Istvan Botar

The Ciuc‑basin, the former Csík‑seat in medieval times, is located at the eastern periphery of Transylvania, at the border region of the medieval Hungarian Kingdom. Due to its geographical position, it creates a real opportunity to examine the centre – periphery relations, especially because it has preserved almost unchanged the medieval network of settlements and churches. The geographical situation limits the areas available for the human habitation and, in the meantime, compared to the central or the more exposed regions, there are no abandoned churches or deserted settlements. Therefore, the preserved medieval settlement system offers a good opportunity to analyse several aspects of the ecclesiastical topography.
This region appeared in the written sources only at the beginning of the 14th century, when 15 churches were mentioned in the Ciuc‑basin (and two more at Gheorgheni and Cașin). These parish churches had, very probably, contemporary subordinated filia villages lacking their own churches. From the 16th‑17th century sources, the number of such filia settlements can be estimated to around 50. A church network could not have been formed without a solid demographic background, although one faces a methodological problem: how far back into the past should we go when taking into consideration the parish churches and their subordinated villages, given the fact that in the written sources they appeared at a later date?
The research of place names revealed the fact that local toponymy has several layers, typologically and chronologically different, and some of them seem to originate prior to the 13th‑14th centuries. At the same time, archaeological research (excavations and field work) identified several 11th/12th‑13th century sites even in the filia villages mentioned in documents only in the 16th century. The archaeological material was dated not just by observed analogies but also by independent 14C AMS dates. The archaeological (and toponymic) data supports the affirmation that the settlement system on which the parish network could have formed existed in the 12th century.
The archaeological excavations of the last two decades documented pre‑Gothic periods at all investigated churches, although the chronology of these earlier periods is ambiguous or impossible to establish because the dating elements were missing. Ciuc remained Catholic throughout its entire history, with churches and their surrounding cemeteries used continuously from the construction date until the present. Newer, deeper and larger graves systematically destroyed medieval graves, therefore most investigated graves around the medieval churches of Ciuc are relatively recent. Fortunately, in some cases, under later architectural elements (such as buttresses) or in undisturbed places, early graves containing 12th century artefacts/grave goods were documented, with this date also confirmed by 14C dates. Based on this, one can presume that the first churches (some of them of wood?) were built during the 12th century.
The parish network was most surely in place by the beginning of the 14th century, and continued to function almost unchanged till the 18th‑19th centuries, when some earlier filia villages obtained parish rights and built new churches of their own. The ratio of the medieval parish churches to villages was 1:3 on average, but this represents a mean value obtained from variable ratios ranging from 1:1 to 1:6. The church network was surprisingly dense, with the distance between two churches of ca. 4‑5 km, and all settlements were within a radius of 5 km from at least one parish church.
Chapels were also important elements in the ecclesiastical topography. The first were built in the 14th century outside the villages, but the modalities and the reasons of their construction are not really known. The second group of chapels appeared inside the filia villages in the 15th‑16th centuries. In this case, the motivation can be easily guessed: they were built at the initiative of the local elite and community. The main reason was to create possibilities to have local Masses instead of walking regularly to the neighbourhood parish church. Naturally, those chapels became key elements in the process of founding new parishes in the modern periods, when the present‑day ecclesiastical organisation got its final shape.

The Ciuc-basin is known as one of the coldest regions of the country, where the forests are mainly formed of pines and this vision is regularly projected to the Medieval Times. Archaeological data does not confirm this presumption, on 3–15th century sites often appear carbonised oak pieces. Oak timber elements can be found also in medieval churches and manors. From the 3 –4th and 16–17th centuries there are several data regarding intensive metallurgy activities which needed a huge amount of hard wood, namely oak and beech. The former oak forests are mentioned in the written sources, their memory is proven by the place names and also by pollen-data of environment history researches. The main conclusions of the paper are: the better climate conditions of the post-roman and medieval periods were more likely with those of central Transylvania and allowed the development of local human communities. The internal low-situated (oak) forests were cleared
continuously specially in the 17–18th centuries. Once the climate changes of the small ice-age its effects were stronger in the Ciuc-depression due its high altitude and thermic inversion phenomenon. In these conditions the competition between species was won by the pines. The present flora and forest situation of the intra-mountain
depressions was formed by the fallowing factors: human interventions (clearing), cooling of the climate (“little ice age”) and competition among the species. The projection of the present environment situations into the historical times could lead to erroneous interpretations.

REMARKS ON THE MORPHOLOGY OF MEDIEVAL SETTLEMENTS
Abstract
A significant number of publications regarding the settlement system of the Ciuc-basin propagates the idea that the tenner (Hung: tízes) – as a geographically separate settlement
part – has its origins in the Middle Ages, or even that it was the basic unit during the formation of the villages.Anobjective analysis of the written records, analogies, placenames and archaeological finds did not confirme this theory. Many of the settlement units called tenners in modern times were independent villages until the 16th century, others split from them during the medieval times, but they were called szegek. The place names, and settlement units connected with szegek are surely earlier as those with tenners.
The tenner as a military, social, economical organisation form does originate in the medieval times, but has no connection with the formation of the settlement system. The use of the term tenner with a changed meaning regarding villages, individual settlement
parts (szegek) can be attested only in later periods. Even so the tenner has a great role preserving the identity, territory and name of formal settlement units.

Historical place names reflect many information about the history of a particular region. Such data is essential especially on those cases when written sources do not mention these areas or certain periods. The Csík-basin (Eastern Carpathians) appears in  documents first only in the 14th century but even after the documents are very rare. Therefore the archaeological and written data is essential during the reconstruction attempts of the history of the early medieval (10-14th century) history of the area.
The paper presents the classical approach of the literature regarding the place names of Csík. So far a very late ,13-14th century inhabitation was proposed by earlier scholars.  Based on archaeological data, that surely proves a earlier settlement system (11-12th century) the paper suggests that a new methodological perspective is necessary for the interpretation of the place names. If the new data is accepted (typologically “early” place names documented not in contemporary but later documents) the contradiction between the archaeological data and toponimy can be resolved. Surely the two methods (archaeology, toponimy) may not influence each other, but the results have to be concluded in a acceptable way, and in the author’s opinion a independent analysis of the separate data has the same result: the first settlements can be dated both archaeologically and  also by the place names to the middle of the Árpádian-age (11-12th century).

Questions raised by the development of Miercurea-Ciuc
Miercurea Ciuc appears in the written sources only in the 16th century, although the toponimy clearly proves that its existence is strongly connected with a medieval market. The town was deeply affected by the communist constructions, so its archaeological remains were rather destructed or still covered.
The plan and localisation of the settlement together with the local
tradition, already documented in the 18th century, suggest that the formation of the town can be connected with an artificial foundation. Based on indirect historical and archaeological data one can presume that a market near the St John church of Delniţa was moved to the town’s actual location during the 14th century.

The wider region of Ciomadul (Csomád) Hills is a unique area of Székelyland from a varietyof perspectives. It lies on the border of the
historical Ciuc (Csík) and Trei Scaune (Háromszék) counties (known today as Harghita/Hargita and Covasna/Kovászna, respectively). The largest medieval fortress of Székelyland is also in this region. The landscape dominated by forests and floodplain that we see today was used and shaped by Germans of Scandinavian origin, Slavs from Eastern
Europe, and Hungarians and Székelys alike.
Based on archaeological finds and written sources, this chapter reviews the history of the area during the third–fifteenth centuries. However,
one has to be aware that this region does not appear in any historical sources until the fourteenth century and substantial data only
start to leak from the sixteenth century. At the same time the situation of the archaeological research was and still is deficient, because the
Migration and Medieval Period was a neglected topic in the communist era (until 1989).

The determination of functions and historical evaluation of the castles on the eastern, mountainous border region of the medieval Kingdom of Hungary is a complex task. There are no contemporary written sources from the period of the building and use of these castles, and archaeological excavations are also rather limited, without any dating finds from several castles.
Formally, two groups of castles seem to be outlined: the simple walled hill forts and the castles, often with towers mostly located near settlements. These are lately defined as
castles of local elites. In the absence of data, the more mysterious, simple mountain castles on both sides of the Harghita Mountains (Eastern Carpathians) were  considered by older literature to be 11th–12th-century border castles along old roads
(Racu-Pogányvár, Praid-Rabsóné, Varșag-Tartód castle, Ciceu- Csicsói castle). The archaeological finds from older and recent excavations have not confirmed this early date, and it seems that most of these castles were built and used in the 13th century. However, in recent decades, it has become almost an exclusive opinion, that these castles, situated on hardly accessible hilltops far from the settlements, were the communal defensive strongholds of the local population or, in other cases, the refuge of local elites, even if no such evidence has been found. Although no topographical comparison of the castles and the old roads has been made, “hidden” has become a constant marker of these mountain castles. A further important point also remains unanswered: What could be the reason that all these “hidden, inaccessible forts” have a prehistoric origin? What is the explanation for the fact that castles were built on the same mountains in different periods despite the different demographic, military, and
geopolitical contexts?
During the excavation in 2021 of the Pogány Castle in Racu, the author discovered abandoned deep roads in the area around the castle. Researching the traces and chronology of the roads, and verifying old maps, place names, and written records, more and more evidence came to light suggesting that in earlier centuries several routes crossed the Harghita that have been completely forgotten to the present
times.
These old roads followed the ridges sometimes till very high levels, avoided, if possible, crossing the valleys, and only ran along the lower parts of the streams, as opposed to the modern roads that cross valleys regularly. The reconstruction of the old roads and the topographical comparison of the most important archaeological sites in the mountain area revealed close correlations. Previously the localization of some prehistoric castles, Roman watch towers and castellums, ramparts of the Migration Period, castles of the Árpád period, and the isolated medieval chapels was hard to interpret. From the perspective of old roads, the localizations suddenly made sense: they are clear indicators and dating proofs for the existence of mountain paths.
One can say that these field objects of different ages are the secondary ‘consequences’ of transport corridors used since prehistoric times. According to this model, the prehistoric and medieval castles and Roman monuments were built along these corridors, precisely to control them, as were more of the migration-era (!) ramparts that crossed the roads.
In this light, the medieval forts in the area cannot have been ‘hidden defensive castles’, and their historical value is therefore much greater. The castles under study are evidence of the organized control of the eastern passages by the Kingdom of Hungary’s eastern border region defense system in the 13th century.
The archaeological sites and objects of different ages attest not only to the antiquity and the ‘continuous’ use of the roads but also to their trans-local character. These roads are not only transport channels between the valleys of the Olt and the Târnava rivers but more importantly direct witnesses, intermediate elements of a larger millennial traffic between Transylvania and Moldavia.
Identifying and researching these forgotten roads can have a major impact on the settlement history of more periods in the mountain (border) region of the Eastern
Carpathians.

A short (and first) introduction into the "hidden mountain castles" of Eastern Transylvania - and forgotten roads. No, these simple fortifications were not hidden, they were built near roads that crossed the Carpathians. In this meaning the castles mark and prove the defense sistem of the Hungarian Kingdom at the Eastern Borders.

The article presents new archaeological discoveries of early Slavs from the Ciuc-depression/Eastern Carpathians (Romania) which might be one of the earliest signs of the Slavic infiltration into the Carpathian Basin based on archaeological data and C14 analysis.

Previously there was little knowledge about the history of the headwaters region of the Olt River during the Migration Period. In the wake of the archaeological research from recent years we are now able to outline the settlement history of the region in the 4th century. In the period following the fall of the Roman Empire the traces of the Germanic Goths – the Sântana de Mureș-Chernyakhov culture – can be detected, and they performed intensive ironwork in this area.

Archaeological finds of the Sântana de Mureş–Cerneahov (4th century) culture in the Csík-Basin (Abstract)
Csík-basin lays in the East Carpathians by the sources of the Olt-river. It’s archaeological research was very deficient before the ’80-s of the previous century, specially the those regarding the migration and medieval period. During these decades archaeology meant only field work and poorly documented rescue excavations. Therefore the sites of Csík-basin did not figured in the first synthesis about the remains of the 4thcentury Sântana de Mureş–Cerneahov culture from East Transylvania.
After the political turn more finds from this culture were published and the even the previously identified 4th century sites were also listed. Thanks to the activity of the ofice for cultural heritage and the newly beganed rescue excavations in the last synthesis of such sites seventeen such sites could have been mentioned. Even so the research of the Csík-basin is definitely behind comparing with the neighbour regions such as Covasna county or the valley of Târnava-river. There is no data about the cemeteries of
the culture, not even one house was published, and “naturally” there is no local synthesis about the sites and findings of the culture. As a intermediary substitution of a synthesis the present paper presents the results of the recent excavations and some material of the previous researches. These have no additional
documentation in the Szekler Museum of Ciuc therefore is uncertain if the finds belong to a single complex or there were sorted later.
It looks quite certain that iron smelting was a important activity of the Goths in the Csík-basin, sign of metallurgy can be found in almost all 4th century sites. As raw material for smelting they used siderits and limonits collected from the surface and surroundings of marshes.
Recently more 4th century sites were researched in this region. In Sântimbru, on the terrace of Olt-river the tranches of a sewer crossed a oven. During the control excavation a big pit was found which was surrounded by seven ovens with different shape and dimensions. The baking surface of the ovens and the
loading of the pit contained 4th century ceramics. This is the second Sântana de Mureş–Cerneahov site on the territory of the village, therefore a iron slag found in the neighbourhood is thought to belong to the same horizon.
Just few kilometres away to south, in Sânsimion a big site is known, where among others 4th century material can be collected. In this area several signs of historical metallurgy are known.
Such signs were documented in Mihăileni, where in a Sântana de Mureş–Cerneahov pit six huge iron slag blocks were found, as a clear proof of intensive iron smelting. In the ’60-es in Ineu a 4th century house was excavated, with also slag pieces in the collected material. Near the village the iron smelting is
documented also from later periods.
Goth settlements can be found not just along the terraces of Olt, but also near the smaller side brooks, fro example in Mihăileni, Misentea, Cozmeni, Şumuleu, therefore we have to count in Ciuc
with quite dense settlemet system in the 4th century. More of the Sântana de Mureş–Cerneahov sites have remarkable extension which suggests existence of big, densly populated villages. The belonging cemeteries are yet unknown, but counting with them, in the present the total number of Sântana de Mureş–Cerneahov sites can be estimated around 50.
So far there is no local data about the beginnings end, and (ethnical, social) composition of Sântana de Mureş–Cerneahov culture. Such data can be expected from future researches.

A dolgozat korai szlávokhoz köthető régészeti adatokat ismertet, melyek Csíksomlyón (Csíkszereda, Hargita megye, Románia)  kerültek elő. A leletanyag jellege és a C14-es elemzések alapján lehetségesnek tűnik, hogy az itt feltárt házak nem csak a Csíki-medence első szláv objektumai, de egyben a korai szlávok Kelet-erdélyi megjelenésének legkorábbi emlékei is egyben.

The article presents new archaeological discoveries of early Slavs from the Ciuc-depression/Eastern Carpathians (Romania) which might be one of the earliest signs of the Slavic infiltration into the Carpathian Basin based on archaeological data and C14 analysis.

Previously there was little knowledge about the history of the headwaters region of the Olt River during the Migration Period. In the wake of the archaeological research from recent years we are now able to outline the settlement history of the region in the 4 th century. In the period following the fall of the Roman Empire the traces of the Germanic Goths – the Sântana de Mureș-Chernyakhov culture – can be detected, and they performed intensive ironwork in this area.

Previously there was little knowledge about the history of the headwaters region of the Olt River during the
Migration Period. In the wake of the archaeological research from recent years we are now able to outline
the settlement history of the region in the 4th century. In the period following the fall of the Roman Empire
the traces of the Germanic Goths – the Sântana de Mureș-Chernyakhov culture – can be detected, and they
performed intensive ironwork in this area.

As bell ringing was an important element of mediaeval liturgy, wooden belfries and later stone bell towers were erected next to village parish churches. For a long time, it was believed that on the territory of the Ciuc
Deanery, located at the eastern border of the Transylvanian Bishopric, a series of stone bell towers were built next to churches in the 15th and 16th centuries. Following the research of recent years, however, it became clear that this question cannot be explained by a single “construction wave”. Archaeological excavations and dendrochronological studies proved that certain stone towers started to be erected earlier, already in the 13th-14th centuries, other mediaeval towers, which were not known earlier, have been identified, but at the same time, it became evident that a significant part of the towers considered to date from the late Gothic period were built later, in the 17th and 18th centuries.

The study presents the medieval chapels of Csík-seat (East-Transylvania, Romania). The chapels were important elements in the ecclesiastical organisation and religious life of the Medieval
Ages. There are no local historic records about the builders and building circumstances of these chapels, they first appeared in the 17th century and later sources. The later interventions often changed the shape of these buildings and, at the same time, very little research was made regarding their building history. This is the reason why chapels got very slight interest in the historiography. Based on Transylvanian written sources chapels started to spread in the 14th century in this region, while the founders belonged to the upper level of the society. We presume that the same process should happened also in Székely Land even if there are no records about it.
Some of the chapels in Csík have archaic plans, dimensions, like the earliest ones, so at least some of them should be dated in the 14th century. In one case this period is definitely confirmed by
wall paintings, in other cases only late medieval existence was proved. These are small buildings with polygonal sanctuary without buttresses, and equal nave-sanctuary width. They all are located outside the villages with parish churches, the actually surrounding cemeteries were formed only after the 18th
century. The second group of the chapels is situated inside of filia status settlements. Their topographical situation and church-like shape reveals the building motivation and function. They were
used for local masses because of the distance from the parish church. As a natural development most of them became independent parish church later in the 18–19th century.

The article presents the main results of the archaeological excavations of the medieval church of Menaság (Transyalvania, Romania). The village appears in documents only in the 16th century, but thanks to the research two earlier building phases could have been documented. The new data is a important proof that written sources have delay of centuries against archaeological data, which documents the existence of medieval settlements and ecclesiastical organisation even in the hidden valleys since the 13th century.

The Catholic parish church of Sânmartin
(Harghita County, Romania) is a featureless 19th
century building without any obvious historical
arhitectural element. Written sources although
prove that a church already stood in the village
at the beginning of the 14th century. At the same
time, archaeological material collected during field
surveys in the area shows the existence of an earlier
settlement, therefore even the existence of the 12th–
13th century church can be presumed. The Medieval
church was destroyed before the construction of the
actual building, but some Medieval elements (a
Gothic Madonna-statue, bell, tabernacle, font) were
preserved. During the restoration works, in 2015,
we managed to document the walls of the Medieval
church, which had more phases: nave, vestry, and
chancel. On the South wall of the nave, the trace
of the entrance could be observed, and also the
remains, pilasters of the later Western gallery. Two
blocks of secondary altars came to light by the East
corners of the nave. The Late Medieval chancel had a
poligonal plan with buttresses and it was covered by a
vault made of terracotta ribs. On the South wall, an
interior niche (for stalls?) and an exterior buttress
could be documented, furthermore the stone block
of the altar and a trace of a crypt were also visible.
This one very probably belonged to the Becz-family
who were the most important patrons of the church
during the Middle Ages. The vestry is clearly older
then the nave, and very probably earlier than the
chancel. After the archaeological surveillance, one
could separate the most important building phases,
but naturally more details still wait for an answer.

CELLAR FROM THE 14th CENTURY,
ȘUMULEU-CIUC
dr. Botár István PhD
Abstract
The site Fodor-kert from Şumuleu (Miercurea Ciuc,
Harghita county) is well known due to several excavations
which documented a large settlement of
the Sântana de Mureş–Cerniahov (3–4th centuries
AD) culture. Among the Germanic finds early Slave
(6–7th centuries) houses and more houses of a medieval
village were also found. The paper presents some
data and archaeological material of a cellar, which
probably belonged to a house built on the surface.
The house and the cellar were built and used during
the 14th century. The cellar was digged into a earlier
bigger pit which was opened in the 11–12th centuries
for clay or irons stone mining.
Keywords: mediecal archaeology, Ciuc-basin, 14th
century, cellar

The paper presents a pottery oven from the archaeological site in Miercurea Ciuc - Fodorkert (Harghita county, Romania). The oven belongs to a medieval settlement located near the parish church and it was inhabited between the 11-14th century. Based on decorations, forms of the excavated pots and clay cauldrons the oven can be dated to the 11-12th century, chronology which was strengthened also by C14 analysis (cal. AD: 1046-1219).  The oven is unique in the region and brings important data regarding the settlement system of the Eastern border region of Hungarian Kingdom in the Árpád-period.

Manors were the residences of the local elite during the Medieval Ages. Such prominent houses were probably built since the formation of the medieval settlement system, but so far none of them could have been identified from the first half of the medieval period. The local castles built in the 13th century on distant mountaintops were not used continuously as residences due to their location and poor archaeological material. The first mentions of the local elite and its dwellings are known from the 14thcentury, but these data are limited on adjacent but independent enclaves of Szekler Land. Such noble possession could have existed also in Ciuc (Csík) Seat but these were probably incorporated by the Szekler communities. The common Szeklers regularly attacked and destroyed the houses of their own leaders called “primipili” during the 15-16th century. The leader families vanished from the region; consequently the unknown manors were ruined or even totally destructed. Even so, the recent and old researches documented several totally or partially stonebuilt
manors. The study presents the medieval manors of Ciuc (Csík) Seat using data from archaeological excavations, building archaeology, old maps and written sources, archive and aerial
photographs, toponimy analysis.

The paper presents some historical and archaeological data about the beginnings of the parish
church in Şumuleu Ciuc and the settlement connected to it. The first phase of the church can be
dated based on stratigraphic observations, C14 analysis and archaeological findings from the 12th
century, which show that an early stone church had already been constructed in the 12th century.
This early edifice was then reconstructed and expanded in the following centuries. More
archaeological complexes – from which the current study presents the remains of two houses and
their findings – have been discovered towards west, on the nearby site. The pottery was periodized
based on analogies from Cluj-Mănăştur, Moreşti, Bratei and the Rica Forrest, through C14 analyses
and coin examination. Due to the tipo-chronology and ornamentation of the pottery, the Şumuleufindings
and settlement can be dated back to the 11–12th centuries, which precedes the first written
mention of the area from 1333 by centuries. This fact is essential for the history of the Eastern
Carpathians, because proves the existence of a very early settlement system forerunning the
colonisation of these regions by the Szeklers in the 13th century. The toponymical analyses suggest
that these settlements can be connected to a mixed, but mostly Hungarian-speaking population.