Fasti Online Home | Switch To Fasti Archaeological Conservation | Survey
logo

Excavation

  •  
  • Sebeş
  •  
  • Romania
  • Alba County
  • Municipiul Sebeş

Tools

Credits

  • The Italian Database is the result of a collaboration between:

    MIBAC (Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali - Direzione Generale per i Beni Archeologici),

    ICCD (Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione) and

    AIAC (Associazione Internazionale di Archeologia Classica).

  • AIAC_logo logo

Summary (English)

  • Maintenance works on the surrounding fence on the northern side of the Evangelist church in Sebeş requested a rescue excavation to be performed. It was appropriate to intervene as the trench laid out to receive the new wall was being dug up to 1.00 m, with 20 cm more than the previously replaced section, in an area close to the curtain wall of the church. Between meters 15.3 and 16.6 a pit containing bones and plenty of lime was partially exposed as well as an undisturbed medieval layer, between 0.9 and 1.0 m in depth; also on the eastern extremity of the trench several disturbed human bones, including fragments of cranium were recovered, most likely belonging to a disturbed medieval cemetery. Between meters 38.0 and 41.10 a large lime pit was fund. From meter 42.60 up to 56.10 on the southern profile the curtain wall of the medieval church was found; it was made out of quarried blocks as well as boulders, tied with mortar and intact up to 0.60 m in elevation. On several portions of the wall there are a few carved out stones and slabs with interweaved brick layers and river stones, all laid out on slabs as foundations. In the foundation filling a few carved limestone blocks were visible, six of gothic style and one belonging to the Renaissance style. Also two changes in the line of the wall were identified, on meter 56.10 in the eastern side (a 135 degrees angle) and on meter 42.60 in the west side (a 145 degrees angle) as seen in. The pottery is mainly characteristic to the 15th and 16th centuries but fragments belonging to the Arpadian period were also recovered, 12th to 13th centuries. This insight in the northern layout of the curtain wall of the church brings important information to its chronology. It is certain that the curtain wall on the northern side also enclosed the St. Jacob chapel erected around 1400 so it cannot be earlier. The fact that this excavation showed that the curtain wall makes an angle on the west side indicates that it used to be linked with an earlier wall, most likely from an older curtain, erected sometime after the Tatar invasions in 1241. This seems also logical in the light of documents stating the right to fortify the town, given in 1387, thus making the fortification of the church at a later time pointless.

Director

Team

Research Body

Funding Body

Images

  • No files have been added yet