A funerary cult structure of the Late Bronze Age from Lăpuş, northwestern Romania, and its cultural context

Project management:	Prof. Dr. Carola Metzner-Nebelsick
Cooperation partners:	Maramureş County Museum of History and Archaeology in Baia Mare, Romania (Dr. Carol Kacsó, Bogdan Bobînă MA) Dr. Louis D. Nebelsick, Professor at UKSW: Archaeological Institute, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University, Warsaw, Poland
Funding organization:	DFG
Project start date:	Pilot project 2007 (financed by LMU), Phase 1: 2008–2011, Phase 2: from 2011

Lapus marked on a topographical map of the carpathian region — © Carola Metzner-Nebelsick

Follow-up project to:

The burial mound necropolis of Lăpuş, Maramureş region, Romania, an elite necropolis from the late Bronze Age and its surroundings – excavation of a funerary cult building and accompanying scientific investigations of finds and findings

Project description:

The region of northwestern Transylvania (administratively part of the Maramureş region) is a core region of the European Bronze Age (approx. 2200-800 BC). Its special significance is based on its rich resources of metals, especially copper and gold, as well as salt. The tumulus necropolis and cult area of Lăpuş are located in a secluded river valley basin at the foot of the metal-rich Carpathian Mountains.

Building on many years of excavations by project partner Dr. Carol Kacsó at the Lăpuş site, which formerly consisted of around 70 mounds, mound 26 and its cultural context have been the subject of an international and interdisciplinary excavation and research project since 2007.

Archaeological project section:

Birdseye view of the excavation area in Lapus — © Carola Metzner-Nebelsick

The international project essentially involves the excavation of a Late Bronze Age cult building in northwestern Romania. As a three-year interdisciplinary predecessor project at the same site, which is currently still being evaluated, showed, this multi-phase monument is a new type of monument located within a ritual area.

Hill 26, which has been partially excavated to date, was constructed in several phases. During the most recent main construction phase, a 23 x 12 m antenna building with a central hearth was built on a clay platform covering an older predecessor building and was substantially renovated at least once. This megaron-like monumental building represents a unique architectural form in the Late Bronze Age Carpathian region. Deposits outside the building, including intentionally shattered pottery, food remains (calcined animal bones, grain) and similarly fragmented artifacts, as well as the proximity to previously excavated burial mounds, suggest a function in the context of burial rituals or as a place for funeral or memorial ceremonies and associated sacrificial rites and feasts. Magnetic prospecting by a team from the University of Poznań in the vicinity of Mound 26 revealed similar monumental structures under other mounds.

The location of Lăpuş at the mouth of a pre-Alpine valley, in close proximity to rich ore deposits (including gold and copper) that have been exploited since the Middle Ages, is causally related, as was clarified in a scientific accompanying program during the first phase of the project. Further scientific analyses are being carried out by other project partners within and outside LMU.

Accompanying scientific studies:

An initial series of 14C AMS data made it possible to understand the internal chronology of the excavation site and thus gain insight into the temporal component of certain ritual sequences. The data are among the first from the late Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin and adjacent areas.
Plant macro-remains and calcined bones provide information about the food consumed.
Due to the good preservation of charred wood, further insights can be gained by determining the type of wood and conducting dendrochronological analyses.
The particularly favorable location of a raised bog only about 25 km away from the excavation site as the crow flies, as well as the existence of another one in a neighboring settlement area, make palynological investigations possible. The aim is to contribute to the vegetation history of northwestern Transylvania and to gain insights into the nature and extent of anthropogenic interventions in a landscape, with particular emphasis on the pre-Christian metal ages. One focus is on finding evidence of prehistoric mining, which is suspected based on artifacts but has not yet been archaeologically verified.
Extensive archaeometric investigations of the ceramics are being carried out to gain a better understanding of the processes involved in the multi-phase cult building.
Micromorphological sampling of sediments and anthropogenic stratification should provide detailed information on the use of the excavation site.

Other participating archaeologists and scientists:

Project staff: Ken Massy MA, LMU Munich

Surveying/photography: Tachymetric terrain surveying, 3D terrain models: Łukasz Pospieszny MA; Dr. Mateusz Jaeger MA, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland

Tachymetric terrain surveying for the 2007 pilot campaign: Ulrich Schultz (University of Bamberg; Michael Kralisch, HU Berlin); Archaeological surveying and photogrammetry: Ken Massy MA, Simone Reuß MA, LMU Munich; Photography: Oliver Thiel, Berlin

geophysical prospecting: Łukasz Pospieszny MA; Dr. Mateusz Jaeger MA, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland

Pollen analyses: PD Dr. Michael Peters, Head of the Vegetation History Working Group, Institute for Prehistoric and Early History Archaeology and Provincial Roman Archaeology, LMU Munich

Plant macro-residue analyses: PD Dr. Michael Peters; Brigitte Hill (as above)

Animal bone analysis: Prof. Dr. Joris Peters, Institute for Paleoanatomy and History of Veterinary Medicine, LMU Munich

AMS-14C dating: Prof. Dr. Tomasz Goslar, 14C Laboratory at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland; Dr. Andreas Scharf, AMS-14C Laboratory, Department of Physics, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg; Prof. Dr. Bernd Kromer, CEM Mannheim

Archaeometry, ceramic analysis: Prof. Dr. Corina Ionescu, Head of Mineralogy Chair, Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania; Prof. em. Dr. Volker Höck, Department of Geography and Geology, University of Salzburg

Environmental geochemistry: Prof. Dr. William Shotyk, formerly Institute of Earth Sciences, Heidelberg University, currently: Bocock Chair for Agriculture and the Environment, University of Alberta, Canada

Geology: Ioana Vele, Târgu Lăpuş, Romania; Dimitru Istvan, Baia Mare, Romania

Micromorphology: Dr. Dagmar Fritzsch, Department of Geosciences/Geography, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt am Main

Dendrochronology: Wood species identification: Franz Herzig, Dendrology Laboratory, Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation, Thierhaupten

C. Metzner-Nebelsick/C. Kascó/L. D. Nebelsick, Internationale Kooperation in Rumänien. Archaeo (Landesamts für Archäologie mit Archäologischem Landesmuseum Sachsen), Heft 4, 2007, 82 f.

C. Metzner-Nebelsick/C. Kacsó, Rapoarte preliminare asupra cercetărilor în necropola tumulară de la Lăpuş 2007-2008. Vorbericht über die Forschungen in der Hügelnekropole von Lăpuş 2007-2008 (Baia Mare 2009).

C. Metzner-Nebelsick/C. Kacsó/L. D. Nebelsick, Ein Kultbau der Bronzezeit aus dem Karpatenbecken. Archäologie in Deutschland 2010/3, 54-57.

C. Metzner-Nebelsick/C. Kacsó/L. D. Nebelsick, A Bronze Age ritual structure on the edge of the Carpathian Basin. In: T. Ba-der/L. Marta (Hrsg.), The Second Millenium B.C. in the Tisza Plain and Transylvania. Satu Mare Studii şi Communicări ser. Arheologie 26/1, 2010, 219-233.

C. Kacsó/C. Metzner-Nebelsick, Ein internationales Forschungsprojekt. Die Ausgrabungen in der spätbronzezeitlichen Hügelnekropole von Lăpuş. Naukovij Zbirnik Zakarpat’kogo kraeznavčogo muzejo Užgorod 11, 2011, 253-262.

C. Kacsó/C. Metzner-Nebelsick/L.D. Nebelsick, New Work at the Late Bronze Age Tumulus Cemetery of Lăpuş in Romania. In: E. Borgna/S. Müller Celka (Hrsg.), Ancestral Landscapes. Burial Mounds in the Copper and Bronze Ages (Central and Eastern Europe – Balkans – Adriatic – Aegean, 4th-2nd millennium B.C.). Travaux de la Maison de l’Orient et de la Méditerranée 58 (Lyon 2011) 341-354.

Carol Kacsó/Carola Metzner-Nebelsick/Louis D. Nebelsick, Kontinuität und Diskontinuität im Bestattungsverhalten der spätbronzezeitlichen Eliten in Nordwestsiebenbürgen am Beispiel der Hügelnekropole von Lăpuş in Nordwestrumänien. In: Daniel Bérenger/Jean Bourgeois/Marc Talon/Stefan Wirth (Hrsg.), Gräberlandschaften der Bronzezeit Paysages funéraires de l’âge du Bronze. Bodenaltertümer Westfalens 51 (Darmstadt 2012) 457-475.

C. Metzner-Nebelsick, Channelled Pottery in Transylvania and Beyond – Ritual and Chronological Aspects. Satu Mare Studii şi comunicări ser. Archeologie 28/I, 2012, 65-81.
Hoeck/C. Ionescu/Metzner-Nebelsick/Nebelsick 2012
V. Hoeck/C. Ionescu/C. Metzner-Nebelsick/L. D. Nebelsick, Mineralogy of the Siliceous Slags Found in the Lăpuş Bronze Age Funerary Site (NW Romania). Geological Quaterly 56 (4), 2012, 649-664. http://dx.doi.org/10.7306/gq.1047

C. Metzner-Nebelsick, Gedanken zur Frage des kulturellen Wandels in der Zeit um 1600 v. Chr. in Nordwest-Rumänien und Nordost-Ungarn. In: H. Meller/F. Bertemes/H.-R. Bork/R. Risch (Hrsg.), 1600 – Kultureller Umbruch im Schatten des Thera-Ausbruchs? 1600 – Cultural Change in the Shadow of the Thera-Eruption? 4. Mitteldeutscher Archäologentag vom 14. bis 16. Oktober 2011 in Halle (Saale) (Halle 2013) 327-353.

Michael Peters, Arne Friedmann, Philipp Stojakowitz, Carola Metzner-Nebelsick, Holocene vegetation history and environmental change in the Lăpuş Mountains, northwest Romania. May 2019, Palynology DOI: 10.1080/01916122.2019.1615567

C. Metzner-Nebelsick zusammen mit Autorenkollektiv, Lăpuş, com. Lăpuş, jud. Maramureş. Punct: Podanc. Cronica Cercetărilor Arheologice din România, campania 2007 (Bucureşti 2008) 177-181. (in rumänischer und deutscher Sprache)

C. Metzner-Nebelsick zusammen mit Autorenkollektiv, Lăpuş, com. Lăpuş, jud. Maramureş. Punct: Podanc. In: Hrsg.: cIMeC, In-stitutul de Memorie Culturala, Cronica Cercetărilor Arheologice din România, campania 2008 (Bucureşti 2009). (in Romanian and German language) http://www.cimec.ro/Arheologie/cronicaCA2009/cd/index.htm

C. Metzner-Nebelsick zusammen mit Autorenkollektiv, Lăpuş, com. Lăpuş, jud. Maramureş Punct: Podanc. Ministeriul Culturi Institutul Naţional al patrimoniului (Hrsg.), Cronica Cercetărilor Arheologice din România Campania 2009 (Bucureşti 2010) 111-118.

13.05.2008 (Udine): The Late Bronze Age (14th-12th c. BC) barrow necropolis of Lăpuş, Maramureş, Romania – New research

19.07.2008 (Satu Mare): Lăpuş – current research in a well-known site. Lăpuş – gegenwärtige Forschungen an einem alt bekannten Fundplatz (Tagung Satu Mare)

03.09.2008 (Baia Mare): Lăpuş – current research in a well-known site (Pressekonferenz Baia Mare)

17.10.2008 (Herne): Kontinuität und Diskontinuität im Bestattungsverhalten der spätbronzezeitlichen Eliten in Nordwestbürgen am Beispiel der Hügelnekropole von Lăpuş.

10.02.2009 (München): Tradition und Wandel in Weltanschauung und Religion. Heiligtümer, Kultorte, Rituale – Fallstudie: Das Kultmonument in Hügel 26 der spätbronzezeitlichen Grabhügelnekropole von Lăpuş, Region Maramureş, Nordwestrumänien (MZAW-Kolloquium)

20.05.2009 (Erlangen): Ein Kultmonument in der spätbronzezeitlichen Hügelnekropole von Lăpuş (Region Maramureş) in Rumänien (Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Universität Erlangen)

01.09.2009 (Baia Mare): Lăpuş – current research in a famous site – Excavation campaign 2009 (Pressekonferenz Baia Mare)

08.06.2010 (Berlin): Ein Kultmonument in der spätbronzezeitlichen Hügelnekropole von Lăpuş (Region Maramureş) in Rumänien (TOPOI-Vertragsreihe am Institut für Prähistorische Archäologie, FU Berlin)

15.12.2010 (München): Ein monumentaler Kultbau der späten Bronzezeit aus Lăpuş in Nordwestrumänien und sein Kontext (Institut für Vor- und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie und Provinzialrömische Archäologie an der LMU München)

23.02.2011 (Frankfurt): Ein monumentaler Kultbau der späten Bronzezeit aus Lăpuş in Nordwestrumänien und sein Kontext (Jahressitzung der Römisch-Germanischen Kommission des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts in Frankfurt a. M.)

16.03.2011 (Kiel): Environmental and Anthropogenic Impact Factors during the Bronze Age in the ore-rich Lăpuş Microregion, Northwest Romania (Workshop Landscape Kiel: session II: Collaps or Continuity?)(zusammen mit Louis D. Nebelsick, Michael Peters, Carol Kacsó und William Shotyk)

12.04.2011 (Nitra): Ein monumentaler Kultbau der späten Bronzezeit aus Lăpuş in Nordwestrumänien und sein Kontext (Festvortrag der Jahrestagung der Archäologischen Gesellschaft der Slowakei am Archäologischen Institut der Slowakischen Akademie der Wissenschaften)

17.06.2011 (Satu Mare): Channeled pottery in Transylvania and beyond. Ritual and chronological aspects (The Beginnings of the First Millennium B.C. in the Tisa Plain and Transylvania. The Gáva culture. International Symposium Muzeul Judeţean Satu Mare)

09.07.2011 (München): Ein spätbronzezeitlicher Kultbau in Lăpuş, Nordwestrumänien und sein Kontext – ein transdisziplinäres Forschungsprojekt im Spannungsfeld von Archäologie und Naturwissenschaften (Interdisziplinarität als Chance – vom Studium bis zur Forschungspraxis. ArchaeoBioCenter LMU München)(zusammen mit Michael Peters)

12.07.2011 (Heidelberg): Ein Kultbau der späten Bronzezeit aus Lăpuş in Nordwestrumänien und sein kultureller Kontext (Institut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte und Vorderasiatische Archäologie Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg)

10.10.2011 (Berlin): Ein spätbronzezeitlicher Kultbau aus Lăpuş in Nordwestrumänien und sein kultureller Kontext (Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte)

12.06.2012 (Iaşi): Ausgrabungen in Lăpuş (II) – ein spätbronzezeitlicher Kultbau und sein Kontext (100 Jahre nach Hubert Schmidt – Deutsch-Rumänische Kooperationen in der Archäologie)

05.10.2012 (Târgu Mureş): Handwerk in symbolischer Dimension am Beispiel des spätbronzezeitlichen Kultbaus von Lăpuş, jud. Maramureş – Crafts in ritual dimension with regard to the Late Bronze Age Cult buildings in Lăpuş (Bronze Age Communities in the Carpathian Basin – International colloquium Târgu Mureş)

13.11.2012 (Innsbruck): Ein spätbronzezeitlicher Kultbau aus Lăpuş in Nordwestsiebenbürgen, Rumänien, und sein kultureller Kontext (Institut für Archäologien Universität Innsbruck)

29.01.2013 (Freising): Ein spätbronzezeitlicher Kultbau aus Nordwestrumänien und sein kultureller Kontext (Archäologischer Verein im Landkreis Freising)

05.02.2013 (Frankfurt a.M.): Ein funeraler Kultbau der späten Bronzezeit aus Lăpuş, Nordwestrumänien und sein kultureller Kontext (Colloquium Praehistoricum Universität Frankfurt a.M.)

01.03.2014 (Dingolfing): Ein Kultbau und ‚feasting site‘ der späten Bronzezeit aus Lăpuş, Nordwestrumänien (Symposium „Opfer- oder Festplätze von der Bronze- zur Latènezeit)

19.06.2014 (Straßburg): A multiphased monumental Bronze Age feasting hall in Lăpuş, Northwest Romania (Le Bronze moyen et l‘origine du Bronze final en Europe occidentale, de la Méditerranée aux pays Nordiques)

06.10.2014 (München): Interdisziplinarität in der archäologischen Forschung am Beispiel eines monumentalen Kultgebäudes der späten Bronzezeit in Nordwestrumänien (Distant Worlds Munich Graduate Center for Ancient Studies)