ARHIVELE OLTENIEI - Universitatea din Craiova

Types of habitat at the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age in Oltenia 13preserved on a 0.02m height. Near by 3 grindings and few Vârtop typeceramic fragments were found.The dwelling number 10 (figure VI) is similar in shape anddimension with number 7 dwelling but it has a very poor inventory.At less then 200 m from the previously described dwellings, in aplace called Balta Ţarova II, a new hallshtatian dwelling (figure VI) have beendogged out. The floor was preserved only on a 2.60 x 2m surface and had theaspect of a seriously cracked fireplace crust, the rest being destroyed by thenatural causes that disturbed the sand dune. The fireplace, taking into accountthe burn traces, was probably round and it was conserved on a 1 x 1.50msurface. In the settlement was found pottery, spindle-whorls, a bronze 8.5 cmlong knife and a bronze unadorned needle.The hallstatian settlement from Ghidici was the only one in which twolevels of dwelling belonging to the First Iron Age could be observed, the firstlevel of Vârtop type being super positioned by a Basarabi culture lair, to whichdwelling number 12 belongs.Regularly, Vârtop type dwellings had only one level of dwelling and thatone for a short period. D. Berciu made the first presentation of Vârtop typehabitations in a study from 1934 21 when he presented the diggings made by C. S.Nicolăescu Plopşor in the perimeter of Vârtop and Plopşor. Some years later inArheologia preistorică a Olteniei 22 are described the tumuli near which a series ofmound-settlement were found. At Vârtop (figure III) such a mound wasinvestigated. It contained a “hut that had an oval outline with the diameter of 4.75mand 3.70m. The entrance was in the eastern part and in the northern part were foundfirehouses, with the diameter of 0.40 x 0.50m, near which some big rocks werefound. These kind of rocks have been found before placed along the walls. In thesame place and in the centre of the room stake pits have been found. The wholeconstruction was surrounded by a ditch that widened in the west area up to 0.55mand which had the depth of 0.20m. In this kind of hut the archaeologist foundceramics, similar to that found in the graves, and a bronze needle” 23 .During the Iron Age is observed, as a habitat’s characteristic, theexistence of some small and short period habitations. Most of the sites mentionedas settlements, are presented actually under the form of familiar establishmentgroups situated at considerable distances one form another. There are few knownexamples of settlements in Oltenia, from the Early Bronze or the Late Hallshtattperiod, that have more levels of habitation and these are usually in the areasprivileged with access at natural resources like the Danube’s river meadow.In the same period, we find fortresses strengthened with a defencevallum as those in Transylvania 24 or that from Popeşti, jud. Giurgiu 25 . In Oltenia21 D. Berciu, Memoriile Institutului de Arheologie Olteană, 22, 1934.22 D. Berciu, Arheologia preistorică a Olteniei, 1939, p. 294-299.23 Ibidem, p. 294-299, fig. 178, 179.24 V. Vasiliev, Fortifications de refuge et etablissement fortifie du premier age du fer enTransylvanie, Bucureşti, 1995.