Website: http://archaeotek.org/late_bronze_age_excavation_and_survey

Location: Turda Canyons, Cluj Napoca, Transylvania, Romania

Season Dates: July 15, 2012 - August 11, 2012

Period(s) of Occupation: Early Bronze Age (Cotofeni), Middle (Wietenberg)

        Metal, fire, water, salt, mountains, forests… That is the environment of the Transylvanian Bronze Age. We have hundreds of tools for quarrying salt, working wood, forging metal, plowing fields, harvesting crops, working leather and pelts, not counting jewelry, clothing implements, weapons…

         The 2012 summer field project will be an intensive and integrated exploration of the area surrounding the Tureni Canyons. Situated near two large salt deposits and not far from the copper rich regions of Transylvania, these dramatic landscapes host a variety of sites from the Early and Middle Bronze Age, ranging from large "aristocratic" tumuli, to ritual caves, temples and settlements. Highly detailed excavations of several small trenches on sites identified from field walking will be conducted in order to establish a chronology and stratigraphic sequence of the area. Concurrently, rotating GPS survey teams will continue mapping the topography of the area while other teams will collect soil samples and conduct phosphate testing in order to map the density/intensity of human occupation. The laboratory components will include flotation, various GIS related exercises (data entry, map building, digitizing) and material processing.

Project Cost and Fees: $1,450 per four weeks ($400 per week for shorter periods)

Students and volunteers will be housed either in double or triple occupancy rooms in an in-town small pension or as guests of Romanian families. Breakfast and dinner will be provided (during workdays at a local restaurant).

For more information and application: archaeology@archaeotek.org

See you in the field,

Andre Gonciar

Field Director