THE PREFEUDAL PERIOD

(4th - 10th centuries)

The retreatment from Dacia of the Roman officialities (in the year 271) and the renunciation of the north-danubian territory of the province found up by Trajan, didn't mean an interuption of the economical and the social life from this parts. Certainly that the retreatment of the Roman officialities had made an unexpected change in the evolution of the Dacian locations, but the assumption which says that on the area of the ex-province it would have had a produced systematical evolution and a total depopulation of the province doesn't have any support.  The archaeological proofs - that over the years become various - confirm the dacio-roman continuity on the Dacian area, after the Romans left it.  The various traces of the Daco-Roman population always appear on the entire are of the ex-Trajanic province.  Certain traces of this population might be founded in the urban territories by the end of the fifth century, and in the rural places this kind of material proofs had been grasped even at the end of the sixteenth century.  Traces of the Dacian life have been seen very well in the seventh and tenth centuries, too, although in this period appear more often elements of some migratory nations.

There we have no proof in the supposition that the Dacian-Roman population would have left her territories, natel ones, in the sixth - seventh centuries, under the pressure of the nomad waves. In this 200-300 years interval didn't happen only a dereliction of the ex-roman province, but a mountain-zone orientation, lass afable for the riding army of the migrators, and the principal trade, in the new work conditions, has been cattling and some of them the agriculture.

The period between the fourth and the tenth centuries is carried out by passing of the local asociety to feudalism, act that has culminated with the advent of the former Romanian feudal states.  In the same time, there has had place the foundation of the Romanian people, nation and of the Romanian language.  The meaningful historical process is the result of the Dacian element romanisation, of the stepped assimilation of the slaves/slavs and of the other populations from the Romanian territory of our days.

The materials exposed in their most past inthe space of the tenth hall have been discovered on the therritoryof Hunedoara county and they bring real proofs on the continuity of the Daco-Romanic local population inthe long period of time that has been passed since the retreatment of the Roman authorities from Dacia until the threshhold of the feudal Romanian states cristalisation.

The glass case next tot he thirteenth hall's door, ofers a part of the traces resulted from the Strei, recently investigations.  From a large number of houses - where have been identified fire places which, through the bigness of the burnt layer, confirms a long and permanent use - there have been traced out some objects made and used of the people living there.  There weights of burnt clay, from which two have been used at laying the verticle threads of the weaving loom, and another from the fishing net.  Two spindles made of burnt clay and  piercing needle made of bone reveals sheeping as one of the trades of the pre-feudal people from Strei.

The pottery discovered in Strei (crocks made up by the olar's wheel or by hand) and a bone comb are the elements on whichit might have been decided if this houses come fromt he fourth century and the first half o the next centiry.

The Roman coins, imperial, in their most majority bronze samples, used by the Daco-Roman population, are exposed on a stand from the second glass case and they have a double meaning. In the first place, they confirm the continuity in the ex-city and the rural centres from the Roman epoch, of the local population that in trades relations keep the buying-selling principle on coins.  In the second place, the numismatical pieces reveal the bonds between the Daco-Roman population and the Roman Empire of which monetary system is still being used.  The coins from Deva's collection have been discovered at Sarmisegetusa, Vetil, Calan, Salasul de Sus, Fizes, and other places, and they are emissions from the time of the emperors PROBUS (276-282), DIOCLE-TIANUS (284-305), CONSTANTIUS II (323-361), VALENTINIANUS I (364-375), GRATIANUS (375-383).

The Byzantine coins, exposed on the second stand from the second glass case date from the period of the emperors THEODOSIUS II (408-450) and IUSTIIAN I (527-565) and they tellus about the existance of some pressed and intense bonds of the popoulation from those parts with the East Roman Empire which, starting iwth the fifth century, represented the former political force from the south-east of Europe.

The broach found in Sarmizegetusa, made of bronze, dates from the seventh century, being a type of jewelry very frequently used on a geographical area very extended.

The burnt clay crocks, most them pot type recipients, have the walls decked with wave lines, are made at the quick wheel and tey hvae been discovered at Sarmizegetusa, Blandiani, Cugir, Banita and Craiciuneste. These crocks, from the glass case with the continuum space of exposing and in the glass case between the windows, they come from the category of the eighth - tenth centuries ceramics, spread all over the Romanian territory of our days.

The next glass case, the seventh from this hall, ends the now ofthe exponents from the pre-feudal epoch with a fire place and more ceramic fragments, all discovered in Deva.

The crock fragments kept allow the establishment of their initial form, of the crock-pot, of which origin we can found in the Romans "olla".  Of the local traditions also remember the ornamental motifs, like the line of waves, the isolated incisions which follow exactly the crocks shoulders, the succesives group of lines, made up with the "comb" and disposed especially in the "barbed" part of the crocks.

The traces resulted from Deva date from the tenth - eleventh centuries and they have been found even on the teritorial area from the Roman epoch, of which buildings have been used, recording to to the new needs, by the Daco-Roman population.