The Cooper Age Settlement from Târgu Mureș–Shopping City

During the construction of the Shopping City Mall in Târgu Mureş in 2018, traces of a prehistoric settlement were found. The Mureş County Museum carried out a rescue excavation in the area. Based on the observations made during the research and the material collected, the settlement can be attributed to the Ariuşd cultural group of the Early Copper Age. In the excavated area, traces of at least four surface dwellings and several pits belonging to the settlement were discovered. The vast majority of the collected material is made up of ceramics, wattle and daub fragments of houses, a few burnt clay and stone objects, and a relatively small amount of animal bones. Based on the characteristics of the archaeological material and the radiocarbon data, the settlement can be attributed to the early phase of the Ariuşd group, roughly in the second third of the 5th millennium BC. In addition to the Copper Age material, some fragments of vessels attributed to the Middle Bronze Age Wietenberg culture were also discovered.