AUTHOR: Dragoş MĂNDESCU
A FEW CONSIDERATIONS ON THE ORLEA-MAGLAVIT FIBULA TYPE
Danubius, XXII, Galaţi, 2004, pp. 7-14.
Abstract
A recently published fibula, belonging to Orlea-Maglavit type (fig. 1), found at Poiana, Galaţi County, rises some new questions regarding the cultural ascription of this type of fibula and its chronological framing.
Vl. Zirra defined the Orlea-Maglavit fibula type more than three decades ago. In the archaeological literature, it is considered that this type of fibula appeared through a Celtic influence, in the Danubian area of PadeaPanaghjurski-Kolonii cultural group. Being ascribed to the group of tombs with Celtic characteristics from Oltenia, this type of fibula type was implicitly dated within the same chronological interval as the tombs: the end of the IInd century – the first half of the Ist century B.C..
The diffusion area of Orlea-Maglavit fibula type covers mainly Oltenia’s Danubian area, where many such items were discovered (in Salcia, Cetate, Maglavit, Lişteava and Orlea) and few other secondary areas: at the North of the Danube – Western Wallachia (Cepari and Scorniceşti) and Southern Moldavia (Poiana) -, and, at the South of the Danube – the area of Morava (Kostolac), Krajna (Mala Vrbica), Eastern Bulgaria, the Šumen-Varna area (Ivanski, Malamir and Varna).
Among the fibulae of Orlea-Maglavit type found at the North of the Danube, those discovered at Orlea, Maglavit, Salcia, Lişteava and Scorniceşti represent isolated accidental finds. The three other fibulae of Orlea-Maglavit type from the North of the Danube were discovered during archeological researches, but they proved impossible to date with a high degree of accuracy, just as in case of the two fibulae found on the Jugoslavian territory. The fibulae from Eastern Bulgaria (especially those discovered at Malamir and Ivanski), found together with Greek bronze kantharos, three faced arrowheads and fibulae having a Thracian shape, suggest an early dating, namely during the IVth-IIIrd centuries B.C..
In conclusion, dating this type of fibula, which has an obvious Latène B shape, in Latène D and its ascription to Padea-PanaghjurskiKolonii group should be only presumptively accepted, since we need supplementary evidence for a definite chronological and cultural framing of these items.