Dacia

A Roman frontier province north of the Danube in the area of the Carpathian Mountains and Transylvania, in present-day western Romania, spanning c 106-270 AD. The Dacians were agricultural and worked their rich mines of gold, iron, and silver. As a people, they first lived south of the Danube and traded with the Greeks. They were a threat to the Romans from 112 BC, extending their kingdom. The Dacian Wars (85-89 AD) took place under the emperor Domitian and then the Romans under Trajan reopened hostilities in 101-106 AD, finally taking the country. The Dacian Wars were commemorated on Trajan's Column in Rome. The Romans exploited the Dacian mines, constructed roads, and made Sarmizegethusa and Tsierna (Orsova) colonies. The new province was divided under Hadrian: Dacia Superior was Transylvania and Dacia Inferior was the region of Walachia. Marcus Aurelius made the provinces a single military region in about 168 AD; but the province was abandoned by Aurelian in 270.

A Roman frontier province held from cl06-270 ad, comprising an area to the north of the Danube and roughly equivalent to modem Rumania. The Dacians had constituted a threat to Rome for some time, and their leader Decebalus had to be recognized as a client king by Domitian. A more determined and successful onslaught was made by Trajan, who may also have been attracted by mineral deposits. Trajan celebrated his triumph on the spiral frieze of a ceremonial column at Rome (see Trajan’s Column). Colonies were planted at Sarmizegethusa and Apulum. The province was abandoned by Aurelian in 270. of Qinglian’gang, Liulin, and Huating. Archaeologists commonly refer to these three levels as successive phases of the Qing-lian’GANg culture. The lowest (Qinglian’gang) level at Dadunzi yielded a radiocarbon date of <4500 bc. In the middle (Liulin) level, extraordinary painted pottery was found side-by-side with the usual undecorated pots native to the local Qinglian’gang tradition. Both the shapes and the painted designs copy the Yangshao pottery of Miaodigou; radiocarbon dates from Miaodigou (c3900 bc) and also from Dahe (c3700 to c3050 bc) can therefore be taken to suggest that the Liulin phase belongs in the 4th millennium BC. The intrusive Miaodigou-style ware at Dadunzi, occurring in the middle of the Qinglian’gang-Liulin-Huating sequence, argues against the so-called nuclear theory, according to which the painted pottery of Miaodigou should antedate the entire eastcoast Neolithic (see Longshan). Some graves of the Liulin phase at Dadunzi contained sacrificed dogs. At Dawenkou in Shandong, where the lower level belongs to the Huating phase, pigs appear instead, and the graves often take the form of a stepped pit (i.e. they have ercengtai; see shaft tombs). These features are significant as early forerunners of characteristic Shang burial practices. Perforated tortoise shells from Liulin graves may likewise foreshadow the use of tortoise plastrons in Shang scapulimancy (see oracle bones) and the pottery drinking vessels found in Liulin and later graves are so impractical as to suggest a ceremonial purpose like that served by Shang bronze ritual vessels.