Foreword Note

The Hunedoara county museum, located in the city of Deva, is an integral part of the large network of the museums in Romania. Through the dynamic nature of it’s collections and activities, the museum brings a considerable contribution in general to the promotion of culture and in particular to the research and study of history, and illustrates the path taken by human society since primeval times within the area of Hunedoara county. Through almost a century since the it’s establishment, and the activities carried out by the Museum of Deva in an area extremely rich in archaeological and historical materials has proven its effectiveness through its discovery, preservations and study of numerous cultural values.

Since its foundation, the institution has developed regarding both its collections of objects discovered and the scientific research which it has carried out, on the way to sustained and elaborated archaeological activity. At the same time, it has not neglected the other aspects of museum work.

Through its extensive collections, of both museological and scientific value and for its on-going archaeological investigation, the museum has earned a well deserved name in scientific circles both within Romanian and abroad.

The archaeological section of the county museum in Deva, comprised of the results obtained following excavations, acquisitions and occasional casual discoveries, contains extensive and valuable museum materials, dating from the time of the first stone age up until the feudal period.

The goal of this permanent exhibition, as well as the research made within this section of the museum, is to educate and illustrate to both laymen visitors, as well as specialists, the ways of human life and the stages of development within the regions of Hunedoara. It is considered that the objects exhibited in the museum represent the most graphic testimonies of this long process. 

The first social order, the primitive communal system is represented by the material traces typical of primitive civilisation. 

The Palaeolithic age is revealed through discoveries in the caves of Ohaba-Ponor, Cioclovina, Nandru, Craciuneste, and others. In addition to the fossil animal and human remains, numerous tools of stone and bone are good indications of ways of the Palaeolithic people who lived there. At the Neolithic settlements of Turdas, Deva, Craciunesti, Valea Nandrului, etc. were revealed pots of burnt clay belonging especially to the "Turdas" and "Cotofeni" civilisations from the end of the Neolithic age, as well as tools of stone and bone, idols and others. 

Several stores of metallic objects attest to the metallurgical usage in the bronze and iron ages. 

The first iron age is represented by tools and weapons found in provenance with deposits of bronze objects, ceramics and Scythian or Scythian influenced Daco-Thracian objects. Among the sculptural pieces from the first iron age we recognise for their importance, the anthropomorphic statues from Baia de Cris belonging to the Dacian crafts style. 

Of an inestimable documentary value are the archaeological traces of Dacian society from the two centuries prior to the Roman conquest (the second iron age - Laténe), traces found through the archaeological excavation at the Dacian fortresses and settlements in the Orastiei, Banita, Cozia, and Cimpuri-Surduc mountains and others site at which researchers from the museum of Hunedoara have participated. The coins and the hoards - like those from Radulesti, Salasul de Sus, Cugir, Borzesi, Tusnad and others, found today in the museum's collections (along with pieces from other ages) - are evidence of trade relations either internal or with its neighbours, that occurred within the Dacian society at the time. 

The Roman age is conveyed by a material as rich as it is diverse in appearance. This material has been found throughout the entire territory of the county, but especially at Ulpia Traiana (Roman Sarmizegetusa), Micie, Gaermisare, as well as in other locations in Hunedoara. 

Within the museum lapidarium are housed extremely valuable treasures and numerous rare, even unique, monuments by virtue of their artistic or epigraphic content. In addition to the stone monuments and remarkable tegularium, the Roman section also includes a large collection of objects that mirror the diverse aspects of the material culture in the former Roman province of Dacia. 

Of a particular interest are the objects representative of the Daco-Roman coexistence and of the continuity of habitation in these parts after 271 CE, the date of withdrawal from the province by the Roman army and administration. 

Afterwards, these testimonies of the Romanians past are selected, preserved and put to account both through the permanent exhibition and within the stores organized according to scientific criteria. 

The Hunedoara county museum has seen great development especially during socialism and in 1970 it was subjected to a complete reorganisation. At the moment the objects are exhibited according to the requisites of modern museography. It is worth stressing that the archaeological collections found of the museum of Deva come almost exclusively from the region of Hunedoara. 

The scientific personnel of the museum, benefiting of an old tradition in the field of publications, have collaborated through some praised works of ancient history, archaeology, epigraphics, numismatics, etc. on different periodicals at home and abroad and first of all, of course to the museums own magazine "SARGETIA, Acta Musei Regionalis Devensis". As a former director for almost three decades of this prestigious establishment of culture, I wish that the authors of this work endeavour - young and resourceful researchers of the museum of Deva - be enjoyed and appreciated by visitors, both experts and non-experts, with full appreciation and usefulness.

OCTAVIAN FLOCA