Thematic Exhibition at Suțu Palace
The World of the Dacian Fortresses: People, Heroes, and Gods
The Roman historian L. Annaeus Florus, who lived and wrote during the reigns of the emperors Trajan and Hadrian, noted that “the Dacians live clinging to the mountains.” “From there,” the Latin historian continues, “…they used to descend and ravage the neighboring lands whenever the Danube, frozen by the cold, joined its banks.” The Dacian fortresses of southwestern Transylvania, with their impressive fortifications—sometimes built of wood and earth, at other times of dressed limestone blocks—evoke the image Florus bequeathed to posterity. This cliché, which took hold in Roman consciousness and appears both in contemporary historians and in poets, stemmed from a real situation that made a strong impression in the Mediterranean world precisely because the Dacian fortresses and settlements were located in the mountains, unlike Roman cities, which occupied valleys and plains.
But who were those who built these fortresses? How did they acquire such power and renown that they came to be feared even by the Romans, as the Greek historian and geographer Strabo tells us? What was the relationship between the protagonists of this story—mere mortals in these lands—and the gods? Archaeology offers a series of answers to these questions. The present exhibition explores precisely these aspects, using the evidence uncovered by those who bring the ancient history of the Dacians to light, tracing developments from around 150 BC up to the Roman conquest of Dacia.
The exhibition aims to draw the public’s attention to the history of three emblematic Dacian fortresses in southwestern Transylvania: Cugir, Căpâlna, and Piatra Craivii. These fortifications are fundamental landmarks for understanding the evolution of Dacian society within the intra-Carpathian space and constitute living proof of the growth of Dacian power in the time of Burebista.
Over the past half century, archaeologists have brought to light the graves of those who built and ruled these fortresses. They belong to an aristocracy that displayed its warrior identity through complex panoplies of weapons (swords, spears, curved daggers of the sica type, shields, chain mail, and helmets), as well as through an equestrian image. These warriors are depicted on horseback, and horse bits—demonstrating nobility and social status—are frequently deposited in their graves. Probably the most sumptuous of these tombs is the one discovered at Cugir, in the immediate vicinity of the fortress the deceased noble had ruled. The present exhibition brings back to life the personality of the warrior aristocrat, cremated and buried in a ceremonial chariot together with his horses, the bronze and gold ornaments of the harness, and his entire fighting equipment. This grave, discovered in 1979 but exhibited now for the first time in its entirety, opens a window onto Dacian spirituality and beliefs and, above all, onto the way in which these distinguished mortals became heroes after death and thus communicated directly with the immortal gods.
The treasure of silver plaques from Lupu (Alba County), also exhibited in its entirety for the first time in Bucharest, shows us how great warriors were invested with power. The representations on these plaques present a world in which the sky was dominated by divine eagles in their confrontation with the forces of the underworld; a world in which aristocrats were watched over and endowed with divine power by priestesses of a goddess of wild nature, a Mistress of Animals whose image is encountered from the deepest prehistory, from the Eurasian steppes to the Mediterranean basin.
Returning to the fortresses of Cugir, Căpâlna, and Piatra Craivii, visitors to the exhibition will have the opportunity to encounter scenes of everyday life in these important centers of power, where the warriors evoked at the outset resided and exercised their rule. Craft workshops, smithies, the tools of goldsmiths, food consumption practices illustrated by sets of eating and drinking vessels, games of a more or less martial nature, imports from the Mediterranean area, and Greek or Roman coinage attesting to the connections of Dacian communities with distant regions—all these serve to revive aspects of daily life in the period and to illustrate once again the power, prestige, and authority of the Dacian warrior aristocracy.
The flourishing life of these fortresses came to an end at the beginning of the 2nd century AD following the Roman conquest of Dacia, and Trajan’s wars are very well illustrated on the Column. Archaeology, however, offers a more nuanced picture. Marching camps in the mountains indicate the routes followed by the Romans, and some of them are closely linked to the Roman sieges of the fortresses at Cugir, Căpâlna, and Piatra Craivii. The fighting was fierce, and at times Roman troops suffered significant losses. A recent discovery near the fortress at Cugir suggests that a Roman unit perished in a Dacian ambush. Pieces of Roman military equipment—especially helmets with reinforced domes featuring iron bars arranged in a cross—will also be exhibited for the first time in the present exhibition.
The conquest and destruction of the Dacian fortresses bring to a close a story that lasted two and a half centuries, but at the same time they open a new chapter of history—that of Roman Dacia—no less spectacular. This, however, will be explored in another episode, in a different exhibition to be organized by our museum at a later date.
Aurel Rustoiu, Sorin Cleșiu