Merry days at the small find lab!

The afterlife of all the nice small finds had just begun once they've seen again the sunlight.

The wide process of documentation and interpretation starts already on the site and it continues in the laboratory where we wash and conserve, identify, photograph and draw them, sorting according to their material, thus ensuring the optimal storing conditions for each object.

The first week of excavation already produced around 300 small finds, including several coins, terracotta figurines, bronze fittings and a silver ring. Naturally, handling all these cool things is really interesting, besides the basement of the university offers a really nice climate in the summer heat. The two rainy days this week helped us to get up to date with all the finds, so we are really hoping the others will dig up some more superb objects!

On the top!

The first week of excavation ended with a very interesting trip to Sarmizegetusa Regia, the former capital of Dacians before the Roman conquest. The military, cultural and religious centre is situated 1,200 metres high in the Orăștie Mountains. Likewise the Roman army, our team approached the Dacian capital also with much effort. The 5 km long and abrupt sloping road, which leads to the fortification, tested everyone’s physical strength and persistence.

After the intensive and hard hiking track the charm of the monumental constructions enchanted everyone. Two specialists from the National Museum of Transylvanian History from Cluj Napoca, dr. Răzvan Mateescu and dr. Paul Pupeză did a very interesting guided tour among the ancient ruins of the site. We had the chance to admire the unique sanctuaries from the sacred area.

Uploaded by the legendary energy source from Sarmizegetusa, the team is ready for another week of hard work!

We started again!

Partially new team, interdisciplinary atmosphere and the same old trench! And of course, a lot of sunshine, fun, intensive work and many lectures! So could one sum up the first week of excavation and project.

 Just like the excavation from the last year, the 2014 archaeological campaign started also with a fresh and enthusiastic multicultural team composed of students and specialists from different universities from Germany, Hungary and Romania (Alba Iulia and Cluj Napoca). The new students were initiated in the main techniques of the excavation, including shoveling, digging or the more refined cleaning practices with trowels. They also got information about the archaeological system and documentation methodology, and had the chance to make the find collecting, recording, and measuring with total station by their own.  Even if the wheelbarrows were sometimes heavy like last year, the enthusiasm of the participants - split this year into different teams - was unbreakable.

During the first week of excavation we managed to clean the trench after removing the backfill from last year which turned to be a very energy consuming activity for many of us. The hard work, however, did compensate us with visible progress: the whole building structure is getting to be contoured better and better every day, and the relations between different contexts are also more understandable.

Parallel to the archaeological field activities, there were given also different lectures for the students which were held by the international team of specialists. The first week ended with an interesting site- and a laboratory tour where everybody could look into the different work sequences of all the particular teams.

A good start, a good progress! Good luck in the following weeks too!

Bring the team together!

One afternoon we organized a short excursion to the nearby Saxon town, Sebeș. The trip started with a visit to the town museum, next we had a nice walk around the city’s medieval walls, ending the tour at the amazing Lutheran church, built in a gothic style.

In order to relax and to get to know each other better we spent one afternoon with swimming and having a barbecue. Those with a more adventurous spirit had the opportunity to visit a Roman villa nearby.

The team is definitely prepared for a month of hard working and fun!

Let’s start again!

The 2014 edition of the Apulum IP just started here in Alba Iulia with a bunch of new faces and some old ones. One of the first steps was of course getting to know each other and also the city we will spend the next month in, so we went on a great tour of the town, visited the fortress and the Museum of Alba Iulia. The most important social event of the day was the big introduction, where everyone had the chance to say a few things about themselves. The getting-to-know-each-other process culminated of course in the evening.