Papers by Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu
Wiadomości Numizmatyczne, 2009
Wiadomości Numizmatyczne, 2009
... These coin types were municipal issues, struck during the 1460's, after the monetary ref... more ... These coin types were municipal issues, struck during the 1460's, after the monetary reform undertaken around 1465 by the Moldavian Prince Stephen the Great (1457 ... Iliescu, O. 1997, Génois et Tatars en Dobroudja au XIVe siècle: L'apport de la numismatique, ÉBPB 3, 161-169 ...
Histoire & Mesure, Dec 15, 2002
La diffusion des monnaies byzantines dans les territoires situés au nord de la frontière du Bas-D... more La diffusion des monnaies byzantines dans les territoires situés au nord de la frontière du Bas-Danube 1 n'était qu'une séquence d'un phénomène politique, économique et culturel plus vaste qui concernait aux VI e-VIII e siècles un espace énorme allant du Caucase aux Alpes et à la péninsule ibérique, en contournant le littoral septentrional de la mer Noire, le Danube, la Save et la Drave, le Rhin, pour s'en tenir au secteur européen des frontières de l'Empire byzantin. À partir du XIII e siècle, lorsque l'Empire a été réduit aux territoires situés aux sud des Balkans et à la région occidentale de l'Asie Mineure, et que l'importance politique et militaire de Byzance a amorcé un déclin rapide, la pénétration des monnaies impériales au-delà de ces limites résultait essentiellement des contacts économiques, assurés par l'entremise des marchands occidentaux, des relations culturelles et religieuses qui pouvaient lier la communauté des peuples orthodoxes ou du simple déplacement des individus. À cette époque, l'aire de la diffusion du numéraire byzantin ne couvrait plus que la moitié orientale des Balkans, une partie des territoires situés au-delà du Bas-Danube et du bassin de la Mer Noire, à proximité de l'Anatolie et du Caucase. Pendant les dernières cinq décennies, les trouvailles individuellles ou collectives des monnaies byzantines des VI e-VIII e siècles réalisées dans des zones situées au nord du cours du Bas-Danube-zones appartenant aujourd'hui à la Roumanie, la Hongrie, la Yougoslavie, la République de Moldavie (Bessarabie) et l'Ukraine-ont déjà fait l'objet de publications systématiques et parfois d'études spécifiques 2. Les progrès réalisés pendant les dernières trois décennies dans l'étude des trouvailles des territoires nord-danubiens offrent, de ce fait, une base documentaire exceptionnellement riche, peut-être même l'une des plus importantes concernant la présence des monnaies byzantines au-delà des frontières de l'Empire. Ils permettent non seulement de tracer les La monnaie byzantine des vie-viiie siècles au-delà de la frontière du Bas-Danube Histoire & mesure, XVII-3/4 | 2002 La monnaie byzantine des vie-viiie siècles au-delà de la frontière du Bas-Danube
Cercetări arheologice, 2016
Page 1. LA MONNAIE DANS L'ESPACE RURAL BYZANTIN DES BALKANS ORIENTAUX UN ESSAI DE SYNT... more Page 1. LA MONNAIE DANS L'ESPACE RURAL BYZANTIN DES BALKANS ORIENTAUX UN ESSAI DE SYNTHÈSE AU COMMENCEMENT DU XXIe SIÈCLE Par Ernest Oberländer-Târnoveanu Notre étude concerne les ...
Cercetări Arheologice, 2012
A major real estate development required a rescue archaeology intervention in the very downtown B... more A major real estate development required a rescue archaeology intervention in the very downtown Bucharest, mainly between February and June 1996. A large section, 75 long and about 3 m large was made in the street, mostly mechanically, just in the front of the National History Museum. The archaeological rescue digging documented 12 rooms belonging to a large inn, built by a famous Ruler of the Romanian Country (Ţara Românească), Constantin Brâncoveanu, in the last decade of the XVIIlh century. This kind of inn, of Oriental inspiration, is typical for the passage from Late Middle Age to Modem times, and is, in fact, a complex project including hosting areas, enclosure for animals, large storehouses, but usually churches also. Flourishing in towns with a certain demographic growth, but with a very poor communication means, like Bucharest, the inns were supposed to gather all goods needed by community in five months of cold and wet weather, when the road network was impracticable. The inn functioned about 160 years, until around 1860, the internai spaces being frequently restored, up to 7 times. Despite the fact that the landlord was unique, for its entire existence, a comparison between the type of internai rehabilitation operations proved that the initiative was lefi on tenants, the sequence type offloors (wood, bricks or vegetal cover) being unrepeatable. The use ofthe spaces-when proved by micromorphological study-is also distinctive, either cooking area, workshops connected with open fire, or even stables for sheep, for some relatively short episodes. Those 12 rooms are placed on the western wing of the building, on the main facade, facing a major street-Podul Mogoşoaiei-studied in the southem end of the archaeological section. The public road was made of wooden boards supported by wooden pillars buried under the walking levei, similarly with a bridge, from which the street took its name ("pod" meaning bridge). This type of public street, made entirely of wood, is documented in wet lowlands, where stone is not available, like Timişoara (western Romania). The history of the place begins during the late XV 1 h century, for which deep buried huts were discovered. For the mid XVIlh century a new type ofhouse was in use, made ofwood, relatively large and with cellars, typical for aristocracy. In the XVIIlh century this strip of land was no more a constructive area, a little cemetery being discovered in the southem part of the trench. The layers dated between the cellar-houses and the inn are first in which fragments of bricks and mortar were recorded, probably from buildings in proximity. Regarding the political history of the Romanian countries, it might be surprising that from our discoveries Ottoman co ins are missing. W e found instead some Turkish pipes, a good witness of adopting an oriental lifestyle. This paper also presents the main results of the sedimentological and micromorphological study performed on Constantin Vodă Inn archaeological site. The field study firstly considered in the analysis of the sedimentary successions observed on the main stratigraphic profiles and the identification of the different types of units. The main diagnostic criteria observed in the field at the macroscopic leveitexture, structure, color, nature of constituents, homogeneity and degree of compaction-allowed establishing a typology of sedimentary facies necessary for the interpretation in terms of mechanisms of formation, in order to identify human activities and post-abandon transformations of the accurnulated deposits. Thus, different types of construction and arrangement units, occupation units and natural accumulations were recognized. Micromorphological analysis, at the microscopic scale, brings detailed information on the sedimentary units and thus contributes to a better interpretation of the archaeological levels. Extraordinary information provided by this study is the identification of sferulites, structures indicating the presence of the domestic animals (Ovis/Capra) in spaces fitted out with a wooden floor. The palinological expertise-the first ever done in an archaeological site from Bucharest-revealed a predominance of a ruderal vegetation, followed by hydrophilic vegetation and lowlands trees, but not cereals, explained by the position is in the middle of the medieval town.
Materiale şi cercetări arheologice, 1979
Oberländer-Târnoveanu Ernest, Oberländer-Târnoveanu Irina. Aşezarea neolitică şi necropola de la ... more Oberländer-Târnoveanu Ernest, Oberländer-Târnoveanu Irina. Aşezarea neolitică şi necropola de la Sarichioi, județul Tulcea. Campania 1978. Raport preliminar. In: Materiale şi cercetări arheologice, N°13 1979. A XIII - A sesiune anuală de rapoarte. pp. 59-70
Antiquity, 2010
We present the authentication and analysis of these beautiful Dacian bracelets of the first centu... more We present the authentication and analysis of these beautiful Dacian bracelets of the first century BC, originally pillaged by treasure hunters and recovered thanks to an international crime chase. They were originally fashioned from gold panned from the rivers or dug from the mines of Transylvania and hammered into the form of coiled snakes. The lack of context is the greatest loss, but a votive purpose is likely given their proximity to the great sacred centre at Sarmizegetusa Regia.
Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms, 2008
For gold, the most promising elements for provenance are Platinum Group Elements (PGE), Sn, Te, S... more For gold, the most promising elements for provenance are Platinum Group Elements (PGE), Sn, Te, Sb, Hg, Pb, but also high melting point elements, such as Ta and Nb. Small fragments of native Carpathian gold-placer and primary-were studied using Synchrotron Radiation X-Ray Fluorescence at ANKA synchrotron. The goal of the study was to identify the trace elements, especially Sn, Sb and Te. The measurements were performed in air by using a 32.5 keV beam to excite the characteristic X-lines in Sn-Sb-Te region. We found Sn to be present in placers, Sb, Te and Pb in primary gold. Native gold nuggets, fragments of objects coming from Visigothic Pietroasa "The Golden Brood Hen with Its Chickens" hoard and small (less than 250 microns diameter) fragments from ancient Dacian and Grek gold coins were analyzed using micro-PIXE technique at the Rossendorf TANDETRON and at the Legnaro AN2000 microbeam facilities. We found Te and Sb in primary gold and Sn and traces of Sb in placers. For Pietroasa hoard, we found Sn in the Oenochoe cup and small fibula, indicating that alluvial gold-probably from Anatolia (Pactolus river)-was used. We also detected Ta inclusions in the large fibula, indicating that Ural Mountains (the only region where Ta and Au minerals are together) gold was (at least partially) used. As concerning the gold coins, two type of Dacian staters were identified: one from remelted refined gold and other from native (alluvial) Carpathian gold. A spectacular application to nine Dacian gold bracelets (armbands), identified as made from native placer and primary Carpathian gold, is also presented.
Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, 2012
ABSTRACT The paper is an overview of the work developed by our group in the investigations on mus... more ABSTRACT The paper is an overview of the work developed by our group in the investigations on museum objects and alluvial gold, reflected in a series of studies published between 2000-2011, supplemented with new results, unpublished up-to-date. The X-ray based spectrometric techniques employed range from various X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) investigations to Ion Beam Analysis, including Synchrotron radiation XRF and micro-Particle Induced X-ray Emission. The gold objects discussed are mainly part of the Sarmizegetusa Dacian hoards - spiraled bracelets (armbands) and coins. After obtaining in 2011 the permission of the Romanian authorities to take very small (1-2 mg) samples from the most "unimportant" areas of the Dacian bracelets and several Koson staters, to analyze them by micro-SR-XRF at BESSY, in February 2012, the investigation of several micro-areas of 17 stater and 28 bracelet samples revealed important micro-structural inhomogeneity, especially in Sn and Cu. The same inhomogeneous micro-structure has been seen in Transylvanian alluvial gold. The analyses revealed details on the fingerprint of geological gold deposits and also the main characteristics of ancient gold metallurgy procedures used by the Dacians: a relatively low temperature (lower than Au melting point) and hammering during heating to obtain an ingot through sintering. The use of the sintering procedure was proved for the spiraled bracelets and the Koson without monogram coins - a tradition starting in the Bronze Age in Transylvanian gold processing. The existence of micro-inclusions of Ta-minerals in alluvial gold was also detected, explaining Ta trace presence in the artifacts from the Pietroasa hoard.
Histoire & mesure, 2002
il une preuve du développement des sociétés anciennes ? (Par exemple, les monnaies sont / ne sont... more il une preuve du développement des sociétés anciennes ? (Par exemple, les monnaies sont / ne sont pas nécessaires au développement économique, le monnayage est / n'est pas la preuve de l'intégration dans une sorte d'économie mondiale ? Est-il possible de concevoir une économie ancienne avec des monnaies, mais sans émission monétaire ?) Jérémie Chameroy : « Je ne pense pas que l'on puisse considérer le monnayage romain comme un indicateur fiable du niveau de développement économique des peuples barbares, ni même d'ailleurs des échanges entre Rome et ces peuples. Il faudrait, en effet, d'abord pouvoir distinguer les différentes fonctions que la monnaie romaine a jouées chez des peuples qui ne frappent pas monnaie eux-mêmes. Dans le Barbaricum, la monnaie at -elle jamais gardé sa fonction monétaire ou at -elle le plus souvent été considérée comme une « matière première » (métal précieux prêt à être refondu, ou simple lingot comme le laissent supposer les nombreux trésors) ? Certes, les nombreux autres imports romains retrouvés au nord du Danube témoignent de la vitalité des échanges entre l'Empire et ses voisins, au moins durant les trois premiers siècles. Il n'est pourtant pas possible de chercher à mesurer l'importance des relations de type commercial romano-barbare en s'appuyant uniquement sur les trouvailles monétaires du Barbaricum.
BYZANTINISCHE …, 1996
... Ghent University [email protected]; V GJUZELEV; W BRANDES; B SCHELLEWALD; F TINNEFEL... more ... Ghent University [email protected]; V GJUZELEV; W BRANDES; B SCHELLEWALD; F TINNEFELD; V TIFTIXOGLU; MM MANGO; B ILUSIN; C JOLIVETLEVY; A KARPOZILOS; T KOLIAS; J ALBANI; S KALOPISSIVERTI; E ...
Spectrochimica Acta Part B: Atomic Spectroscopy, 2009
To identify the provenance of gold archeological metallic artifacts, trace elements are more sign... more To identify the provenance of gold archeological metallic artifacts, trace elements are more significant than the main components. The most promising elements are Platinum Group Elements (PGE), Sn, Sb, Hg, Pb, Te, and Cu. Several minute fragments of natural Transylvanian goldplacers and primarywere studied by micro Particle Induced X-ray Emission (micro-PIXE) at Forschungszentrum Dresden-Rossendorf, Germany and micro Synchrotron Radiation X-Ray Fluorescence (micro SR-XRF) at ANKA Synchrotron Radiation Facility of the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Germany. The goal of the study was to identify the trace elements characterizing Transylvanian gold, especially Sn, Sb, Pb and Te. A spectacular application of these measurements to the authentication of nine Dacian gold bracelets is presented.
Applied Physics A, 2012
ABSTRACT A thorough microscopic investigation by SR XRF and micro-PIXE brings insight into the pr... more ABSTRACT A thorough microscopic investigation by SR XRF and micro-PIXE brings insight into the probable techniques used in the manufacture of thirteen Dacian gold bracelets, one of the most spectacular archaeological finds ever on the territory of Romania.
Histoire & Mesure, 2002
The diffusion of the Byzantine coins from the 6th to 8th centuries beyond the frontier of the Low... more The diffusion of the Byzantine coins from the 6th to 8th centuries beyond the frontier of the Lower Danube shows some peculiar trends, first of all due to the overwhelming proportion of the bronze issues among the monetary finds of an area considered as, largely, belonging to the The diffusion of the Byzantine coins from the 6th to 8th centuries beyond the frontier of the Lower Danube shows some peculiar trends, first of all due to the overwhelming proportion of the bronze issues among the monetary finds of an area considered as, largely, belonging to the Barbaricum. The author emphasizes the importance of the political channels in the diffusion of the bronze coinage not only to the areas of the Byzantine bridge-heads from Southern Oltenia (Lesser-Wallachia) and Banat, but also to some more remote territories from Wallachia, Moldavia and Bessarabia, situated far from the Danube.. The author emphasizes the importance of the political channels in the diffusion of the bronze coinage no...
ArchéoSciences, 2009
The recovery of the Dacian gold bracelets was the most thrilling archaeological event of the last... more The recovery of the Dacian gold bracelets was the most thrilling archaeological event of the last years in Romania. The artefacts are exhibited in the Historical Treasure section of the National History Museum of Romania, Bucharest, being recovered from the international antique markets through a concerted effort of the Romanian, French, and German authorities. This paper reviews the X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyses carried out on these exquisite artefacts. These measurements followed the visual examination of qualified experts, which concluded that the gold spiralled bracelets showed strong stylistic similarities with the Dacian silver bracelets discovered until that date in archaeological contexts. Since the most likely source-for geographical and historical reasons-for the metal used to manufacture these artefacts was the Transylvanian Apuseni mountains, additional measurements on several fragments of natural Transylvanian gold, both from placers and primary deposits, were performed using Synchrotron Radiation X-ray Fluorescence (SR-XRF) at the BESSY synchrotron, Berlin, and micro Particle Induced X-ray Emission (micro-PIXE) at the AGLAE accelerator, Paris, and at the AN2000 accelerator of LNL, Padova. The conclusion of this study was that the recovered spirals are genuine Dacian artefacts, made by cold hammering, chiselling and punching Transylvanian unrefined gold-gold panned from riverbeds mixed with primary gold, most likely extracted from surface veins. Résumé : La saisie des bracelets en or de Dacie a été un des événements archéologiques les plus remarquables de ces dernières années en Roumanie. Les objets sont exposés dans le Trésor Historique du Musée National d'Histoire de Roumanie, Bucarest, et ont été récupérés du marché international d'antiquités grâce aux efforts concertés des autorités Roumaines, Françaises et Allemandes. Cet article fait le bilan de l'analyse de ces objets exquis, réalisée par fluorescence à rayons X (FX). Ces mesures suivent l'examen visuel par des experts qualifiés qui ont conclu que les bracelets en or à spirales montrent des similitudes stylistiques fortes avec les bracelets en argent de Dacie découverts en contexte archéologique. Comme pour des raisons historiques et géographiques la source la plus probable du métal utilisé pour la fabrication de ces objets se trouve dans les Carpates transylvaniens, des mesures complémentaires ont été réalisées sur différents fragments d'or natif de Transylvanie, provenant tant de placers comme de
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Papers by Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu