by the Danube in intermediating it.

Mureş Valley as a route of interactions between southern Transylvania and northern Italy during the Late Iron Age
Adrian Cătălin Căsălean

The study analyses the roman imports discovered at the Dacian fortresses from Ardeu–Cetățuie, Hunedoara County and Piatra Craivii, Alba County. Situated at the north of the Mureş River, in the Apuseni Mountains, the fortresses show an abundance of roman imports, that are functionally divers, discovered in various contexts and dated in the archaeological literature from the end of the 2nd century BC to the beginning of the 2nd century AD. Methodologically, the study aims to gather all the known imported roman artefacts from Ardeu and the entire batch of published roman imports from Piatra Craivii.
I should try to put ‘in the mirror’ this two sites, because of their location, in Apuseni Mountains, not far one from the other. The archaeological materials will be listed into two separate databases, with their functional purposes, contexts, dating and analogies reanalysed, in order to observe new aspects of the interaction with the roman world. The analysed material will be used to give possible answers to problems regarding the consumers that procured roman imports, their preference and reason for such a purchase, how the Dacian community used those items and what was the signification that those artefacts carried in the ‘barbarian’ society.
Furthermore, a great deal of attention will be given for the means of procuring such items in the ‘barbarian’ area, following the possibility of war-like actions, trading, gift giving and the presence of some roman craftsmen in pre-roman Dacia. After establishing the consumers, the study will emphasize on the importance of the Mureş valley, as a route of interaction. It is known that the Mureş River was navigable as far as Alba Iulia town before the Medieval Age, and also it was the most facile route towards Transylvania from the Danube. The presence of such prosperous fortresses in these Late Iron Ages, as well as others, like the Dacian fortresses from Orăștie mountains, suggest that Dacian communities thrived in the proximity of the Mureş and used it to exchange information, goods and ideas with the ‘world’.

La Tène agricultural implements in the Vojvodina region, Serbia: tradition and innovation
Marija Ljuština – Teodora Radišić

Research into economic activities of past communities provides a necessary share of knowledge for comprehension of their lifestyle, social organisation and changes within societies. Among the diverse activities, agriculture was of supreme importance, providing food for subsistence. Plants are ubiquitous in the environments inhabited by humans. After tens of thousands of years of close interaction, plants and people turned up to rely upon each other for their survival and reproductive success. Through the process of providing plants with the habitats and conditions that they need to survive and flourish, people increased their food supply at the same time. A wide range of utensils was used in the process. Testimonies of significant changes in form and material of their manufacture came from later prehistory.
The paper will have focus on the analysis of La Tène agricultural implements from the south Pannonian region of Vojvodina. General archaeological literature on La Tène period in the region mentions a number of such finds from both funerary and settlement contexts. No review of this kind of material has been published up to now, so the first aim of our study is to collect the corpus of the Late Iron Age agricultural implements from the region, which will include both published material and available unpublished items from museums’ collections. A whole range of iron utensils will be included in the analysis, from the tools used for tillage (hoes and ploughshares for ard ploughing) and harvesting (sickles, scythes, billhooks), to the axes with bent fringes, with presumed use in tillage. Re-examination of the published typological determination on the basis of functional attribution using formal criteria will be performed, and consequently an operative typological system which can be further used for easier research of the material will be established.
Comparative analysis of the forms from La Tène and the traditional Hallstattian forms, made not only of iron, but of bronze, bone and antler, will lead us to recognition of traditionalism and/or innovation tendencies. Analogies from a wider area during La Tène will provide possibilities for testing spread of technological innovations around the studied region. Study of agricultural implements from the subsequent Roman period, with checking presence and potential deficiency of certain forms, will give a fresh insight into prolonged use of traditional forms under the changed social conditions. Like many components in everyday life which despite their importance remain on the margins of our interest, the tools used in agriculture can be a valuable indicator of changes or persistent retention of human habits.

‘Celtic’ connection in the central Balkans during the 3rd–1st centuries BC: a case study of the site Kale-Krševica
Ivan Vranić

Located in the village of Krševica in south-eastern Serbia, the archaeological site ‘Kale’ was a Late Iron Age fortified hilltop settlement. The most prominent phase in its complex biography lasted between the late 5th and the first half of the 3rd centuries BC when considering its social context, landscape, and material culture it stood as one of the most noticeable members of a loosely defined group of pre-Roman ‘Hellenized’ settlements – the numerous clusters of similar sites in the south-eastern Europe featuring ‘Greek’ or ‘Greek-like’ material culture. Their appearance and location so far away from the Mediterranean, throughout the vast continental regions of modern-day Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, south-eastern Serbia, and Bulgaria, revealed some very interesting opportunities for interpreting local Iron Age identity constructions, possible colonial encounters with ancient Greece and Macedonia, and the active roles of Mediterranean material culture in this new cultural settings. Yet, their ‘death’ supposedly taking place during the early 3rd century BC remained a conundrum. Culture-historical interpretations which have dominated local archaeological narratives for a very long timed focus on the ‘Celts’ and their supposed ‘raids’ as the most obvious reason behind the collapse of the ‘Hellenised settlements’.
This paper aims to present the case of Kale-Krševica that is usually interpreted according to the same narrative which supposes that the site is abandoned during the first half of the 3rd century BC, only to be reused again by the ‘Scordicsi’ in the late 2nd and the early 1st centuries BC as a stepping stone in their attacks on Ancient Macedonia and Roman Greece. I will focus on this site’s material culture dated from a period between the third and the late 1st centuries BC in an attempt to scrutinise whether these finds and their context indeed fit so well into the culture-historical narrative and consequent timetable of migrations and raids, or there are some possibilities for different interpretations following more recent theoretical perspectives.

Two batches of late La Tène weapons and adornments discovered around Târgu Jiu, Romania
Daniel Spânu

In the autumn of 2015, in two distinct places in a forest located between the villages Drăgoieni and Bălăneşti (Gorj County), several iron weapons and ornaments have been discovered. The two batches were integrated into the patrimony of “Alexandru Ştefulescu” Museum in Târgu Jiu. The restoration of the objects was carried out in the metal restoration laboratory of “Vasile Pârvan” Institute in Bucharest. On some pieces there were traces of soil containing small fragments of incinerated, perhaps human, bones. Thus, the funeral origin of materials is plausible. By their morphology, the weapons and ornaments are specific to Padea–Panagjurski Kolonii funerary inventories. Most likely, the recovered materials come from more than two funerary inventories. One may ask whether the place of discovery was used in ancient times as a necropolis. Only future archaeological research can figure out this issue. The two fibulae allow some precious chronological shades. The recovered pieces have numerous suggestive analogies not only inside but also outside the Padea–Panagjurski Kolonii group. These analogies imply possible intercultural relations between the different groups in the Lower Danube basin in the late La Tène period.