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The archaeological investigations concerning the Bronze Age within the area of the Middle and Lower Danube demonstrated the existence of an ethnical-cultural complex characterized through a series of common elements that suggest the relationship among the different ethnical-cultural manifestations within this area. The main common denominator is the ceramics whose ornamentation consists in motifs executed through printing, incision, notches and successive stitches. The motifs were inlayed with white substance. The funerary common ritual, respectively the cremation, the anthropomorphical statues, the bird-shaped representations and the clay little bells suggest similar religious beliefs.

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! e ensemble of buildings and empty spaces that the inhabitants of Timisoara know under the name of Square „Timişoara 700” was named in memory of anniversary of 700 years since the fi rst attestation of the town (1266). ! is square superposes the old suburb that existed out of the medieval town of Timisoara at the end of the Middle Ages. In 2009, it started the construction of an underground parking area with a surface of 6,725 m2 , divided into two enclosures (A and B). Unfortunately, the rescue archaeological investigations started only in summer of 2011, succeeding in retrieving just part of the existent scientifi cal information from enclosure B. Medieval Timişoara was divided into three distinct areas: the fortress, the town and the suburbs, respectively Palanca Mare (the Rascian Town) and Palanca Mică (the Island). Situated out of the fortress, the suburbs would prefi gure the appearance of the „towns” around Timişoara during the modern period (the 18th–19th centuries). ! ose suburbs were dwelled by farmers, artisans and merchants especially Christians after the Ottoman conquest. As a distinct suburb, Palanca Mare developped to the north and north-east by the town, surrounding the medieval walls from three parts. Palanca Mare had its own defensive system described by Francesco Grisellini as being formed of a ditch with water and walls faced with a wall of brick and palisades. From a chronological point of view, dwelling in the south-western part of the suburbs of Palanca Mare started, the most probably, in the 17th century even if some ceramic fragments seem to move down this dating in the second half of the 16th century. ! e earliest dwelling horizon detected within the archaeological investigations from the summer of 2011 is illustrated through the alignment of pillars A.1. ! e well C.15 and the shaft C.102 could correspond to this horizon too, but this parallelization remains at level of hypothesis for the moment in lack of a clear stratigraphical connection. A second chronological horizon is the moment in which the alignment A.1 is decommissioned, and it is superposed by a dwelling level certainly illustrated by the semi-buried dwelling C.33 and, probably, by the shaft C.82 and the dwelling C.100. A third chronological horizon is represented by the three graves discovered in primary position and by the archaeological evidences in secondary position (C.90 and fragments of calotte from the cunette fi lling). ! is horizon, on the basis of the coin found in the grave C.61 is dated about the middle or even in the second half of the 17th century. We can not state precisely the necropolis area and nor if there were dwellings or household annexes in use in the close vicinity. ! e stratigraphical succession illustrated by the eastern profi le of the enclosure B associates the fi rst level of burning to a horizon subsequent to the burials within the investigated perimeter. Within the fourth chronological horizon, a fi re burned up both dwellings and wooden structures that continued to delimit, on the same direction, rectangular perimeters. For a large number of complexes, the fi llings point out abundance of remains of burned wood. ! ose were associated with ceramic fragments, bricks and fragmentary tiles. ! e rows of pits with remains of carbonized pillar (alignments A.2 and A.3) can be certainly assigned to this horizon. To the last horizon (5) can be attributed the complexes C.14 that sections the dwelling C.3 and probably the pillar pits with faced piles rammed into the bottom ground. ! e process of fi lling of several complexes (e.g. C.3, C.111) and leveling of settlements with fragmentary tiles, reaching even 30 cm in thickness here and there, can also be integrated in this stage. ! e late complexes, as for example C.13, seem to be isolated intrusions. ! e dwelling of the suburb Palanca Mare ceased after 1750, fact related, very probably, to the moment in which the new military authorities decided to extend the bastion fortifi cation. Onn the place of the suburb Palanca Mare was built the counterguards VII and I that had the role to protect the bastion VII (Eugene of Savoya). ! e large perimeter of research allowed some observations extremely important not only for the history of the urban evolution of the town of Timișoara, but also concerning the techniques of construction of the fortifi cation (a monument included in the category A). Unfortunately, this chance was altered, to a great extent, by the “positive” intentions of the local administration which have decided, not once, to pass over the legislation concerning prevention of archaeological patrimony in its great desire to modernize the town. Undoubtedly, if legislation concerning prevention of the historical patrimony will be respected, the new archaeological investigations will certainly bring new scientifi c information related to the economic and urban development of Timișoara.

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This is paper summarizes the results of area excavations conducted at the Bronze Age settlement of Pecica “Şanţul Mare” during the years 2006 through 2009. The work of the international collaborative team represents both the largest contiguous area ever opened on a settlement of the Periam-Pecica culture, and the most rigorously controlled and documented. This effort has yielded a new and striking view of life during the Middle Bronze Age along the Mureș, documenting the settlement’s phenomenal rise in regional prominence as a major distribution point for Bronze metalwork and the domestic horse, and its precipitous decline a mere two hundred years later. Here we provide a summary not only of the settlement’s later chronology, but also details of the domestic economy, site architecture, and ritual activity at the site.

The first attestation of the fortification at Cornești – Iarcuri is given by a 1720 military map (“Mappa vom der Temesvaer District”) and the fortification continued to be more or less schematically marked, on the later maps from the 18th and 19th centuries. Initially, only three ramparts were mentioned at Iarcuri. Because of their concentric layout, the fortification was assigned to the Avar period. The archaeological excavations from the first half of the 20th century dated the fortification at Cornești – Iarcuri to the Bronze Age. Interrupted by WWII, the archaeological excavations were resumed in the autumn of 2007, and they have continued until present within an international research project. The new archaeological excavations based on modern methods of research confirmed the previous proposals for a Late Bronze Age dating. At the same time, the LiDAR scanning and the magnetic prospections confirmed the observations made on the aerial photos from 1959 and 1973, which revealed the existence of a forth enclosure. The rampart of Enclosure IV, situated to the exterior of the fortification, covered an area of 1,765 ha. The 2011 archaeological investigations aimed at obtaining the archaeological evidence that would confirm the existence of the rampart of Enclosure IV. In the area where the archaeological excavation was conducted, investigations concerning the Spontaneous Potential of the ground were also carried out, parallel to the magnetic prospection. Area T. IV/ 2011 was situated ca. 500 m east of the north-eastern corner of Cornești village, and ca. 35 m west from the access gate into Enclosure IV, as revealed by the magnetic prospections. The rampart of Enclosure IV was made of clay lentils and battered soil. It was defended by a ditch over 9 m in width and 2.50 m in depth at the moment of its usage. The role of the fourth enclosure is difficult to determine, since the length of the rampart would not allow for an efficient defense. Thus, the interpretation of the Cornești – Iarcuri fortification cannot be reduced only to that of a construction with a military role. Very probably, this huge Bronze Age fortification emphasized the economic power (and, implicitly, the military one) of a group of communities. Behind them, one can see the existence of the warrior elite whose leaders were able to control and coordinate both the huge construction effort necessary for the four enclosures, and, the long-term maintenance of the ramparts and the defensive ditches.

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