Centuries-old Roman village discovered on new infrastructure site in Romania

Specialists from Mures County Museum discovered a Roman village dating from II-III centuries at Sangeorgiu de Mures, on the site of the future Targu Mures bypass, according to the museum's director Soos Zoltan. “It is a village from Roman times, from the II-III centuries. A unique discovery because very few rural settlements of that time have been researched,” he said, cited by local Agerpres. The specialists already found seven homes and the odds are that they will discover the whole village, Zoltan added. These settlements weren’t very large, they had maximum 15-20 houses, but archeologists plan to continue their researchers to see how the households were organized. “It should be known that these houses cover up to 20 sqm, they were not large houses. Until the eighteenth century, most rural houses were small because people mainly used them as shelters for bad weather, cold, or rain, while most of their activities took place around the house, outside,” Soos Zoltan said. According to Nicoleta Man, head of the Archeology Department, the first houses were discovered at the end of last week, and the uncovered surface now has 300 sqm and keeps expanding to the north. There is a distance between 5-10 meters between the houses. The archeologist also said that there are many settlements of this kind across Mures county, in Mures Valley. The villages are located in areas suitable for agriculture, near water. Millennia-old fortified tribal center uncovered in northwestern Romania. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com