Dobrogea Sites - Carsium (Hârşova)

On the shores of the Danube river, in today's town of Hârşova, one can found a place being continuously inhabited for more that 7000 years, but only partially researched due to the modern constructions placed on top of the ancient remnants.

The surface settlings are five meters deep and from those only some of the buildings were researched, dating back to different periods. The neolithic settlement is formed as a tell (an artificial mound consisting of the accumulated remains of one or more ancient settlements).

The oldest archaeological layer belongs to the Boian culture, specific for the Danube plane , where the Hamangia ceramics were also discovered.
A couple of inhabitation levels belonging to the first three stages of the Gumelniţa culture follow. The Gumelniţa civilization is followed by the Cernavodă I culture.

Among the numerous signs from antiquity, under the today's town settlements, lie the ruins of the Roman fortress named Carsium, built by Emperor Hadrian in 103 AD. In fact, the today's Carsium fortress is a complex of fortifications dating back to different ages.

A Byzantine-Genoese fortress was also discovered, dating back to the 10th century AD. Although it hasn't been researched much, the fortress stood up for hundreds of years, beeing inhabited from the 15th to the 19th century by Turkish, until the Treaty of Adrianople (1829), when it was blown apart.

Here's also the site of the town's administration and some more info here.

Unfortunately there's no accurate map, as you can see for yourselves, but below are some old photos of the archaeological site:




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