CORNEŞTI – IACURIa Bronze Age Fortification

in the Romanian Banat

a brief presentation made by Simona-Liliana Popovici

member of the team project from Romania coordinated byOctavian Horia Minda

INTRODUCTIONIn the expansive plains of the Banat region, the

western Romania, between Arad and Timisoara, lies the multiple enclosure of Iacuri, in the immediate vicinity of the village Corneşti.

It is a large area, about 1722 ha, that encompasses four enclosing rings of ramparts. This represents largest known prehistoric settlement in Europe.

Corneşti - Iacuri(Timiş County)

“A massive Late Bronze Age fortified settlement in Central Europe has been the subject of a new and exemplary investigation by excavation and site survey. This prehistoric enclosure, nearly 6km across, had a complex development, dense occupation and signs of destruction by fire. It can hardly be other than a capital city playing a role in the determinant struggles of its day — weighty and far reaching events of the European continent now being chronicled by archaeology.” (antiquity.ac.uk)

The dimensions can only really be grasped when looking at the site from the air:

Satellite image of Corneşti – Iacuri (Google Earth)

In the nineteenth century, Corneşti-Iacuri was already known by the Hungarian name Zsadány, Romanian Jadani, German Schadain, as shown on Austrian military maps. When Austrian settlers mapped the marshy expanses of Banat, parts of the two inner enclosures appeared on a “Mercy Map” (Count Claude Florimund de Mercy was commander of the Banat between 1716 and 1730).

The settlement could be 3,500 years old. Based on carbon -14 evidence, it was established that fortification is dated in the second half of the second millennium before Christ.

Fortress belongs Cruceni-Belegiš culture of the Thracians north, which was widespread in north-eastern Croatia by Piedmont area of Banat, controlling the Danube valley to the north of Mureş. According to experts, Cruceni-Belegiš culture was contemporary with the Mycenaean civilization.

AREAS FOR WORSHIP AND RITUALS

In the community once lived in Corneşti stronghold consisted of Dacians ancestors, whose main occupation was agriculture and animal husbandry. They were living in half-buried houses made of circular holes with wood structure and covered with straw.

AREAS FOR WORSHIP AND RITUALSArchaeologists say that, according to findings from the scene, they had areas of worship and ritual deposits objects (pottery, metal objects and even food) and populations were trade between them. In addition, archaeologists are confident that the population of the site was among the Late Bronze Age, which adopted cremation as a funeral rite.

Archaeologists in Britain, Germany and the U.S. are working together on this archaeological site of Corneşti, which is considered the largest prehistoric fortress in Europe.

Prestigious foreign institutions and internationally recognized experts bring to light old vestiges