Archaeology - ROMANIA
Project Information for Volunter Archaeology in Romania - Harsova

Archaeological Volunteering Projects in Harsova

Harsova is situated in the South East of Romania near the Danube and around 70 kilometres from the Black Sea. It has around 11,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom are living in flats constructed by the communists. The economy of the city collapsed after the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu.

The city is of great historical interest with its Tell, the Necropoli (Bronze Age, La Tene, Roman, Roman-Byzantine Necropolis I and II, The Late Middle Ages, The Feudal Period, Ottoman), the Roman Byzantine city of Carsium and a Turkish fortress.

The Neolithic Tell in Harsova is one of the most important historic sites in Romania. The word "Tell" comes from Arabic and it literally means "hill". A Tell results from very particular conditions in which the process of erosion has been superseded by the 'fossilization' of human activity. There are approximately 200 Tells in Romania.

The Tell was discovered in 1960 and Mrs Doina Galbenu started archaeological research on the Tell from 1961 to 1963 and then in 1971 and 1975. After some interruption the research was continued from 1985. Since 1993 the Romanian National History Museum is overseeing the continuing work in collaboration with The National Museum of History and Archaeology at Constanta.

The cultures evident from the Tell are Hamangia (5500 BC - 4000 BC), Boian (6200 BC - 5000 BC), Gumelnita (5000 BC - 5500 BC) and Cernavoda I (4500 BC - 2000 BC).

In 1991, an archaeological programme French-Romanian collaboration was set up for the Harsova Tell. Every year, starting at the beginning of July, there is a dig which lasts 4 - 6 weeks.

The digging is undertaken by a collective of qualified archaeologists and archaeology students and Projects Abroad volunteers, under the supervision of Dr. Dragomir Popovici from the Romanian National History Museum and Bernard Randoin.

On the archaeology project, volunteers work in Harsova for four weeks, with a break of one week in the middle. The majority of the work consists of digging and data collection. The digging technique used is removing one layer after another after recording all the data from each one. If there is bad weather then the archaeologists and volunteers mark, wash or reconstruct pottery pieces which have already been discovered.

The main artifacts that have been discovered are pieces of pottery (an entire pot is an exceptional find), fish bones, shells and silex tools. There are often new discoveries of external walls from domestic residences.

Daily timetable (Monday to Friday) :

07:00 Morning session begins
09:00 Breakfast
09:30 Work continues
14:00 Lunch
17:00 Afternoon session begins
19:00 End of working day
The work on Saturday is from 09:00 until 14:00 and Sundays are free.