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In the Bad Valley area, around the Titanic hill, where the iron tools were discovered, about one hundred metres further up the valley, on the same side of the small river there, a collection of bones about 25 - 30 cm underground was found, near the running water of the river.
At N=44.05593° E=23.65209° a deer bone was found, 25 cm long and 4 cm in diameter.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 22nd August 2010
At N=44.15600° E=23.05223° there was a large bone over 40 cm long, and 6 cm in diameter.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 22nd August 2010
At N=44.105615° E=23.65313° there was a small bone 10 cm long and 2 cm diameter, cut carefully on the top (hand-made!!!)
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 22nd August 2010
At N=44.15612° E=23.63574° there was a small bone, about 8 cm long and 2 cm diameter.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 22nd August 2010
Adrian was in Bad Valley at the beginning of August, together with Exp.Arch.Dr.Dorel Bondoc, from Oltenia Museum, to search again in the region of the Titanic Hill.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 1st August 2010
The weather was rainy, the ground was very wet, and there was a lot of mud. They were in Bad Valley, just near Titanic Hill, on the right bank of a small river, near a huge tree, at the GPS points
N=44.155624° E=23.659616°
when Dorel found two iron agricultural tools from Dacian times, 1st century BC to 1st century AD.
These iron tools are very rare in Oltenia, and it seems that there must have been a small storage pit here with agricultural tools, as Dorel indicated.
These artefacts are very important for the Oltenia area, so the tools will be given to the general manager of the Oltenia Museum, Prof. Dr Mihai Fifor to protect them inside the museum collection as very important pieces.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 1st August 2010
Adrian muses:
My heart tells me a different story. Both tools were put in a special position, and I dream about two agricultural workers from ancient times, a man and a woman, working in the middle of a field.
They take a break for lunch, so they put the tools down on the ground near them, for a short time.
But along the valley comes a rider with his huge, dark horse - a warrior is coming, with a long rope in his right hand, with two iron balls on one end, swinging it around his head, promising death to the workers. They either escape to the upper part of the valley, but never come back to their work, fearing death, or they are struck down where they stand. Iron tools would never have been left in a storage area, since they were very valuable in those days.
Photo: Google Earth 1st August 2010
Since we were in the Radovan area, looking for new sites, using the theory that an unknown site must be where there is a hill, protected behind by a forest, and below the hill a river, and not so far away a grassy field, we found a huge hill in the corner of Bad valley, to the south of Radovan village.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 30th May 2010
This hill looks like a boat, the Titanic, waiting to enter the harbour of Bad valley.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 30th May 2010
This Titanic hill is huge, more than 300 metres long from north to south, and with a height of 30 metres, with a field on top of it, a forest to the south, and three rivers around it, even a source of water on its left side.
The hill is covered by grass, with a lot of fox holes everywhere.
The top is at 44.15287° N, 23.64911° E, Alt. 140 metres, with the source of water at
44.15179° N, 23.64912° E, Alt. 120 metres.
However, even though all the conditions were there for a site, we did not find any artefacts on the Titanic hill, so we must come back in the autumn for a better search.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 30th May 2010
Dr Gheorghe and Dr Bologa were in the Radovan area to do another search in the southern part of Radovan village, in the area known as Bad Valley, and on the hills around it.
Even though they walked more than 13 Km, they found a new site, believed to be from the Iron Age, on the right bank of the small river in Bad Valley at: 44.14384° N, 23.64293° E, Alt. = 152 metres.
It was a long distance to search, and it was cloudy weather, cold in the morning but warm in the middle of the day. Everywhere there was a lot of grass covering the ground, and it is very hard to find a new site under those conditions.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 29th May 2010
The Podisul Getic, or Getic Plateau, may be seen at the connection with Oltenia field as a border of hills, protecting many valleys and small rivers. It consists of sandstone, marl, clay and sand covering the top of gravel,
There must be a lot of sites around here, because here there is water from a lot of small rivers, as well as water sources, huge forests for wood, as well as fields of grass for animals and well protected places suitable for villages. It may be thought of as a heavenly valley.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 29th May 2010
Map of the Iron Age site in the Radovan area.
Photo: Google Earth, 29th May 2010
Today, in the Radovan area, about seven km to the south of Radovan village, near the source of the Bad Valley small river, on the right bank of it, at the GPS point: N=44.14384° E=23.64293° Alt. 152 metres, Adrian and Dr Alina Bologa found another site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 29th May 2010
The site seems to be from Iron age times.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 29th May 2010
This helps confirm our theory that the valley centred on the Radovan area holds a lot of ancient sites, because the good conditions for life existed here, such as water, grassy fields, huge forests, and the protection of the hills around.
There are almost certainly other finds to be made here.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 29th May 2010
This map shows points about the Radovan area at this time. There will eventually be many more points shown.
Photo: Google Earth, 23rd May 2010
This is a new site in the Radovan area, at the GPS point 44.16563° N, 23.60902° E, Alt 90m
It is on the right bank of the Desnatui River, just beneath the Radovan village hill, looking towards the river, where Dr Gheorghe found pottery artefacts, as shown.
This site is near, and inside, the property of our young friend Sirbu Catalin, student in history.
The important specialist in history from Oltenia Museum, Dr.Florin Ridiche, has visited this site and made a short search to examine the artefacts from there. He told us that this site is from middle-age period, but only future search in the entire area, made only by specialists can bring us a better image about history here.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 23rd May 2010
Tarnava Village ancient church, not far from Radovan village. After a short but wet and muddy road over the hills, Adrian found this old church, in the middle of a cemetery, with a wooden tower for the church bell (Cloptnita) in front of it.
GPS point 44.17496° N, 23.55215° E, Alt 113m
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 22nd May 2010
Tarnava Village water source.
Just at the entrance on the way to the church, there are two water sources, one in memory of a 10 year old child called Alexandru, placed, as every where else here, at a cross roads.
GPS point 44.17743° N, 23.55065° E, Alt 123m
The Radovan area must have more than eight sites, it is a wonderful valley, with running water, huge forests, large hills and grass fields, very good for ancient civilisation to stay here. There must be much to discover in this area.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 22nd May 2010
This is the first site found in the new Radovan area search, with the help of the mayor of the village.
The two forest men told Dr Gheorghe that this site was discovered many years ago when a specialist did a search in the area. The site is on a hill, with two deep vallesy around it, not far from the Desanatui River, with a lot of grass on it, but no artefacts were found.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 14th May 2010
In Dr Gheorghe's experience, this is a typical site of the ancient Dacs, and is very similar to many Dacian sites in Oltenia.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 14th May 2010
The second site was full of stones covering a hill which seemed similar to the first.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 14th May 2010
However, there were no pottery artefacts - so only a specialist could do a good evaluation here.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 14th May 2010
Then, the two foresters showed us a new site, from WW II, with a few trenches, and also two places for anti-aircraft guns, placed on the side of the hill, and covering a huge field to the south.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 14th May 2010
But in the middle of the WW II site, another bronze age site was found, as can be seen in these photographs.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 14th May 2010
Here we found a new site from WWII, with two places for anti-aircraft guns, as well as many trenches. This area too may be seen as a monument.
Alexandru completed a map of the area, seen at left.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 14th May 2010
During the search in the Radovan area, a lot of beautiful landscapes were found, a real Romanian wonder land.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 14th May 2010
With the important help of the Radovan authorites, especially Mayor Cirstianu Aurica from Radovan village, Adrian Gheorghe, Alexandru Gheorghe (now an architecture student at the Institute Ion Mincu) and Dr Alina Bologa, a new search was made in the Radovan area.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 14th May 2010
These are the GPS map points for the new search.
Data: Adrian Gheorghe, 14th May 2010
The search led over some difficult, wet and muddy terrain.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 14th May 2010
The search went all around and over huge hills, as well as deep into forests, and five new sites were found, a huge new record for the team, and, it must be emphasised, with the help of the Mayor and two men who know the forests of Radovan well.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 14th May 2010
This third site was found in the eastern part of the village, in a small area, near the river Desnatui, in agricultural land, between the river and the lower part of Getic Hill.
The researchers in this instance were Adrian Gheorghe, Alina Bologa, and Catalin Sarbu. Conditions were sometimes difficult because of wet weather.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 9th May 2010
Pottery artefacts from possibly the Bronze Age or Roman times were found, which will be examined and evaluated by Dr Dorel Bondoc from Oltenia Museum.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 9th May 2010
Also, according to Law 43/2000 and Law 422, Alexis Project will make a written notification to the Mayor about the discoveries which need to be protected in the area, as well as further extensive and careful researches.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe, 9th May 2010
Adrian Gheorghe, Dr Alina Bologa and History student Catalin Sarbu were in the Radovan area to search for a new site on the top of a huge hill, on the eastern side of Radovan village
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 8th May 2010
From this point it is normally very easy to see, looking to the south west, the Balcans Mountains, but it was a foggy day.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 8th May 2010
The landscape is beautiful, it is a wonder land, but it was very wet underfoot, foggy, and there were very long distances to walk, over 6 km of search in difficult terrain
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 8th May 2010
A Tumul, an ancient grave was found, as shown in this photograph.
In english, this feature is called a Barrow, a large mound of earth or stones placed over a burial site. The word comes from the Old English word beorg, beorh, a hill or burial site.
Dr Gheorghe believes that there are many ancient sites in the valley of the Desnatui River, just as he has proved the existence of a huge bronze age site from the north area of Radovan village, at the Getic area.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 8th May 2010
A huge and difficult search was made in the area, where one of the few things found was a piece of silex, or flint, a stone age tool.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 8th May 2010
Much of the area has been used for agriculture. This has good and bad effects - it is often easier to find evidence of past cultures in the freshly turned earth, but the agricultural machinery destroys most of the evidence of former cultures such as the earth and stone walls which they constructed.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 8th May 2010
Some pieces of pottery, possibly Roman, were found.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 8th May 2010
Google earth image with the position of the Radovan site.
The shape of the Bronze Age site is a triangle with dimensions 100 x 100 x 100 metres.
The GPS readings are:
A. Altitude 160 m, 44° 10' 23.9" N, 23° 36' 49.2" E
B. Altitude 160 m, 44° 10' 26.9" N, 23° 36' 50.6" E
C. Altitude 159 m, 44° 10' 23.5" N, 23° 36' 33.5" E
For the Tumul,
Altitude 153 m, 44° 10' 17.0" N, 23° 36' 57.1" E
The area starting from the Tumul to the forest may be a Middle Ages site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 2nd December 2009
A more detailed map of one part of the Radovan site.
GPS records for the Midnight Bride and the Radovan site.
GPS records for the Radovan site 03-Stadion-GPS points map
Interim map Radovan experiment 2010.
Final map Radovan experiment 2010.
On the 20th March 2010 the Alexis team were again at the Radovan site to search for fireplaces in the area. The weather was much better, spring is coming.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 20th March 2010
Over 15 fireplaces were found on the site.
Present for this visit were: Adrian Gheorghe, Alina Neagoe, the new president of the Alexis Project, Sirbu Catalin, first year student in History at Craiova University, as well as dr. Alina Bologa, the latest and very welcome friend of the Alexis Project.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 20th March 2010
There were a lot of Chirpici - a kind of ancient stone age brick, but put around circular areas such as a fire place.
There were also a few ancient stone or bronze age pieces of pottery, but not of high quality, with no marks or paintings on it, as "usual" pottery has.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 20th March 2010
There was a lot of slag, Zgura, which is derived from smelting metal.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 20th March 2010
The team strongly believes that on the site of Radovan, there was a metal factory for bronze tools.
The GPS points were taken for every fireplace, and preliminary indications are that they were placed in a line, at ninety degrees to the direction of the prevailing winds, from north to south, to protect the workers from the smoke and fire as they fed the furnaces.
The theory at the moment is that there was not an ancient village as such, but a huge ancient factory for smelting metals. Chirpici and large stones used as foundations for the fire were found, as well as some utilitarian pottery pieces used for food, and a lot of slag or Zgura.
This is the final search of the area, it is now time for the specialists from the Oltenia Museum to search the site to make a proper evaluation.
This time there was no evidence of thieves or treasure hunters at the site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 20th March 2010
Dr Gheorghe has established that the Radovan site must be one of the biggest ancient sites from the bronze age with fireplaces for metal, in this case bronze.
All 14 fire-places are put by GPS on a single line, from NW to SE, at 90 degree to the probable wind direction, from NE to SW.
If there were houses here, they must be in some other order, or no order, but not on this line.
There was very little pottery, and what there was was very basic and poorly made. Here the people worked hard, as in a factory, and had no time for better pottery or much of it.
Around every fireplace is a lot of slag, zgura, which can only come from smelting of metals.
Thus, this area, discovered by Dr Gheorghe, must be the biggest factory for bronze in the entire Oltenia region.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 24th March 2010
As can be seen on the map at the top of this page, on the edge of Podisul Getic, in the southern part, looking towards Radovan Village, on the left bank of the Desnatui River, starting from the top of the hill, and going to the west, we meet the first site of the Bronze Age and a possible Tumul, and another kind of area with brick artefacts, which may be another site. Starting from here, ahead to the west, is a large area with dimensions 1000 m x 300 m, up to the forest on the western part of the area, with a lot of artefacts from the Stone and Bronze Ages, as well as five or six fire places, a huge area of iron and bronze items.
Fireplaces were found at:
A. Altitude 152 m, 44° 10' 35.8" N, 23° 36' 36.4" E
B. Altitude 146 m, 44° 10' 37.6" N, 23° 36' 35.8" E
C. Altitude 158 m, 44° 10' 40.5" N, 23° 36' 37.8" E
D. Altitude 154 m, 44° 10' 39.4" N, 23° 36' 41.9" E
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 2nd December 2009
One of a few hearths found at the Radovan site. There are many pieces resembling broken bricks remaining from the structure of the bronze or iron age fireplace. They may also be burnt clay from hearths from an even older stone age site, as has been found in stone age sites in Australia.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 28th November 2009
The first artefacts are found, and Adrian is overjoyed to find his hypothesis proved correct at Radovan.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 28th November 2009
During all these years, Alina has been a wonderful presence as part of the Alexis Project. Here she is shown looking for artefacts near the first Radovan bronze age site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 28th November 2009
A sample of the artefacts from the Bronze Age, found in the area of the first Radovan site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 28th November 2009
Dorel at the tumul.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 28th November 2009
After the search of the western part of Radovan site, Adrian and Alina made another search in the eastern part of the site, crossing the main road between Radovan and Craiova, to the east, just on the edge of the Podisul Getic hills, on the left bank of the Desnatui River.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 5th December 2009
However, no artefacts were found in this section, so a search must be made far from the site, to the western area, towards Fintinele Village.
Adrian here shows Alina that there are no artefacts to be found in the area.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 5th December 2009
The Alexis team (Adrian and Catalin) hunting for historical sites in the area of Radovan village.
On the left side of the main road between Fantanele village and Radovan village (GPS point: altitude 91 metres, 44° 10' 04.5" N, 23° 36' 15" E) there is, along the road, a very long area of about 6 metres in width with small river-stones - it seems to be an ancient Roman road. Catalin shows, here, the area with small river-stones.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 15th November 2008
In the front yard of Sirbu's family, there is a large area covered with bricks underground. Catalin's father shows us some of them. It seems to be here a simple modern site (betweeen 100 -50 years ago) judging by the structure of the bricks
We must do many searches in the area of Radovan to find a site, even though in the books there is no mention of any ancient sites.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe 15th November 2008
