Strada Zidului: what archaeologists found at the fortification of the Lower Town

In 2010, a gas pipeline was due to be laid in the area of Strada Zidului and Strada Ocnei in Sibiu. The spot lay right next to the Turnul Pielarilor, called Turnul Mic al Pulberăriei (“the Small Gunpowder Tower”) in the archaeological documentation, so the work was preceded by a preventive investigation: an excavation carried out before the building site destroys the layers in the ground. Two years later the rehabilitation of the street made it possible to continue the research. The question these excavations raise is: what did they actually document about the defence of the Lower Town, and how certain can we be about the order in which the wall and the tower were built?

The enclosure wall

Under the street appeared the foundation and sections of the enclosure wall, that is, of the ring of defensive walls that surrounded the Lower Town. In the two sections opened in 2010 (the excavation trenches), the wall was 1.90 m and 1.80 m wide respectively^[1]. According to the chronology published by the municipality, the Lower Town was included in Sibiu’s fourth belt of fortifications in 1457^[5]. The first enclosure was documented in Huet Square, which we wrote about in the article on the rotunda.

Marshy ground

The excavation also showed how difficult the terrain was. The tower was set in a low-lying part of the Cibin floodplain: marshy ground that was drained, while the walking level, that is, the surface people walked on, was raised with deposits of earth^[1].

The tower: what the report says and what was written afterwards

Next to the wall, the archaeologists investigated the Turnul Pielarilor. The 2010 report describes the lateral corridor through which the tower was entered, traces left by the builders, traces of fire, pottery, bones and a few fragments of iron objects. Its conclusion about the tower is worded cautiously: the construction level of the tower is later than the first constructions in durable material in the area^[1].

The exact order in relation to the wall could not be followed to the end. Stratigraphy means reading the order in which layers were deposited and constructions were raised, and here the link between the wall of the corridor and the tower had been cut by modern concrete stairs. The authors of the report add that the tower’s belonging to a later stage of fortification of the area must be demonstrated by further, extended research^[1].

A more categorical formulation appears in an article published in 2014 about the Turnul Pielarilor, which attributes it to archaeological research: “here, at first, there was only a defensive wall, the tower being built after 1457”^[6]. (The article is in Romanian; the translation is ours.) The interpretation fits the observation in the report, but the report itself does not yet regard it as proven.

Nor is the date of the tower the same in all sources. The municipality’s heritage page gives the years 1475–1485^[4], while the National Archaeological Repertory (RAN) lists the 14th century, alongside the years 1457, 1570 and 1638^[3]. That is why we do not give a year of construction here.

2012: the line of the enclosure

The rehabilitation of the street in 2012 made it possible to follow other stretches of the same fortification^{[2, pp. 178–180]}:

• a stretch of wall about 20 m long, in front of building no. 7 and the “Independența” High School;
• a secondary gate, about 3 m wide, opposite the Gama shop;
• a structure with sides of 9.50 m, which the report cautiously calls “the presumed tower in front of the Gama shop”.

The ground also yielded a curved iron fitting, at 1.40–1.60 m depth, a curved combat knife, possibly deformed, at 1.80–2 m, and animal bones, including cattle jaws and ram horn cores (the bony core of the horn).

The report of this campaign brings together three interventions: Poarta Ocnei, Strada Zidului and Strada Croitorilor. For that reason the context has to be followed sector by sector. The richer inventory from Poarta Ocnei does not carry over automatically to Strada Zidului.

Were any coins found?

The answer has a precise limit. The published report of the 2012 investigation records no coin for the Strada Zidului–Strada Croitorilor sector. Nor does the published inventory for Poarta Ocnei, which includes knives, spurs, horseshoes, nails, hinges, pottery and leather, list any coins^{[2, pp. 178–180 and annex 8, p. 268]}.

Conclusion

The research on Strada Zidului documented the medieval fortifications of the Lower Town: the enclosure wall, a secondary gate, a possible tower and the marshy ground, drained and raised, around the Turnul Pielarilor. About the Turnul Pielarilor, the excavation says less than has been written since: the tower is more recent than the first durable constructions in the area, but its exact order in relation to the wall and the moment of its construction remain to be settled by extended research. If Huet Square shows the medieval centre of the town, Strada Zidului completes it from another angle: the defensive edge and the infrastructure of the Lower Town.