Excavation of the Poienești-Lucașeuca-culture settlement of Ivancea-Sub Pădure

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Michael Meyer
• Subject Area: Prehistory and World Archaeology
• Term: since 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 443006028

The current state of research on the Late Iron Age between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dnjestr between the late 3rd and the middle of the 1st century BC (Poieneşti-Lucaşeuca-Culture) is almost exclusively based on graves – up to now only small scale excavations of settlements have been realized. Consequently the goal of our project is the continuation and finalization of our large scale excavation of a settlement of that culture - Ivancea-Sub Pădure – to provide a new quality of sources to answer two major questions on the basis of material culture of everyday life and of settlement features: 1.) Structure and economy of a settlement of Poieneşti-Lucaşeuca-Culture with its buildings, its intra site structure, agriculture and stockbreeding, craft production and supply of ressources as well as their social and religious circumstances. 2.) Potential of settlement archaeology for the analysis of the genesis and development of this culture. Ain this context it is crucial to clarify – based on the settlement of Ivancea and in comparison to other settlements, - which role the precedent and possibly in parts contemporary Getic culture played, and - in which way the character and intensity of the connection with other cultures and spaces especially of the northern and eastern central European Brandgräbergruppen (cremation grave groups) had an impact on these processes. The analysis of the interpretative scenarios of mobility and migration that are prevalent in the current discussion will be of specific importance here. The results of the first project phase are very encouraging. For the first time Late Iron Age large houses could be verified in the East-Carpathian region –post buildings constructed on the surface as well as with slightly sunken floors. The number of pit dwellings is already now the biggest for the whole culture. In opposite to the graves the extensive settlement materials from Ivancea do not only show clear connections to the north, but also to the greek/hellenistic world, the Carpathian basin up to the western Balkan, the lower Danube region and the late-/post-scythian areas east of the Dnjestr. Most notably local traditions are clearly visible that lack in the graves. Thus the excavation has the potential to question the current interpretations on a broad basis and offers important data for a new model. The settlement covers two plateaus separated by an erosion channel. The excavations will concentrate on one side of the northwestern plateau where the excavations of the last years and – based on these results - the interpretation of the geomagnetic mapping show a line of large houses along the edge of the channel. Of great importance for the project is the geo-archaeological study of the palaeorelief as well as the archaeobiological and archaeometric analysis of the materials.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants