Archaeological Report: The Rotary/Commune: Ciortești/Raport: IRaport/dot: On Runc (2009)

During the 2009 campaign in the location of Rotăria "Pe Runc" we excavated two sections (Ș2 și Ș3) to the NW-SE, in two different locations at 50 m from each other, and partially uncovered three Cucuteni houses, but we identified (due to the pottery) and a Bronze Age level belonging to the Costișa civilization. During field walking it was found that the archaeological site in the location of Rotăria "Pe Runc" is provided with a defense vallum, which apparently was not raised during the Cucuteni period, and later, during the Bronze Age. The vallum is about 300 m long on the west side (along the orientation direction of the promontory), as it is slightly raised (about 0.50 m) in the southwest part and 0.70 m in the northwest. Both on the west side and the east one we can see a slight hollow, in the close vicinity of the vallum, on the inside, seemingly from a trench, a vallum raised on the crest of the sides, as on the outside the relief is steep or half-steep The maximum width of the site enclosed by the vallum is upstream 300 m - in the north and in the south 100 m. The entire area of the site surrounded by the vallum is about 4500 m² (4.5 ha), but to the south about 50 m S of the defense vallum, there is a segment of about 0.5 ha not enclosed (where we identified Cucuteni civilization remains - there we conducted the first rescue survey (Ș1/2008), and we discovered also two houses ( L1 și L2). It is not out of the question for the Cucuteni houses outside the vallum to be much older than those inside. The desertion of this south portion of the promontory can be attributed to climatic factors. Out of the 4.5 ha of enclosed ground, only we discovered archaeological vestiges only over 1.5 ha, approximately.