Hereclean-Dâmbul Iazului – An early ‘barbarian’ settlement in front of the Roman complex at Porolissum (Dacia Porolissensis). With an emphasis on some non-residential structures

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The settlement of Hereclean-Dâmbul iazului, northwestern Romania, Sălaj County, has been investigated via preventive excavations on several occasions (years 1998‒99, 2004, and 2018). Only a part of the site has been fully researched, presumably an area that was primarily assigned economic functions. It can be defined primarily by the presence of a network of postholes (the results of the last archaeological intervention were only briefly published), to be linked, of course, to the above-ground post structures, with a planimetry which is not easily reconstructed, as well as with questionable explanations as to the purpose of such buildings. At least on some occasions, they are unlikely to be so-called “longhouses”. In at least one case, it could be a sheep shelter, with ethnographic parallels and other observations specified in the text. It was insisted upon a structure that was frequently encountered and understood as a genuine “emblem” for Przeworsk culture bearers. Regardless of the choice of one name or another, we suggested, along with other authors, a neutral expression, namely “rectangular pits with clay-coated and burnt walls”. Their purpose, likely a possible “multifunctionality”, remains obscure, but we are leaning towards a possible link to religion, as too few authors have suggested before. The settlement at Hereclean, like those in the immediate vicinity, along with the currently known funerary finds, operated for a short period of time, placed within a regional/local stage C1a ‒ B2/C1, namely in the last third of the 2nd century AD and towards the beginning of the following century. The position of this settlement in the middle-upper segment of the main access route that reached the Roman frontier over a short distance, namely the valley of the small Zalău River, is of importance. It can be understood that such a “barbarian” presence so close to the limes was accepted and conditioned by the Romans and, presumably, the interplay of the economic interests mattered to both sides.