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Gârla Mare
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Gârla Mare lies on the Danube River in Romania.
Photo: Google Earth
Map of the Gârla Mare sites.
Map: Adrian Gheorghe
There are three areas of archaeological interest at Gârla Mare:
- The Roman Era site of Villa Rustica
- The Bronze Age site on the beach of the Danube
- The Dunes Necropola site, a cemetery from the Bronze Age
The Roman Era site of Villa Rustica
The left bank of the Danube, taken from the Villa Rustica, looking downstream. The island which can be seen is at the eastern edge of the site of Gârla Mare.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
A general view of the digs at Villa Rustica, a Roman house at Gârla Mare.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Close up of one of the digs.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Artefacts left at Villa Rustica after the specialists have left the area.
There is no sign that this is a historical site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Stones and pottery fragments from the Villa Rustica.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Digs at Villa Rustica.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Looking towards the Danube River from the Villa Rustica site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
All over an area as large as a football stadium, there are Roman artefacts lying on the ground.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Piece of Roman pottery at the site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
In front of the legs of this person is the wall of the Villa Rustica, one of the main Roman houses of Gârla Mare.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
A roof tile, shown here upside down. The edges have been cut away on one end to allow the tile to be placed more securely on the roof, as shown in the diagram by Dr Gheorghe.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
A huge area with many artefacts scattered around at Villa Rustica.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The Kilometre 840 sign, at the upstream end of the site of Villa Rustica at Gârla Mare, Mehedinți county.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The Villa Rustica site finishes here, about 150 metres downstream and to the east from the Kilometre 840 sign. There is a concrete bunker at this point, made during the cold war about 1960.
From here downstream on the river bank and beach on the left bank of the Danube is the second area of the site, the Bronze Age site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Roman pottery from the Villa Rustica.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The Bronze Age site on the beach of the Danube
Ceramic object used for weighing down fish nets in the bronze age, lying on the beach.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Looking for artefacts on the beach.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Bronze age pottery on the beach.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
A view to the west of the Bronze Age site along the river bank.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Artefacts embedded in the bank of the river.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Ancient brick at the Bronze Age site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Artefacts on the beach.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
A view towards the east of the Bronze Age site.
The island is the eastern, downstream limit of the site of Gârla Mare.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Here on the Bronze Age site there is also pottery from the Roman's time, and Medieval times, sometimes covering the Bronze Age artefacts.
This is such a younger artefact.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Artefacts embedded in the river bank and on its surface.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Piece of pottery from Roman times, possibly using the terra sigillata technique.
Terra sigillata is a very smooth, lustrous coating of clay which resembles a glaze and is virtually waterproof. The name means "sealed earth" and has been used to refer to the Classical Greek Attic black-figure and red-figure painted pottery.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
A rare piece of red quartz on the site of the Bronze Age site, possibly from the stone age.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Part of an ancient clay wall, showing the "shadows" or impressions of wooden branches used to form the primary structure, which was then covered with clay. In English this is called "wattle and daub" construction.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Possibly a piece of iron slag from an iron factory, in the time of the Romans, at the Bronze Age site.
It could also be a piece of ironstone, a natural concretion in waterlogged soils of iron rich solutions.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
A large pottery vessel embedded in the ground.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Pottery fragments from a later era found at the Bronze Age site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Ancient pottery of the Eneolithic (Aeneolithic) Coțofeni culture found at the Bronze Age site, approximately 3700 BP.
The Eneolithic (Aeneolithic), is a phase in the development of human culture in which the use of early copper metal tools appeared alongside the use of stone tools. It is transitional between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The Dunes Necropola site
A Cemetery from the Bronze Age
Going to the Dunes Necropola site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
This is a Bronze Age cemetery at Gârla Mare
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The cemetery site.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
The main dune at the Dunes Necropola site, where a Bronze Age necropolis was discovered.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Unprotected, partially burned human bones on the dunes.
The dead were incinerated on a funeral pyre, and afterwards their bones were broken and put into pottery urns.
These have since broken, spilling their contents.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
These photos show the broken pottery urn fragments and human bones.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Some of the shards show evidence of decoration.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
There are many bones on the surface.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Views of the Dune Cemetery.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
A bronze ear ring from a woman's remains, and bones from the woman's grave.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
A piece of quartz from the woman's grave, and two ornaments.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Pottery shards from the Dunes Cemetery.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Iron slag and pottery weight for a fish net.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
Organisation of the artefacts to catalogue and preserve them in Dr Gheorghe's house.
Photo: Adrian Gheorghe
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Alexis Project Filiasi/Romania
RC J/263/230/2007 CIF 21464151
Email: [email protected]