The Case Study of the Graves Discovered in 1958 at Apulum-Dealul Furcilor Cemetery, Individual and Collective Social Identities in Roman Graves

Abstract

The Roman cemetery at Apulum, Dealul Furcilor is one of the well-known and researched Roman sites of this kind from Dacia. Archaeological excavations started in the 19th century and are continuing today. During the Romanian communist regime, the discovered graves and their inventory were published in archaeological reports. Unfortunately, the reports do not include a detailed description of the finds. Additional papers focused on the artefacts and their functionality within the graves were never written. For these reasons, the excavations from this period need reconsideration. Most of the discoveries made in 1958 were stored inside the deposit of The Archaeology and Art History Institute in Cluj-Napoca and were the main subject of my unpublished master’s thesis entitled Identități individuale și colective în necropola romană de la Apulum-Dealul Furcilor. Studiu de caz – descoperirile din anul 1958, “Babeș-Bolyai” University, Cluj. This article resumes the study made in the thesis, provides a detailed catalogue of the archaeological finds and an analysis of the osteological remains found in the deposit at Cluj-Napoca.