4th-century Christian votive object found in Romania
Biertan Donarium
The Biertan Donarium is a fourth-century Christianvotive object found near the town of Biertan, in Transylvania, Romania. Made out of bronze in the shape of a Labarum, it has the Latin text EGO ZENOVIVS VOTVM POSVI, which can be approximately translated as "I, Zenovius, offered this gift".
It was found in 1775 in the Chinedru forest, about 5 kilometres (3.1mi) south of Biertan and it was part of the collections of Baron Samuel von Brukenthal, nowadays being part of the exhibits of the Brukenthal National Museum.
There are several theories on the origins of this artifact. According to the supporters of the Daco-Romanian continuity theory, this donarium was made by the survivor Romanized, Latin-speaking Christian population population of Dacia[1] (the ancestors of Romanians according to this theory ) following the Aurelian Retreat. This artifact is used as an important witness to the continuity of the use of Latin in this area.[2] This opinion is supported by the Romanian Academy.
The donor's name (see Zenobius) is oriental, not Dacian or Roman.[3]
Those historians who are skeptical about this object point to the dubious circumstances of this finding.[4]
They emphasize that there were no Roman settlements or Christian churches near to Biertan.[5] According to them this object was made in Aquileia in Northern Italy during the 4th century[6][7] and it was carried into Transylvania as a loot by Gothic warriors or by trading.[8] It is the most possible that the find from Biertan is a result of plundering in Illyricum or Pannonia or in the Balkans anytime between the fourth and the sixth century and this artifact was reused as a pagan object by its new owners.[9][10]
The object could have also belonged to a captured Roman(?), escaped or kidnapped from Pannonia (?)[11]
Originally it was intended to be hung from a candelabrum but the perforations made later indicate it was reused and attached to a coffer for storing vessels or other goods. According to this opinion, even its usage for Christian purposes should be questioned in the territory of Transylvania.
Notes and references
↑ Constantin C. Giurescu, Dinu C. Giurescu, Istoria românilor din cele mai vechi timpuri și pînă azi, Editura Albatros, București, 1971, p. 155.
↑ The book offers details about most supposed early Christian finds in Romania Barnea, Ion (1979). Arta Crestina Vol I (in Romanian). pp.30–31. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
↑ Rubel, Alexander (2014). Cociş, Sorin; Ursuţiu, Adrian (eds.). "Patrimonium Archaeologicum Transylvanicum". Sorin Cociş (Ed.), Archäologische Beiträge. Gedenkschrift zum Hundertsten Geburtstag von Kurt Horedt, Editura Mega, Cluj-Napoca, 2014. 7. Das spätantike Donarium von Birthälm (Biertan) im Kontext der römischen Religion. Cluj-Napoca: Editura Mega: 243.
↑ Most Transylvanian Early Christian finds are uncertain concerning their contexts, dates and interpretations. Among the finds mentioned are a gem lost before 1848 with Good Shepherd and Jonah depictions, found at Torda; a Good Shepherd gem, from an unknown Transylvanian site (at Hungarian National Museum), a fake-suspicious inscribed vessel fragment with staurogram, from Porolissum; two cross-displayers, probably from Gyulafehérvár (Alba-Iulia). Hudák, Krisztina (2019). Methodological Introduction to the Pannonian Early Christian Church History through the Last Fifty Years of Pannonia (374-456). Pécsi Tudományegyetem. p.20.
Related Research Articles
Transylvania is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains and to the west the Apuseni Mountains. Broader definitions of Transylvania also include the western and northwestern Romanian regions of Crișana and Maramureș, and occasionally Banat. Historical Transylvania also includes small parts of neighbouring Western Moldavia and even a small part of south-western neighbouring Bukovina to its north east. The capital of the region is Cluj-Napoca.
Dacia was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus roughly corresponds to present-day Romania, as well as parts of Moldova, Bulgaria, Serbia, Hungary, Slovakia, and Ukraine.
Dej is a municipality in Transylvania, Romania, 60 kilometres (37 mi) north of Cluj-Napoca, in Cluj County. It lies where the river Someșul Mic meets the river Someșul Mare. The city administers four villages: Ocna Dejului (Désakna), Peștera (Pestes), Pintic (Oláhpéntek), and Șomcutu Mic (Kissomkút).
George Bariț, was an ethnic Romanian Austro-Hungarian historian, philologist, playwright, politician, businessman and journalist, the founder of the Romanian language press in Transylvania.
Christian Schesaus was a Transylvanian Saxon humanist, poet, and Lutheran pastor.
In ancient times, Romans exploited the gold mines in what is now Transylvania extensively, building access roads and forts to protect them, like Abrud. The region developed a strong infrastructure and economy, based on agriculture, cattle farming and mining. Colonists from Thracia, Moesia, Macedonia, Gaul, Syria, and other Roman provinces were brought in to settle the land, developing cities like Apulum and Napoca into municipiums and colonias.
Transylvania is a historical region in central and northwestern Romania. It was under the rule of the Agathyrsi, part of the Dacian Kingdom, Roman Dacia (106–271), the Goths, the Hunnic Empire, the Kingdom of the Gepids, the Avar Khaganate, the Slavs, and the 9th century First Bulgarian Empire. During the late 9th century, Transylvania was part of the Hungarian conquest, and the family of Gyula II of the seven chieftains of the Hungarians ruled Transylvania in the 10th century. King Stephen I of Hungary asserted his claim to rule all lands dominated by Hungarian lords, and he personally led his army against his maternal uncle Gyula III. Transylvania became part of the Kingdom of Hungary in 1002, and it belonged to the Lands of the Hungarian Crown until 1920.
The history of Cluj-Napoca covers the time from the Roman conquest of Dacia, when a Roman settlement named Napoca existed on the location of the later city, through the founding of Cluj and its flourishing as the main cultural and religious center in the historical province of Transylvania, until its modern existence as a city, the seat of Cluj County in north-western Romania.
Editura Dacia is a publishing house based in Romania, located on Pavel Chinezul Street 2, Cluj-Napoca. Named after the ancient region of Dacia, it was founded in 1969 by a group of Transylvanian intellectuals, and printed works in Romanian, German and Hungarian.
The military history of Romania deals with conflicts spreading over a period of about 2500 years across the territory of modern Romania, the Balkan Peninsula and Eastern Europe and the role of the Romanian military in conflicts and peacekeeping worldwide.
Ruxandra-Mihaela Cesereanu or Ruxandra-Mihaela Braga is a Romanian poet, essayist, short story writer, novelist, and literary critic. Also known as a journalist, academic, literary historian and film critic, Cesereanu holds a teaching position at the Babeș-Bolyai University (UBB), and is an editor for the magazine Steaua in Cluj-Napoca.
The Dacian bracelets are bracelets associated with the ancient people known as the Dacians, a distinct branch of the Thracians. These bracelets were used as ornaments, currency, high rank insignia and votive offerings Their ornamentations consist of many elaborate regionally distinct styles. Bracelets of various types were worn by Dacians, but the most characteristic piece of their jewelry was the large multi-spiral bracelets; engraved with palmettes towards the ends and terminating in the shape of an animal head, usually that of a snake.
Dacology is a branch of Thracology which focuses on the scientific study of Dacia and Dacian antiquities and is a regional and thematic branch of the larger disciplines of ancient history and archaeology. A practitioner of the discipline is a Dacologist. Dacology investigates the range of ancient Dacian culture from c. 1000 BC up to the end of Roman rule in the 4th-7th centuries. It is directly subordinated to Thracology, since Dacians are considered a branch of the Thracians by most mainstream research and historical sources. Other theories sustain that the Daco-Thracian relation is not as strong as originally thought and as such Dacology has the potential to evolve as an independent discipline from Thracology.
The appearance of Celts in Western Romania can be traced to the later La Tène period . Excavation of the great La Tène necropolis at Apahida, Cluj County, by S. Kovacs at the turn of the 20th century revealed the first evidence of Celtic culture in Romania. The 3rd–2nd century BC site is remarkable for its cremation burials and chiefly wheel-made funeral vessels.
Romanian archaeology begins in the 19th century.
Ion Horaţiu Crişan (1928–1994) was a Romanian historian and archaeologist. He conducted research in South-Eastern and Central Europe, focusing on Geto-Dacians and Celts.
Roman Dacia was a province of the Roman Empire from 106 to 271–275 AD. Its territory consisted of what are now the regions of Oltenia, Transylvania and Banat. During Roman rule, it was organized as an imperial province on the borders of the empire. It is estimated that the population of Roman Dacia ranged from 650,000 to 1,200,000. It was conquered by Trajan (98–117) after two campaigns that devastated the Dacian Kingdom of Decebalus. However, the Romans did not occupy its entirety; Crișana, Maramureș, and most of Moldavia remained under the Free Dacians.
This section of the timeline of Romanian history concerns events from Late Neolithic until Late Antiquity, which took place in or are directly related with the territory of modern Romania.
The following detailed sequence of events covers the timeline of Cluj-Napoca, a city in Transylvania, Romania.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
