The Free Dacian settlement of Arad (Site B_06). Preliminary considerations

• Published in: Cercetări arheologice Vol. 28; no. 1; pp. 91 - 114
• Main Authors: Bârcă, Vitalie, Gindele, Robert
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: MEGA Publishing House 01-07-2021
• Subjects: arad; banat; free dacians; mureș; roman period; settlement; tisa nouă
• ISSN: 0255-6812
• DOI: 10.46535/ca.28.1.02

The object of this article is to preliminary present the rescue archaeological excavations prior to the construction of the Arad-Timişoara Highway, conducted in 2010 on-site B_06. The investigated area is located on the Arad-Seceani highway section, in the km 15+490-15+780 stretch. The field research concluded the site was a large settlement lying both on the highway route as well as to its west and east. The archaeological investigations carried out within the area of site B0_6 and the perimeter limits of the highway route identified and comprehensively examined 132 stratigraphic units, of which three are Sarmatian inhumations. Of the total researched features, 106 were discovered in the northern half of the investigated area, while the three graves, together with another feature, lay midway through the project area. The inhumations lay isolate from the 106 features from the northern side of the investigated area, but also from the 22 located southward as well. The 106 features belong to a Dacian settlement broadly dated to the 2nd – early 3rd century AD, while the graves date to late 2nd – first decades of the 3rd century AD, the features discovered in the southern half of the investigated area belonging to another chronological and cultural level (the 4th – 5th century AD).