Archaeology - ROMANIA
Project Information for Volunter Archaeology in Romania - Brasov Highway

Archaeological Volunteering Projects: Brasov Highway

In the spring of 2005 the National Administration of Roads started to finance field archaeology for the Transylvanian highway. The highway will link Oradea, Cluj-Napoca, Targu-Mures, Sighisoara and Brasov. It will link Transylvania to central Europe and it will be financed by Euro-funds.

Around Brasov, two rings of roads will be built. A go-ahead from the official archaeologist is needed for each stage of construction.

If settlements are found, the construction company has to give money to the archaeologists so they can evaluate the importance of the site. If the site is not that important, the information will just be recorded. The site will no longer exist physically but only in the archives. This is what is called salvation digging.

If the settlement is very important the archaeologists will not give approval for the construction to start and the construction company will need to find another route. This is done only in exceptional cases.

In the spring of 2004 a group of archaeologists from the local museum together with volunteers from Projects Abroad did the research for the roads which will be built around Brasov. The field archaeology lasted for one and a half months. First of all they did research for the inner ring. This lasted for three weeks and there they discovered three new archaeological sites. All three of them were from the Bronze Age. The importance of them remains to be evaluated in future diggings, when Projects Abroad volunteers will also be present.

The research for the other ring lasted five weeks and there were no new archaeological sites discovered. But close to the future road there were four settlements that had already been discovered. Whether the settlements will be influenced by the constructions remains to be seen from more exact plans.

Walking in the field and looking for remains of human activity is called field archaeology. Sometimes settlements can be located by pieces of pottery on the surface. In these areas it also common that the soil is blacker than the soil from the surrounding area. This is because the remains of human activity decomposed and integrated in the soil enriching it with nutrients.

Field archaeology is as important as other parts of archaeology like digging or experimental archaeology. It is the main way of discovering new archaeological sites along with random discoveries.

Daily timetable:

8 AM field walking starts
9 AM breakfast
9:30 AM field walking continues
3 PM end of the field walking
Saturday and Sunday are free.