Rotbav Bronze Age site

Rotbav "La Pârâuț", spelled La Pîrîuț until 1993, is a Bronze Age site in southeastern Transylvania, Romania, located at the southern border of the modern village of Rotbav, in Feldioara commune, and 20 km (12 mi) north of Brașov, capital of the county by the same name. The settlement of Rotbav is situated upon a high terrace formation above the Olt River. Its importance lies in a long stratigraphy comprising the timespan from the Early Bronze Age to the Bronze Age–Iron Age transition. It is the most extensively researched site of this period in the region.

History of research

Chance finds from the Bronze Age were made in Rotbav already in the 19th century, but the "La Pârâuț" settlement was first investigated in the 1950s by a local teacher, Nicolae Croitoru. Systematic archaeological research started in the 1970s with excavations led by Alexandru Vulpe and Mariana Marcu of the Bucharest Institute of Archaeology and History Museum of Braşov, and was continued from 2005 on by Laura Dietrich, Oliver Dietrich and Alexandru Vulpe, within the framework of a cooperation project of the Bucharest Institute of Archaeology and the History Museum of Braşov. The settlement has a size of approximately 4 ha, of which 1800 square meters were excavated, the whole area was additionally investigated by archaeological and geophysical surveys (magnetometry).

Natural environment

Natural conditions and resources such as salt and metals characterize southeastern Transylvania as one of the most favourable Bronze Age settlement areas in Europe. Easily accessible passes through the Carpathian Mountains make it an important communication area between the eastern Eurasian steppes, the Eastern Mediterranean region and Central Europe. Comparatively few Bronze Age sites were excavated in this region so far, Rotbav is the only multi-stratified site in which the whole development from the Early until the Late Bronze Age (a period of about 800 years) could be observed.