UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
ARCHAEOLOGY
 

IRON GATES HERITAGE PROJECT
Summer 2007

Background

The Iron Gates section of the Danube Valley, where the river forms the border between Romania and Serbia, is home to a remarkable concentration of Late Stone Age sites dating to the period from c. 13,000 to 5500 BC (Figure 1). These are some of most important archaeological sites in SE Europe. Excavated in the 1960s and 1980s ahead of dam construction, most are now submerged. However, the archaeological collections survive and constitute a rich data source, which can serve as the basis for new scientific investigations.

Figure 1 Mesolithic and Early Neolithic sites in the Iron Gates

Figure 2 The Iron Gates Gorge
 
This valuable scientific resource is now under threat. The material from Romanian excavations has been poorly curated for many years. The original packaging materials and labeling were of poor quality, and have been steadily deteriorating. Over the years, labels and packaging have fallen apart, labels have become attached to the wrong items, finds have become mixed and some have gone missing. The situation is gradually getting worse and remedial action is needed urgently.
It is proposed to take a group of Edinburgh undergraduate students to Romania in Summer 2007 to assist with the task of reorganizing, repackaging, and re-labeling the finds from the Iron Gates sites now housed in the Archaeological Institute in Bucharest.
 
Objectives and Methods
Our objectives will be to:

• Systematically re-package and re-label the finds from individual sites, using ‘long-life’ packaging materials (plastic boxes, polythene self-seal bags, waterproof labels. We will preserve any existing labels and other documentation.
• Make a computerized inventory of the finds (animal bones, human bones, lithic artefacts, bone artefacts, pottery, etc.) from individual sites.
• Process (i.e. undertake flotation, wet sieving and sorting of) any unprocessed soil samples, in order to recover items such as artefacts, animal bones and plant remains of archaeological significance.
• Attempt to identify any unlabelled items, through careful study of site records and published descriptions.
• Identify any items requiring specialist conservation or analysis.
• Make a digital photographic record of items of special significance (e.g. bone tools, ceramic figurines).
• Identify items for drawing by a professional illustrator.
• Collect samples for ¹⁴C dating and other scientific analyses where appropriate (n.b. many of the Romanian sites have few or no 14C dates).
• In addition, we will spend some time in the field studying sites in the lower Iron Gates region (between the two dams). There are several important sites in this area situated on islands in the Danube, which were partially excavated in the early 1980s before the rise in river level caused by the Iron Gates II dam. Our objective will be to survey what remains of the sites, record their state of preservation, and assess the prospects for future archaeological investigation.
  

Educational benefits

• Edinburgh undergraduate students will gain hands-on experience of original archaeological materials from the Iron Gates sites. They will learn to recognize and classify various categories of archaeological finds, with clear benefits for their studies in Edinburgh.
• The proposed fieldwork in the lower Iron Gates will provide the students with training in archaeological field survey techniques using an electronic total station, and the opportunity to see and appreciate the environmental setting of these remarkable sites.

Scientific benefits

• Our work will ensure that the finds from the Romanian excavations in the Iron Gates are preserved as a valuable scientific resource for future generations of archaeologists.
• Our field survey results will be a significant contribution to managing and protecting the archaeological heritage of the Iron Gates region.
• We will make our records and findings available to the wider scientific community as an online resource, accessible via the University of Edinburgh (Archaeology) website.
  
   
  Interested? Please fill in our online Application Form

LOGISTICS

Project Location: Bucharest & Turnu-Severin (Romania)
Project Dates (provisional): July 2007 (4 weeks)
Travel cost (provisional): £350
Accommodation/Food (estimate): £15/day
Personal Travel Insurance: Compulsory
Passport: Full, valid for at least 6 months from departure date
Vaccinations: Hepatitis A
Recommended for all travellers: Typhoid
For travellers who may eat or drink outside major restaurants and hotels: Hepatitis B
For travellers who may have intimate contact with local residents, especially if visiting for more than 6 months: Routine immunizations
For travellers who may have direct contact with animals and may not have access to medical care: Rabies
All travellers should be up-to-date on tetanus-diphtheria, measles-mumps-rubella, polio, and varicella immunizations
 
Bibliography

Bonsall, C., Lennon, R., McSweeney, K., Stewart, C., Harkness, D., Boroneanţ, V., Payton, R., Bartosiewicz, L. & Chapman J.C., 1997. Mesolithic and Early Neolithic in the Iron Gates: a palaeodietary perspective. Journal of European Archaeology 5(1), 50–92.
Boroneanţ, V., Bonsall, C., McSweeney, K., Payton, R. & Macklin, M., 1999. A Mesolithic burial area at Schela Cladovei, Romania, in L’Europe des Derniers Chasseurs: Épipaléolithique et Mésolithique, Actes du 5e colloque international UISPP, commission XII, Grenoble, 18–23 septembre 1995, ed. A. Thévenin. Paris: Éditions du Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques, 385–90.
Bonsall, C., Cook, G., Lennon, R., Harkness, D., Scott, M., Bartosiewicz, L. & McSweeney, K., 2000. Stable Isotopes, radiocarbon and the Mesolithic–Neolithic transition in the Iron Gates. Documenta Praehistorica 27, 119–32.
Cook, G.T, Bonsall C., Hedges R.E.M., McSweeney K., Boroneanţ V., Bartosiewicz L. & Pettitt P.B., 2002. Problems of dating human bones from the Iron Gates. Antiquity 76, 77–85.
Bonsall, C., Macklin, M.G., Payton, R.W. & Boroneanţ, A., 2002. Climate, floods and river gods: environmental change and the Meso–Neolithic transition in south-east Europe. Before Farming: the archaeology of Old World hunter-gatherers 3_4(2), 1–15.
Bonsall, C., 2003. The Iron Gates Mesolithic. In P. Bogucki & P. Crabtree (eds) Ancient Europe 8000 B.C. to A.D. 1000: Encyclopedia of the Barbarian World. New York: Scribner, 175–178.
Bonsall, C., Cook, G.T., Hedges, R.E.M., Higham, T.F.G., Pickard, C. & Radovanović, I., 2004. Radiocarbon and stable isotope evidence of dietary change from the Mesolithic to the Middle Ages in the Iron Gates: new results from Lepenski Vir. Radiocarbon 46(1), 293–300.

last updated 14/03/2007