Scripta praehistorica-Victor Spinei

Victor Spinei

Scripta praehistorica

Miscellanea in honorem nonagenarii magistri Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa oblata

Edidit Victor Spinei, Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici et Dan

Monah

TRINITAS

Homage on a Veritable Anniversary

Scripta praehistorica. Miscellanea in honorem nonagenarii

magistri Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa oblata

Edidit Victor Spinei, Cornelia-Magda Mantu et Dan Monah

Honoraria, 1 The pieces on the front cover and on the back cover show the painted vases from Drăguşeni and Poduri-Dealul Ghindaru (Cucuteni Culture) (after C.-M. Mantu, Gh. Dumitroaia, A. Tsaravopoulos, eds. Cucuteni. The Last Chalcolithic Civilization of Europe, Thessaloniki, 1997, fig. 64, 103) Scripta praehistorica. Miscellanea in honorem nonagenarii magistri Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa oblata Edidit Victor Spinei, Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici et Dan Monah (Honoraria, 1) Institute of Archaeology of Iaşi Trinitas Publishing House Iaşi, 2005 ISBN ……………………………………


ROMANIAN ACADEMY

INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY OF IAŞI



Edidit Victor Spinei, Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici et

Dan Monah

TRINITAS Iaşi, 2005

The printing of the present volume was made

possibile by the generous financial support of the Mayor’s Hall of Iaşi, intermediated by the direct

involvement of Mayor Gheorghe Nichita

Tipărirea prezentului volum s-a realizat datorită generosului sprijin financiar acordat de

Primăria Municipiului Iaşi, mijlocit prin implicarea directă a primarului

Gheorghe Nichita

Editorial assistant: Alma-Catrinel Ştefan Cover: Cecilia Stoian

CONTENTS – SOMMAIRE – INHALT - CUPRINS

Tabula gratulatoria…………………………………………… Our Respects to Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa on his 90th Anniversary/ Omagiere la o venerabilă aniversare (Victor SPINEI)……… List of publications (Dan MONAH, Raluca KOGĂLNICEANU)… List of abbreviations…………………………………… Antonio BELTR;N, Significado y sacralisacion del arte prehistorico Vasile CHIRICA, Ilie BORZIAC, Le paléolithique supérieur européen. Iléments d’art et de spiritualité Mihalache BRUDIU, Une habitation de la station paléolithique de Cotu Miculinţi, dans la zone du Prut Moyen, en Roumanie Sylvie DEBOIS, Marcel OTTE, Approche des comportements réligieux du néolithique récent: l’éxemple des pratique funéraires Sabin Adrian LUCA, Cosmin SUCIU, The Beginning of the Early Neolithic in Transylvania Attila L;SZL[, ProblPmes de la chronologie du néolithique au Bas- Danube Gheorghe LAZAROVICI, Cornelia-Magda LAZAROVICI, E. JILOT, Zoia MAXIM, Absolute Chronology of the Banat Culture Eugen COMŞA, The Dwellings in the Range of the Dudeşti culture János MAKKAY, Ein Gründungsopfer der Tiszapolgár-Kultur von Vésztő-Mágor Nicolae URSULESCU, Dumitru BOGHIAN, Vasile COTIUGĂ, ProblPmes de la culture Précucuteni B la lumiPre des recherches de Târgu Frumos (Dép. de Iaşi) Linda ELLIS, Analysis of Precucuteni Ceramics from Târgu Frumos, Romania Dan MONAH, Machete de ambarcaţiuni din culturile Precucuteni şi Cucuteni Silvia MARINESCU-BÎLCU, Cătălin BEM, Unde şi cum s-a putut realiza trecerea de la faza Cucuteni A la Cucuteni A-B Douglas W. BAILEY, On the Absence of Burial Ritual in Cucuteni- Tripolie Communities Bisserka GAYDARSKA, John CHAPMAN, Ilka ANGELOVA, On the Tell and off the Tell the Fired Clay Figurines from Omurtag


Marin DINU, O nouă variantă a toporului eneolitic de cupru cu braţele „în cruce”: varianta Erbiceni Florin SCURTU, Imagini geofizice ale aşezării cucuteniene Scânteia (jud. Iaşi) Marilena FLORESCU, Vase cu caracter antropomorf din staţiunea Monteoru de la Cândeşti, jud. Vrancea Blagoje GOVEDARICA, Eine Kupferaxt aus Frankfurt/Oder, die Datierungsprobleme des Hortfundes von Cărbuna und die Chronologie der Hammeräxte vom Typ Pločnik Roxana MUNTEANU, Gheorghe DUMITROAIA, Découvertes de l’Âge du Bronze dans le Sous-Carpathes de la Moldavie Olaf H_CKMANN, Between East and West Bronze Age Belt-boxes in Central Germany Nikolaus BOROFFKA, Rodica BOROFFKA, Ein neues Schwert aus Südrum@nien Tiberius BADER, Bemerkungen zu den vorgeschichtlichen Hausrekonstruktionen und Nachbauten Silvia TEODOR, Resources de fer B l’est des Carpates pendant la période géto-dace Alexandru VULPE, Reflecţii despre problema geto-dacică Jan BOUZEK, Zur Funktion der urnefelderzeitlichen Hortfunde und zur Deutung der Antenneschwerter Ion NICULIŢĂ, Interferenţe etno-culturale în spaţiul de la est de Nistru în mileniul I a. Chr. Albrecht JOCKENHÖVEL, Bronzezeitliche Dolche und Schwerter als Bilder auf Objekten? - Zur Ikonographie einer Waffengattung Vasile URSACHI, Spaţiul public în „dava” de la Brad Alexander FOL, Orphic Hymnic Spells

The Contributors (Cornelia-Magda LAZAROVICI)

TABULA GRATULATORIA

Ruxandra Elena ALAIBA (Iaşi) Petre ALEXANDRESCU (Bucureşti) Marius ALEXIANU (Iaşi) Ioan ANDRIŢOIU (Alba Iulia) Ilka ANGELOVA (Targovishte) Alexandru ARTIMON (Bacău) Mircea BABEŞ (Bucureşti) Tiberius BADER (Eberdingen) Douglas W. BAILEY (Cardiff) Victoria - Paraschiva BATARIUC (Suceava) Victor Henrich BAUMANN (Tulcea) Luminiţa BEJINARU (Iaşi) Antonio BELTRÁN (Zaragoza) Cătălin BEM (Bucureşti) Doina BENEA (Timişoara) Dan BERINDEI (Bucureşti) Victor BOBI (Focşani) Cornelia BODEA (Bucureşti) Dumitru BOGHIAN (Suceava) Neculai BOLOHAN (Iaşi) Nikolaus BOROFFKA (Berlin) Rodica BOROFFKA (Berlin) Ilie BORZIAC (Chişinău) Octavian BOUNEGRU (Iaşi) Jan BOUZEK (Praha) Mihalache BRUDIU (Galaţi) Bogdan BRUKNER (Novisad) Viorel M. BUTNARIU (Iaşi) Ioan CAPROŞU (Iaşi) Viorel CĂPITANU (Bacău) Ionel CÂNDEA (Brăila) Virgil CÂNDEA (Bucureşti) Marin CÂRCIUMARU (Târgovişte) Paul CERNOVODEANU (Bucureşti) John CHAPMAN (Durham) Stela CHEPTEA (Iaşi) Costel CHIRIAC (Iaşi) Vasile CHIRICA (Iaşi)


Ion CHIRTOAGĂ (Chişinău) Veniamin CIOBANU (Iaşi) Victor COJOCARU (Iaşi) Eugen COMŞA (Bucureşti) Eugen-Marius CONSTANTINESCU (Buzău) Florin CONSTANTINIU (Bucureşti) Vasile COTIUGĂ (Iaşi) Lidia DASCĂLU (Botoşani) Sylvie DEBOIS (GrivegnJ) Valentin DERGACEV (Chişinău) Marin DINU (Iaşi) Ion T. DRAGOMIR (Galaţi) Florin DRAŞOVEAN (Timişoara) Romeo DUMITRESCU (Bucureşti) Gheorghe DUMITROAIA (Piatra Neamţ) Nicolae EDROIU (Cluj-Napoca) Linda ELLIS (San Francisco) Marilena FLORESCU (Iaşi) Alexander FOL (Sofia) Bisserka GAYDARSKA (Durham) E. GILOT (Louvain) Dinu C. GIURESCU (Bucureşti) Ion GLODARIU (Cluj-Napoca) Ştefan Sorin GOROVEI (Iaşi) Blagoje GOVEDARICA (Berlin) Nicolae GUDEA (Cluj-Napoca) Rolf HACHMANN (Saarbrücken) Sergiu HAIMOVICI (Iaşi) Sven HANSEN (Berlin) Anthony HARDING (Exeter) Bernhard HÄNSEL (Berlin) Harald HAUPTMANN (Heidelberg) Olaf HÖCKMANN (Mainz) Constantin ICONOMU (Iaşi) Mircea IGNAT (Suceava) Ion IONIŢĂ (Iaşi) Adriana IONIUC (Iaşi) Mihai IRIMIA (Constanţa) Albrecht JOCKENHÖVEL (Münster) Raluca KOGĂLNICEANU (Iaşi) Alexei G. KORVIN-PIETROVSKIJ (Kiev)

Janusz KOZŁOWSKI (Krakow) Valentina V. KRAPIVINA (Kiev) V. A. KRUC (Kiev) Attila LÁSZLÓ (Iaşi) Cornelia - Magda LAZAROVICI (Iaşi) Gheorghe LAZAROVICI (Cluj-Napoca) Sabin Adrian LUCA (Sibiu) János MAKKAY (Budapest) Joseph MARAN (Heidelberg) Ioan MAREŞ (Suceava) Silvia MARINESCU-BÎLCU (Bucureşti) Zoia MAXIM (Cluj-Napoca) Lucreţiu MIHAILESCU-BÎRLIBA (Iaşi) Virgil MIHAILESCU-BÎRLIBA (Iaşi) Ioan MITREA (Bacău) Dan MONAH (Iaşi) Felicia MONAH (Iaşi) Roxana MUNTEANU (Piatra Neamţ) Camil MUREŞANU (Cluj-Napoca) Crişan MUŞEŢEANU (Bucureşti) John NANDRIŞ (London) Petre Ş. NĂSTUREL (Paris) Vasile NEAMŢU (Iaşi) Ion NICULIŢĂ (Chişinău) Paul NIEDERMAIER (Sibiu) Virgil NIŢULESCU (Bucureşti) Ioan OPRIŞ (Bucureşti) Ivan ORDENTLICH (Tel Aviv) Marcel OTTE (Liège) Şerban PAPACOSTEA (Bucureşti) Hermann PARZINGER (Berlin) Iuliu PAUL (Alba Iulia) Sorin PETRESCU (Caransebeş) Alexandru Florin PLATON (Iaşi) Gheorghe PLATON (Iaşi) Emilian POPESCU (Bucureşti) Dragomir POPOVICI (Bucureşti) Rodica POPOVICI (Iaşi) Eugenia POPUŞOI (Bârlad) Adrian PORUCIUC (Iaşi) Gheorghe POSTICĂ (Chişinău)


Constantin PREDA (Bucureşti) Dumitru PROTASE (Cluj-Napoca) Petre ROMAN (Bucureşti) Ralph ROWLETT (Columbia - Missouri) Dorina RUSU (Bucureşti) Silviu SANIE (Iaşi) Şeiva SANIE (Iaşi) Florin SCURTU (Bucureşti) Stephen SHENNAN (London) Eugen SIMION (Bucureşti) Gavrilă SIMION (Tulcea) Valeriu SÎRBU (Brăila) Ion SOLCANU (Iaşi) Victor SPINEI (Iaşi) Lăcrămioara STRATULAT (Bacău) Cosmin SUCIU (Sibiu) Paul ŞADURSCHI (Botoşani) Octavian Liviu ŞOVAN (Botoşani) Ştefan ŞTEFĂNESCU (Bucureşti) Maria ŞTIRBU (Iaşi) Nenad TASIĆ (Belgrad) Nikola TASIĆ (Belgrad) Dan Gh. TEODOR (Iaşi) Silvia TEODOR (Iaşi) Răzvan THEODORESCU (Bucureşti) Ion TODERAŞCU (Iaşi) Gerhard TRNKA (Wien) Elena V. TSVEK (Kiev) Dumitru ŢEICU (Reşiţa) Senica ŢURCANU (Iaşi) Vasile URSACHI (Roman) Nicolae URSULESCU (Iaşi) Mihai VASILESCU (Iaşi) Valentin VASILIEV (Cluj-Napoca) Alexandru VULPE (Bucureşti) Alexandru ZUB (Iaşi) Nelu ZUGRAVU (Iaşi)

Scripta praehistorica. Miscellanea in honorem

nonagenarii magistri Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa oblata, Edidit Victor Spinei, Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici et Dan Monah,

Iaşi, 2005

HOMAGE ON A VENERABLE ANNIVERSARY

Victor Spinei

On May 21, 2005, Professor Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa will reach the venerable age of 90. He is the senior of Romanian archaeologists and, at the same time, the senior member of the Romanian Academy’s Section of Historical Sciences and Archaeology - undeniably, a performance from a biological standpoint. But it is not the rise above the average age recorded in Romania that makes the Master so special; it is the rigor and the decisiveness with which he has honoured and is honouring his destiny as a true scholar. In his ninth decade, Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa still shows impressive working rhythm and spiritual vigour, as well as remarkable devotion to the domain he chose as early as his adolescence.

For the ones who know him less, we will try to sketch an inset portrait, meant to point out his contribution to science and culture, on a both national and international ground. He was born on 21 May 1915 in Galaţi, just before Romania entered World War I. He belonged to a distinguished family of intellectuals, with elevated preoccupations, who could offer him excellent education. His father had been born in 1877 at Târgovişte, but he attended high school and university in Bucharest, where he graduated in both law and classical philology. He worked as a magistrate and as a lawyer. As a member of the National-Liberal Party he

Victor Spinei became prefect of the Prahova District, and also member of the Romanian Parliament. Since the name Petrescu was rather frequent among lawyers, he officially adopted the supplementary name of Dîmboviţa, from the name of his native district. Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa’s mother, born at Adjud, in Southwest Moldavia, was of Greek-Italian extraction, as a descendant of the Vrioni and Migliaresi families that had their roots in Cephalonia and Corfu. She attended high school in Galaţi, then studied music in Lausanne. After her return to Romania she held various positions in professional associations, but she continued to have artistic preoccupations, and she composed many musical pieces for the piano. One of her sisters, Elena (Isăcescu by marriage), graduated from the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the Bucharest University, but she dedicated herself to medieval numismatics, and she worked for the Central Military Museum and for the Numismatic Cabinet of the Romanian Academy.

As regards the scholar to-be Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa, during the years 1922-1926 he attended primary school, and in 1926-1933 the “Vasile Alecsandri” secondary school in Galaţi. He had the chance of well-prepared and didactically gifted teachers, such as Aetiu Hogaş in Romanian language, and Anton Holban in French. The former (son of the renowned writer Calistrat Hogaş) was the one who - by his charisma, and by the readings he suggested - guided the young student towards the study of history and archaeology. That is why, when young Petrescu-Dîmboviţa went to Bucharest for higher education, he attended in parallel the Faculty of Law – due to paternal urges – and the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy.

As a student of letters and philosophy he was primarily concerned with prehistoric archaeology, his main attachment being to Ioan Andrieşescu. Simultaneously, he attended highly attractive courses taught by master minds of Romanian science, such as Nicolae Iorga, Constantin C. Giurescu, Petre P. Panaitescu, Simion Mehedinţi, George Oprescu, Demostene Russo, Scarlat Lambrino, etc., to whom he owes his impressive stock of human-science knowledge. In 1937, after sustained efforts, he managed to complete his studies and to defend dissertations at both the above-mentioned faculties.

But his fondness of ancient history had become too strong for him to continue to deal in law. Already towards the end of his student’s life,

Homage on a Veritable Anniversary he had become honorary assistant at the University and assistant at the National Museum of Antiquities in Bucharest. At the University, he worked under the guidance of Ioan Andrieşescu, the director of the Seminar of Archaeology and Prehistory, and at the museum he was led by the curators Scarlat Lambrino and Ion Nestor. Due to his position as a museum worker, in 1939 Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa embarked upon an archaeological investigation in the former district of Covurlui, in Southern Moldavia. The result was the finding of many vestiges, among which the grave of a nomad horseman of the twelfth-thirteenth centuries, at Moscu. That investigation enjoyed the direct support and the appreciation of Professor C. C. Giurescu, who was at that time royal resident of the Lower Danube Province.

Before and during World War II, he was drafted as reserve officer of the 3rd Regiment of heavy artillery (1941), then at a unit of the HQ in Odessa (1941-1942). In 1944, as he was again sent to the 3rd Regiment - engaged in fierce battles at that time - his life was in great danger. After his demobilisation, in 1944, he resumed his activity at the National Museum of Antiquities and at the Faculty of History of the Bucharest University. In that position, he participated in the activities of several archaeological sites (Sărata Monteoru, Glina, Zimnicea), under the leadership of the renowned Professor Ion Nestor and of other Bucharest specialists. In parallel he was preparing his doctoral thesis, Contributions to the Study of the Final Bronze Age in Transylvania, which he successfully defended in 1947. His academic supervisor was Ion Nestor, who was to remain (until his death, in 1974) Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa’s true spiritual mentor. The former student’s veneration for his master remained intact (even when certain personal frictions appeared), and it was transmitted to close collaborators.

In 1949 the University of Iaşi offered him a position of associate professor, which he accepted with justified reluctance, since the years of the war, and especially the reforms of the newly installed Communist regime had produced serious turmoil in the system of education.

Victor Spinei Important members of the Iaşi teaching staff had migrated to the capital: Dionisie Pippidi, Radu Vulpe, Emil Condurachi, Andrei Oţetea, from among the historians, and George Călinescu, Iorgu Iordan, Constantin Balmuş, from among the men of letters and philologists. Others had been dismissed, or they had drawn back for various reasons. Because of the interruption in the preoccupations with archaeology and ancient history in Iaşi, he had to do pioneer work. (In fact, even before the war, the study of prehistory had not represented any steady interest at the University of Iaşi.) He had to stir inertia into action, and he had to act tactfully, lest he should irritate the proxies of the new power.

He began his didactic activity at the Faculty of History-Geography (established in the wake of the education reform of August 1948), out of which a Faculty of History emerged. By the 1954 unification with the Faculty of Philology, a Faculty of Philology-History was created, which lasted until 1957, when the name was reversed into History-Philology. The whirligig of designations – which, at a more serious level, reflected ambiguity and chaos in curricula – did not stop there. Only a year later a new compression of the humanities was ordered, which materialised in a Faculty of Philology-History-Philosophy. The latter was not to live long, since after two years (in 1960), it split into a Faculty of Philology and one of History-Philosophy. The last move proved to be luckier, since it eventually meant a three-decade evolution. Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa did his best to adapt himself to the fluctuations specific to that age, and he managed to confine his didactic obligations to general courses of ancient history of Romania and of prehistory, plus several special courses of archaeology.

Besides his didactic tasks he acquired a position of research worker at the History Section of the Institute of History and Philology (created in 1949), which belonged to the Iaşi Branch of the Academy of the Romanian People’s Republic. Within that History Section, a Sector of Ancient History and Archaeology was created in 1953. By a division of the above-mentioned institute, the Institute of History and Archaeology was created in 1964, which came to bear the name of “A. D. Xenopol” in 1965. Within the institute, the Sector of Ancient History and Archaeology, led by Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa, retained its individuality. Between 1967 and 1989, he held the position of director. At that time (beginning in 1970) the scientific activity of the institution was co-ordinated by the Academy of Social and Political Sciences. As

Homage on a Veritable Anniversary for administration, it was transferred from the Academy to the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University in 1975. Although that fact was not officially mentioned, his retirement several months before the turning point of December ’89 was caused by his daughter’s emigration to Poland. That fact may look laughable nowadays, but at that time it was in keeping with a relatively common practice.

On another ground, Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa had many responsibilities in the Museum of Antiquities, which in 1952 passed from under the aegis of the University, where it had belonged since its foundation by Orest Tafrali, to the Iaşi Branch of the Academy of the Romanian People’s Republic. That museum, whose curator he became in 1956, was turned in 1957 into the Museum of History of Moldavia. At that institution, he became concerned with its diversification of themes, and with its structural modernisation and re-organisation, which implied not only the space of exhibition, but also the stores of archaeological finds and the library. It was also in 1957 when he initiated the opening of the first sector of permanent exhibition, the one of prehistory. Subsequently, in 1960 and 1964, other such sectors opened, and they reflected the evolution of the Romanian extra-Carpathian territory until the 1848 revolution. Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa held the curator’s position until 1968, when the museum became part of the Iaşi Museum Complex.

His seriousness in the fulfilment of his didactic tasks, and the determination he showed in the completion of an exigent and systematic scientific programme has brought him the respect and praise of his colleagues and of the decision makers in the field of education and research. As a result, he became full professor in 1956, and in 1967 he was granted the title of doctor docent. He also became a supervisor of doctoral activities in the domain of ancient history and archaeology of Romania, and in 1985 he came to hold the position of President of the Iaşi Branch of the Romanian Institute of Thracology. For several months (in 1975-1976) he was Dean of the Faculty of History-Philosophy at the “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi. He retired from his didactic position in 1983, but he continued to be active as an emeritus, and as a doctorate supervisor.

Academically, Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa has expressed himself fully in the field of archaeology, by the diggings he initiated

Victor Spinei

especially in the Moldavian territory west of the Prut. In 1949-1950 he worked on the site of Hăbăşeşti (Iaşi District), which was led by Vladimir Dumitrescu. The result was an exhaustive investigation – for the first on the territory of Romania – of an expansive Neolithic-Chalcolithic settlement belonging to the Cucuteni Culture (Stage A). Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa knew that, in order to get a comprehensive view on the evolution of human societies, more extensive uncovering of settlements was needed. Not only dwellings, but also additional buildings, shrines, fortifications ought to be revealed; and all imperishable finds ought to be recovered, including tools, weapons, ornaments, household implements, pieces of clothing, objects of cult, etc. From that standpoint, he considered it fit to repeat, on higher terms, the Hăbăşeşti experience, by opening the diggings on the site of Truşeşti (Botoşani District). There he investigated, together with a consistent team, a vast Cucuteni A settlement, a Bronze Age necropolis representing the Noua Culture, as well as other objectives. The investigation took one decade (1951-1961). An equally ambitious project (1961-1966) was the resumption of diggings at Cucuteni-Băiceni (Iaşi District), on the site that gave the name to the Cucuteni Culture, which had become famous in the whole world due to the investigation led by the German archaeologist Hubert Schmidt in 1909-1910. The problems raised by the site of Cucuteni-“Cetăţuia” proved to be much more complex, because of the succession of the stratigraphic range specific to stage A, as well as to stages A-B and B of the Cucuteni Culture.

While active in the above-mentioned major diggings, Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa also initiated investigations of other objectives that corresponded chronologically to the Neolithic, the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age. Worth mentioning, in that respect, are the sites of Folteşti, Stoicani, Tămăoani (Galaţi District), Perieni, Dăneşti (Vaslui District), Ciolăneştii din Deal (Teleorman District), etc. Also, he was

Homage on a Veritable Anniversary delegated, together with C. S. Nicolăescu-Plopşor, to direct the salvage investigations in the area of what was to become the man-made lake of the Bicaz hydro-power station (Neamţ District), in parallel with the explorations undertaken by teams of ethnographers, folklorists, linguists, anthropologists and art historians. Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa did his own excavations at the settlement of Hangu (dating from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age). But he also ensured the general co-ordination of the investigations undertaken by specialists from Iaşi and from Bucharest in other settlements of the area. Subsequently he also supervised the preparation of a volume that was meant to turn to account the results of all the excavations.

Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa sensed the existence of many flaws in the perception of certain aspects of the evolution of the East Carpathian area during the period of migrations and of the early Middle Ages. Therefore, he initiated important excavations in the settlements of Hlincea-Iaşi (Iaşi District) and Fundu Herţii (Botoşani District). In the former, for the first time in the Carpathian-Dniestrian space, two horizons were revealed, which corresponded with the migrations of the Slavs and with the period that preceded the formation of the independent Moldavian medieval state, respectively. On the latter site, the building system of a late-first millennium fortified settlement was reconstructed.

The preliminary and final results of all those excavations were published in numerous monographs, studies and excavation reports. Remarkable among those publications are especially the voluminous monographs on the Cucutenian settlements at Truşeşti and at Cucuteni. Those works were conceived in collaboration with colleagues from Iaşi and from other centres. For instance, in the case of the monograph on the fortified settlement of Fundu Herţei the co-author was Dan G. Teodor.

Besides doing methodical investigations and salvage diggings, Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa considered that surface surveys were of major importance too, as they could lead to areal archaeological maps, very important for the reconstruction of demographic and economic situations in various historical periods. He continued his own terrain explorations in the former district of Covurlui and those in the Central Moldavian Tableland (where he was assisted by Marin Dinu and Emilian Bold), as well as those near Iaşi (together with Nicolae Zaharia and Emilia Zaharia). In addition, together with the last two of the above-

Victor Spinei

mentioned co-workers, Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa managed a vast monograph of all the archaeological vestiges of the Moldavian territory. Also, at the “A. D. Xenopol” Institute of History and Archaeology, he encouraged other collaborators (such as Vasile Chirica and others) in their intentions of elaborating archaeological catalogues of certain restricted areas, or of whole districts (Botoşani, Iaşi).

One of Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa’s constant preoccupations was with detection and publication of bronze hoards representing the Final Bronze Age the Early Iron Age of the Carpathian-Danubian area. He wrote studies on isolated hoards, as well as an ample monograph on all finds of that type discovered on the territory of Romania and preserved in Romanian museums or abroad. Moreover, certain categories of bronze pieces were published in two volumes of the prestigious German collection Prähistorische Bronzefunde.

He also elaborated – by himself, or in collaboration – several synthetic works on the ancient history of Romania. He acted, together with Professor Alexandru Vulpe, as co-ordinator of Volume I of the latest academic treatise Istoria românilor (History of the Romanians), several subchapters of which were written by him. In order to make sure that recent results of Romanian research should become known abroad, Professor Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa contributed a great number of studies to volumes and publications issued in other countries (Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, Sweden, Germany, Italy, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Greece, Albania, Austria, France, Mexico, etc.). Many of his contributions were published in the best-known specialised publications of the world, such as Prähistorische Zeitschrift, Rivista di Scienze Preistoriche, Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Slovenská Archeológia, Archeologia Polski, Archaeologia Polona, Illyria, Dacoromania, Prehistoria Alpina, Acta Praehistorica et Archeologica, Pulpudeva, etc.

Homage on a Veritable Anniversary Many of his published studies were based on reports and communications delivered by him at various academic gatherings with consistent and select international participation. On those occasions, Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa represented the highest rank of Romanian archaeology. Worth mentioning are the following international congresses of pre- and protohistorical sciences (Rome 1962, Prague 1966, Belgrade 1971, Nice 1976, Ciudad de Mexico 1981, Mainz 1987, Bratislava 1991), and international congresses of historical sciences (Stockholm 1960, Moscow 1970, Bucharest 1980, Stuttgart 1985). He also delivered papers at congresses, colloquiums and symposiums with international participation, such as Iaşi 1963, 1984, 1990, 1994, 2004, Verona-Lazise 1972, Sofia 1972, 1986, 2000, Bucharest 1976, 1988, Rome 1979, Iaşi-Piatra Neamţ 1980, 1984, Vienna 1980, Bonn 1980, Palma de Mallorca 1981, Nové Vozokany 1982, Plovdiv 1982, 1990, Otzenhausen 1984, Spoleto 1987, Budapest 1987, Berlin 1990, Nessebăr 1992, Piatra Neamţ 1994, Bacău-Tescani-Poduri 1995, 2004, Cernăuţi 1995, 1999, Gălăneşti 1996, Constanţa-Tulcea 1996, Konotop-Baturin 1997, Kladovo-Turnu Severin-Vršac 1998, Celic-Dere 1998, Odessa 2001, etc. He published minute reports at home, by which he wanted to promptly inform the Romanian academic community on the general topics, the methodological novelties and the substance of the more relevant contributions to the above-mentioned international academic events in which he had participated.

By tenaciously lobbying authorities in charge with the editorial policy of Romania, he managed to persuade them to allow the publication of the periodical journal Arheologia Moldovei (The Archaeology of Moldavia) in 1961 by the team of the Section of Ancient History and Archaeology of the Institute of History and Philology. Subsequently, under the aegis of the Publishing House of the Academy of the Romanian People’s Republic, Arheologia Moldovei was published be the same Section (as part of the “A. D. Xenopol” Institute of History and Archaeology of Iaşi). Whereas in Arta şi Arheologia, co-ordinated by Orest Tafrali (during the inter-war period), archaeology occupied a secondary place, that domain had a status of priority in the new journal. Thus Arheologia Moldovei became the first journal with an archaeological profile in the old capital of Moldavia, as well as in the whole Carpathian-Dniestrian area. It was intended to comply with continental exigencies, in both contents and form, which accounts for its

Victor Spinei

international reception: Arheologia Moldovei has relationships of exchange with publications of the same profile belonging to about 250 institutes of other countries, of both Europe and other continents. From that standpoint, the journal issued by the Iaşi team of archaeologists (with the initial editorial board composed of Adrian Florescu, Ion Ioniţă, Virgil Mihailescu-Bîrliba, and subsequently of other research workers) has been and remains one of the Romanian scientific journals most solicited in external exchange. Also, as Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa assumed the leadership of the „A. D. Xenopol” Institute of History and Archaeology in 1967, he became editor-in-chief, then president of the editorial board of the Institute’s annals. He ensured good collaboration with the scientific secretaries of the journal (Leonid Boicu, Ioan Caproşu, Leon Şimanschi, Ştefan Sorin Gorovei), as well as with the editorial advisory board, and it was that collaboration that raised the level of the journal. It came to impose itself as one of the best academic periodical publications in the country, at a time when the pressure of the Communist dictatorship on the cultural and scientific life of Romania was at its worst.

Another domain in which Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa has great merits is the training of the young generation of research workers. In that respect, remarkable was his activity as member of the University’s teaching staff, and as site organiser. His excavations at Bicaz, Truşeşti, Cucuteni and other places came to represent true schooling-sites for students, as well as for young museum and research workers. It was on those sites where modern methods of investigation were experimented, and the excavation and collection techniques were learnt. In his capacities as an educator, chief of section, curator of the Museum of History of Moldavia, and director of the “A. D. Xenopol” Institute of History and Archaeology of Iaşi, Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa endeavoured to provide qualified specialists for the main sectors of national history. He also strove to distribute qualified personnel to all the

Homage on a Veritable Anniversary museums of Moldova. He chose from among his former students, well trained in archaeological activities. Some of those came to do doctoral work under his supervision, so their training continued after graduation.

By such activity, he became a real founder and leader of an archaeological school, with many disciples, not only in Iaşi and in all Moldavian cities, but also in many museums all over the country. A specific trait of the representatives of that school was that they had solid on-site experience, and they collected abundant new material, which they studied in detail, as to established its typology, its dating, and its cultural belonging. Professor Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa has been a promoter of multidisciplinary research, as he supported fruitful collaboration between archaeologists and palaeofaunists, anthropologists, linguists, ethnographers, physicists, chemists, etc., and he urged his disciples to do the same.

In turning to account the results of his investigations, he became aware of the fact that a coherent reconstruction of cultural phenomena had no real chances to materialise without thorough knowledge of the surroundings. That is why, he was constantly concerned with the establishment of good ties with colleagues abroad. Immediately after the installation of the Communist regime, such ties were practically possible only with research workers of the Soviet Union and of other Communist countries; in course of time, however, contacts with specialists of the West could also be established. By facing the suspicion and often the opposition of authorities, Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa managed to persuade them that such academic contacts were not only natural, but also indispensable for the progress of research.

The good results obtained in the scientific field naturally brought him the praise of qualified organisms at home and abroad. In 1954 he was granted a State Prize for his contribution to the archaeological monograph Hăbăşeşti; in 1977 he got the “Vasile Pârvan” prize of the Romanian Academy for his synthetic work on the bronze hoards of Romania; in 1964 he was elected member of the Permanent Council of the International Union of Pre- and Protohistorical Sciences (in 1991 he became a member of the Honorary Committee of that organisation); in 1970 he became titular member of the Academy of Social and Political Sciences; in 1964 he was elected member of the Italian Institute of Pre- and Protohistory in Florence; in 1968, corresponding member of the

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German Archaeological Institute; in 1997, honorary member of the Institute of Thracology in Sofia, belonging to the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences; in 1999, doctor honoris causa of the “Dunărea de Jos” University of Galaţi. Many other distinctions have been granted to him by various national and international scientific societies and committees.

A delayed but fully deserved crowning of his vast and rich scholarly work was represented by his entering the Romanian Academy: first he was elected corresponding member, on 18 December 1991, then titular member, on 13 June 1996. In that position he was named president of the Mixed Romanian-Ukrainian Commission of History, Archaeology, Ethnography and Folklore of the Romanian Academy. He gave up that position in 2004, after a long period of intense and fruitful activity.1

Even a concise review of the activities performed by Professor Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa in various domains would not fail to appear as a balance sheet full of impressive results, which he has achieved as a scholar, professor, organiser, school founder and mentor of many generations of archaeologists, museum workers and educators. He has shown indomitable devotion to his profession, and a true cult of work. It was not just by chance that he appropriated the Russian saying Сколько можно и ещё, that is “As much as possible, and even more,” which reflects his belief that, if one wishes to clarify scientific problems, one should get fully engaged, and show no hesitation. That creed he taught to

1 For the main moments of Professor Petrescu-Dîmboviţa’s biography, see, among other things: M. Petrescu-Dîmboviţa and A. Andronic, Muzeul de Istorie a Moldovei, Bucureşti, 1966; M. Petrescu-Dîmboviţa, Institutul de Istorie şi Arheologie “A. D. Xenopol,” la 40 de ani. Relizări şi perspective, in Anuarul Institutului de Istorie şi Arheologie “A. D. Xenopol,” XIX, 1982, p. V-XXIII; G. Platon, Universitatea din Iaşi în epoca contemporană (1918-1985). Consideraţii preliminare, in Istoria Universităţii din Iaşi, eds. G. Platon, V. Cristian, Iaşi, 1985, p. 146-160, 169-194, 220; D. G. Teodor, Profesorul Mircea Peterescu-Dîmboviţa la 70 de ani, in ArhMold, XI, 1987, p. 301; idem., Profesorul Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa la 80 de ani !, in ArhMold, XVIII, 1995, p. 7-14; V. Chirica, O viaţă închinată arheologiei: profesorul Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa la 80 de ani, in Europa XXI, III-IV, 1994-1995, p. V-VII; A. Zub, Profesorul Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa la 80 de ani, in Anuarul Institutului de Istorie “A. D. Xenopol,” XXXII, 1995, p. 651-652; A. László, Le Professeur Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa à son 85e anniversaire, in SAA, VII, 2000, p. 1-20; D. N. Rusu, Membrii Academiei Române, 1866/2003, Dicţionar, 3rd ed., Bucureşti, 2003, p. 645-646; V. Chirica, D. Aparaschivei, Insitutul de Arheologie Iaşi (BAI, XIII), Iaşi, 2004, p. 7-27, 135-156.

Homage on a Veritable Anniversary others too; but, first of all, he illustrated it by his personal example. For all the ones who have got in touch with him throughout his active life, he stands for a true fighter in the service of scholarly ideals, and for a catalyst of constructive initiatives. And he is known to have always rejected pessimistic attitudes.

In the name of his former students, disciples and collaborators, we assure him that we will ever hold him in high esteem, for everything he has achieved, with responsibility and passion. We wish him to stay strong and active, and to have new satisfactions, on all grounds. Many happy returns of the day!

Translated by Adrian PORUCIUC

Victor Spinei



Edidit Victor Spinei, Cornelia-Magda Lazarovici et Dan

Monah

TRINITAS


Scripta praehistorica. Miscellanea in honorem nonagenarii

magistri Mircea Petrescu-Dîmboviţa oblata

Edidit Victor Spinei, Cornelia-Magda Mantu et Dan Monah