Early Research at Klárafalva
Klárafalva – Hajdova is located on the left bank of the Maros, north of the village Klárafalva (see Figure 1). The first excavations of this tell site was conducted by Ferenc Móra, director of the Szeged Museum in 1931. Unfortunately no documentation preserved from this early excavation, but material from the excavations preserved and housed at the museum in Szeged, Hungary.
Later, in the 1960s Ottó Trogmayer, archaeologist of the Szeged Museum conducted research at the site. The local agricultural corporate aimed to level the area of the tell site, which triggered the further research at the site. Prior to the excavations, they cored the tell. The coring suggested a 340 cm occupation layer, and based on the burnt horizons, Trogmayer anticipated 3 main occupation phases.
In 1969 O. Trogmayer and I. Stancik opened two excavation blocks at the site. A 4×6 m (Block A) and a 4×4 m block (Block B). They excavated 3 m of cultural layers and noted 9 habitation levels in a short report, all of which Trogmayer associated with the Szőreg-Perjámos group. It is important to note, that according to later reports on this excavation (see bellow), 40-60 cm soil was removed from the tell prior to the excavations.
A short report on the 1969 excavation was published by F. Horváth in 1985. The material from both of the 1931 and 1969 excavations were systematically analyzed and published by K. P. Fischl in the late 1990s. The analysis concluded that the material from the Móra excavation belonged to the late/young phase of the Szőreg-Perjámos sequence. Fischl noted that Móra’s excavations probably did not explore the entire sequence of the tell, only the upper levels. She came to this conclusion based on the preserved material and some oral accounts. The analysis of the Trogmayer excavation noted that the occupation at the site was established in the earlier phase of the Szőreg-Perjámos culture and the overall material from the two excavations indicated that the occupation continued till the latest phase of the Middle Bronze Age (see P.Fischl references below for details).
The third excavation was conducted in 1987 and 1988 by J. O’Shea (University of Michigan) in collaboration with F. Horváth (Móra Ferenc Museum, Szeged). Learn about this research here.
Sources:
Horváth, Ferenc
1985 Contributions to the early and middle Bronze Age of southern Alföld. Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve Szeged 1982-1983 (1):55-71.
P. Fischl, Klára
1997 Klárafalva-Hajdova I. bronzkori tell település. In Látták Trója kapuit. Bronzkori leletek a Közép-Tisza vidékéről, pp. 83-122. Gyulai Katalógusok, Vol. 3,
Péter Havassy, general editor.
1998a Die Tellsiedlung von Klárafalva-Hajdova. In The early and middle Bronze Age in the Carpathian Basin, edited by Horia Ciugudean, and Florin Gogaltan,
pp. 213-241. Bibliotheca Musei Apulensis, Vol. 8. Muzeul National al Unirii, Alba Iulia.
1998b Klárafalva-Hajdova bronzkori telltelepülése II. Studia Archaeologica (Móra Ferenc Múzeum Évkönyve) 4(1998):81-175.
Trogmayer, Ottó
1969 Klárafalva-Hajdova. Régészeti Füzetek I. 22:13.
1970a Klárafalva-Hajdova. Archaeologiai Értesitő 97:306.
1970b Klárafalva-Hajdova. Régészeti Füzetek I. 23:8-9.
Source of image:
O’Shea, John M. and Amy Nicodemus 2019 “…the nearest run thing…” The Genesis and Collapse of a Bronze Age Polity in the Maros Valley of Southeastern Europe, In Coming Together: Comparative Approaches to Population Aggregation and Early Urbanization, edited by A. Gyucha, pp. 61-80. The Institute for European and Mediterranean Archaeology Distinguished Monograph Series; SUNY Press.
