Cuptorul de olar din secolul al VIII lea p.Chr. de la Sighişoara – Dealul Viilor / A pottery kiln from the 8th century AD discovered at Sighişoara – Dealul Viilor

Abstract

During the campaigns of 2012 and 2013 from Sighișoara – Dealul Viilor site, in the area ‘Necropolis’, a potter’s kiln of the late Avar age (8th century) was identified and investigated. The discovery was made at the foot of a steep hill called Dealul Viilor (Fig. 1), and consisted of an oven pit and the kiln itself (Figs. 2– 4). The large oven pit (over 3 m on its E-W axis and about 5 m long on the NS axis) could not be entirely uncovered, continuing in areas still unexcavated. On the floor of the oven pit (- 1.20/- 1.35 m depth) which consists of organic material (wood ash), a relatively rectangular shaped furnace was set up with rounded corners. The kiln consists of four components : ware chamber (Fig. 5/ a), combustion chamber (Fig. 5/ c), firetunnel or praefurnium (Fig. 5/ d) and stokers pit (Fig. 5/ e). The upper and lower chambers are separated by a firing chamber’s grid floor or sola with several vent holes (fig. 5/ b). Thus, the potter’s kiln from Dealul Viilor can be defined as a bicameral one, with vertical ventilation and lateral alimentation. From within the kiln, 235 sherds were collected, documented and statistically evaluated. Most of them (227 of 235) come from pots dated to the 8th century AD (Figs. 6– 7 and Pls. 1– 7), but several prehistoric pottery fragments belonging to the Wietenberg culture were identified as well (Pl. 8/ nos. 63, 64, 71), in addition to material dated to the 3rd and 4th centuries AD (Pl. 8/ nos. 37, 38, 55, 62). Most fragments from the 8th century AD material originate from vessels produced on the slow wheel, some decorated with incised horizontal lines made with comb or broom. In the current stage of research, the kiln from Sighișoara – Dealul Viilor is the only such discovery known in Transylvania, and one of the very few in the Carpathian Basin dated to time of the Avar Khaganate (Fig. 8, Appendix 2).