Grădistea de Munte – Sarmizegetusa Regia
When you say "Sarmizegetusa Regia", you can't help but feel a certain grandeur and a certain resonance of power. It is the name of the Dacian capital and, for archaeologists, it was the first indication that the remains there have a special significance.
Located in a superb area of the Orăștiei Mountains, spread over hundreds of terraces, with a monumental architecture of edifices, with the traces or "wounds" of wars that marked the history of an Empire, with immense treasures that gave birth to legends and are still giving birth to them, with the extent and intensity of its habitation, Sarmizegetusa Regia has the allure of a "Sacred Mountain" (Kōgaionon), about which Strabo recounted in a short passage, at the beginning of the 1st century BC. Hr.
All of these inscribed Grădiștea de Munte – Sarmizegetusa Regia, along with the entire ensemble of fortresses in the Orăștiei Mountains, on the list of reference sites for European antiquity (fig. 1, 2, 3,4).
Discovered in the early years of the 5th century, the ruins of the "city in the mountains" began to be systematically researched under the leadership of Cluj professor DMTeodorescu, in the interwar period. The excavations were resumed and continued, on an extensive scale, by Constantin Daicoviciu, Hadrian Daicoviciu and Ioan Glodariu. Thanks to the mentioned steps, we can now restore the general image of the settlement, composed of two large civil quarters, in which the dwellings and workshops were grouped, from the fortification and the sanctuary (fig. XNUMX).
In the case of Sarmizegetusa Regia, we are talking about the most complex religious architectural ensemble in Dacia. The recent archaeological campaigns were carried out in the southwestern part of the sanctuary, on the ninth terrace and in its immediate vicinity, one of the objectives being precisely the investigation of the main and secondary access ways (fig.6).
Why? For the understanding of the topography of the sanctuary, the documentation of the access ways from its perimeter is of major importance, because all the roads lead, in fact, to a "core", to the destination of greatest importance.
Since the 50s, portions of a road paved with limestone slabs, with a length of over 200 m and a width of approx. 5 m. The slabs were arranged in the form of numerous slightly high steps and, in places, in the form of platforms. Most likely, it was used for religious processions that started from the fortification area and reached near the large round temple and the altar, where the road ended in a small square. In the context of the new research, a series of details were observed regarding the construction technique, the phases of use, possible restorations, respectively the decommissioning of the paved road (fig. 7, 8, 9).
Excavations carried out three decades ago on Terrace IX had resulted in the discovery of a portion of the western branch of the ceremonial road. The continuation of the research since then led to the discovery of two new segments of the alley made up of slabs of various shapes, sizes and, last but not least, of three types of rocks: limestone, sandstone and andesite (it is the first time that such a alternation) (fig. 10, 11, 12).
The presence of such an elaborate access road brought into question the existence of a building to which it was directed, thus the extension of the archaeological approach to the ninth terrace was required. The results were remarkable, including the discovery of a large new temple (its plan in antiquity had at least five rows of 12 limestone bases each). At the same time, the remains of an edifice from a previous phase were identified, which ended after a fire (fig. 13, 14).
The artefacts are diverse, recalling here numerous ceramic fragments, tools, weapons and iron building materials, bronze and glass pieces, hundreds of plaster fragments, some of them painted (figs. 15, 16).
The information was provided by Dr. Răzvan Mateescu, MNIT archaeologist
