Institute of Prehistory, Early History and Medieval Archaeology

Movila lui Deciov

Research in summer 2018

In the course of a four-week campaign, from mid-August 2018 on, a NO-SW oriented 2x10m long trench was excavated, which was oriented on a strong signal in the geomagnetic mapping. After the Neolithic building structures began to emerge, another 2x5m trench was opened parallel to it, half a meter to the northwest of it. The work involved Romanian, German and Bulgarian students.

The early Neolithic find horizon consists of massive building structures of a burnt wattle-and-daub buildings. The materials found in the Neolithic layers and deposits of the house belong to the first half of the 6th millennium BC. Because of the still very mixed features in these top layers of excavation only a few samples were taken from animal bones for radiocarbon dating. Three graves from Early Copper Age were dug into the Early Neolithic layers, which can be reliably assigned to the early Tiszapolgár culture via their ceramic grave goods. Two of the burials were equipped also with numerous bone beads that were scattered around the graves by later disturbances. Nevertheless, a detailed mapping of the bone beads allows for a secure allocation of the vast majority of jewelery items to one of the two burials. Also recessed in the Early Neolithic layers was the shaft grave of a medieval horseman. This inhumation is noteworthy for its remains of armament and the partial burial of a horse. In connection with the burial ritual, the head of the animal with the bridle and the legs were placed in the grave. The chronologically youngest disturbance of the Early Neolithic find horizon is a broad apiary (probably a badger), which has also disrupted the four graves mentioned above. Due to the very complex history of the use of the area in post-Neolithic times, the excavation work of the Early Neolithic strata could not be completed. The findings were backed up after a comprehensive documentation with folia and filled in and will be excavated in the coming year.

The excavation documentation was done with different photo techniques and allows a comprehensive three-dimensional reconstruction of the findings.