The archaeological site of “Măgura Uroiului” (Hunedoara County) is one of the most complex sites in Romania due to its geomorphologic qualities and continuously habitation from prehistory through the Middle Ages. It is a hill with volcanic origin and a series of natural platforms. It was a favorable place both for military fortifications, for civil settlements, and also for quarrying stone. In 2008 a wide-landscape archaeology study was started that includes a detailed digital cartography of the terrain and a 3D reconstruction of the whole archaeological complex and a paleomorphology study. Integrated remote sensing methods (satellite images analysis and geophysical prospects) were used. The first step was a detailed topographical measurement of the site’s surface with the help of a total station (over 100 hectares) in order to reveal all micro-relief details, both natural and manmade. The second step was the editing of GIS spatial data, 2D and 3D graphic reconstructions. The third step was the analysis of the geomorphologic evolution of the terrain, the identification and interpretation of man-made features, the recognition of the ways of human intervention in the environment and of the causes and effects generated in the local ecosystem. The fourth step was a interdisciplinary analysis combining remote sensing and geophysical prospects in order to establish the exact inhabited areas, fortification system, road network, etc. Our study is meant to be a multidisciplinary analysis and aims to establish the relationship between man and environment, the difficult part being the extraordinary complexity of this site and its dimensions.
The identification of intrinsic bonds between the men and the geographic space where they lived is one of the desiderata that any archaeologist tries to reach through systemic analysis of an archaeological site reported to the environment. Modern Archaeology uses work methods and techniques borrowed from Geography, which, both for Prehistory and for Antiquity or for the Middle Ages, can offer relevant scientific data regarding the choosing of the place for a house, the placing of a settlement, the preference for certain territories, etc. It is irrefutable the fact that the men constitutes as part of the nature and that they lived in a communion with the environment, dependent of the staple resources, of the geostrategic advantages, of the climatic environment, etc. From the wide pallet of interdisciplinary studies of landscape archaeology, we stopped upon the work methods borrowed from geomorphology (geomorphometry and geomorphography), starting from data gathered while performing the topographical measurements of the Cucuteni archaeological sites from Scânteia and Ruginoasa, Iasi County, Romania. The method, borrowed from Geography, proved to be an excellent historic and archaeological analysis instrument, with surprising results, and this study wants to be a stimulus to use this method at the beginning of any systematic archaeological research, for all types of sites and era. The work methods of the archaeologists’ team from the West University of Timisoara are based on topographical measurements taken with a total station, on orthophotogramms and satellite images analysis, on landscape analysis and geo-physical prospections (magnetometry). The GIS processing of site obtained data corroborated with data obtained from systematic archaeological research of the two sites that we analyze, and also the research of other similar archaeological complexes (including in situ research) belonging to the same cultures and era, from the Moldova region (N-W Romania) took us to the identification of a few geomorphologic factors which constituted as rules of choosing the location for a Cucuteni settlement. The careful analysis of the geomorphometric and geomorphographic altimetry indexes, slope analysis, Sun exposure, water distance, etc. allowed the emit and prove some hypotheses regarding the habitat, settlement size, access roads, defensive system, etc. The present study constitutes into a helping instrument for archaeologists which want to use a scientific method to validate empiric observations taken in situ, and also their processing technique used to obtain sketches, plans and revealing topographic maps for any systematic research of an archaeological site.
The historic of the archaeological research of Vărădia locality (Caraș-Severin County) is very complex, as the historiographical debates regarding the archaeological objectives here are older than one century. In 1932, Grigore Florescu conducts an excavation campaign in the „ Rovină” (or “Pustă”) point castrum, unveiling the superior part of the path of the fortified wall and a part of the commandment building (Principia). Starting with 1996, Ovidiu Bozu also begins systematic research archaeological campaigns for the „Rovină”/„Pustă” point. Since 1999 Eduard Németh from „Babeș-Bolyai” University of Cluj Napoca, joined the research team. At the end of July 2008 a team from the West University of Timisoara (Dorel Micle, Liviu Măruia and the student Lavinia Bolcu) performs a topographical survey with the total station of the „Rovină” point castrum, and for another week the team performs a geophysical prospection of the same objective. The topographical survey precisely revealed many morphological aspects of the Vărădia „Rovină” castrum as they are visible nowadays on the terrain : oriented on the SSE-NNW direction, exact dimensions (140x160 m), the relevance of the area’s microrelief (the castrum builders speculated a higher terrace located between divagating windings of Caraș River, but which were affected by modern earthworks of territory layout), and the defining of positioning landmarks reporting to present anthropic and natural structures (roads, bridges, canals, etc.). The high precision topographical plans will be used in the future for correct excavation plans layout (sections, cassettes, etc.) for further systematic archaeological research. The results of the magnetometric prospection revealed many aspects and feature with technical and historic nature : a) it allows the correct identification of the archaeological sections excavated in time ; b) it allows the identification of structures affected by older archaeological excavations ; c) proves the existence of a double enclosure wall ; d) it allows the identification of the E tower of the Porta Praetoria ; e) it is spectacular the revelation of the stone foundation traces of the centurion houses, and their orientation and dimensions, the barracks that flanked Via Praetoria ; f) it allows the observation of anomalies caused by metal presence in the barracks area which could indicate a workshop (Fabrica) ; g) some curtain towers are also visible on the S, N and W sides ; h) it allows the identification of intersecting roads in front of Principia, Via Praetoria and Via Principalis ; i) it proves the existence of only one defense ditch, visible on the N side.
The necessity of Stereo 70 topographical surveys for archaeological sites raises the issue of access to coordinates needed to create a proper measurement aligned to the Romanian national system. In most situations involving our team, Stereo 70 coordinates of sites that had to be measured were unknown or the site itself was still unknown, being unidentified yet, and thereby we were forced to use local coordinates for those particular surveys. Local coordinates involve an orientation issue, orientation mainly achieved with the help of a compass to indicate the magnetic North, thus implying another issue : the difference between true (geographic) North and magnetic North. In our experience the difference between our survey and the reality was between 7 and 12 trigonometric degrees. The software methods used rotations based on the shapefiles thus leaving the source coordinates unaltered, but these created inconveniences because both shapefiles and source coordinates, among other digital data, must be handed over to the Ministry of Culture and Cults in order to obtain the excavation authorization. Also, the archaeologists who requested the surveys need geographically correct data. This trigonometric method involves trigonometric correction of the raw data acquired by the total station and its conversion to Stereo 70, thus offering precise data and surveys to researchers and institutions.
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