Unguentaria in pre-Roman Dacia. Finds from Cetăţeni

Abstract

Various products from Asia Minor and Pontus reached the Geto-Dacian settlements north of the Lower Danube mainly from the 2nd century BC until the very beginning of the 2nd century AD. They are reflected in the archaeological discoveries especially through pottery (West Slope, Hadra/Lagynoi wares, Megarian Bowls, Appliqué wares, Lead Glazed ware, grey ware, Pergamene Sigillata, Eastern Sigillata B and Pontic Sigillata); amphorae from Rhodes, Thasos, Cnidus, Kos, Sinope, Heraclea Pontica, or Chersonesus; Pergamenian and Ephesian lamps and glass vessels made by various techniques (core made, mould or free blown, sagging, cut-faceted or splashed made). Following the excavations conducted between 2002-2004 in the Late Iron Age settlement at Cetăţeni (Argeș County, Romania), a pit containing autochthonous handmade and wheel thrown pottery, fragments of amphorae, a cylindrical glass bead and also an unguentarium fragment were discovered. From the chronological point of view of this sealed archaeological context is of great relevance for the settlement. The discovery allows us to make some observations concerning import and use of perfumes and aromatic oils north of the Lower Danube, in the Barbaricum, before the making of the new Roman province of Dacia.