TWO GOLDEN PENDANTS FROM THE 4 TH CENTURY (original) (raw)

Two golden pendants were found in the tumular necropolis from Gura Secului – Nemțișor (village, Vânători commune, Neamț County). The respective cemetery was dated in the 4 th century A. D. and belongs to the Carpathian tumuli culture. The first pendant is crescentiform (lunula) and has close analogies with the discoveries of the same period from Solonci (Zakarpattia, Ukraine) and from Valea Strâmbă (village, Suseni commune, Harghita County). The three discoveries (Gura Secului, Solonci, Valea Strâmbă) seem to emerge a common archaeological horizon corresponding to C 3 – D 1 phases. The second pendant is a jewellery consisting of a semiprecious stone into a metallic rim. This pendant could have been manufactured in Romula or Moesia. On the basis of the presence of golden jewelleries presented above, we can discern that the monument from Gura Secului attests the existence of a discrete community (clan) that owned its prominence on social, rather than ethnic grounds. Keywords: golden pendants, lunula, Braniște and Gura Secului (Nemțișor, Neamț County), the 4 th c. A.D.