Noutăţi arheologice din zona bisericii Talpalari din Iași

Abstract

The Talpalari Church in Iasi, dedicated to "Nativity of the Virgin", was built, according to the existing documents, in the middle of 17th century, by the great vistiernic (treasurer) Iordache Cantacuzino, the brother-in-law of prince Vasile Lupu. There was a cemetery around it, about which we also have information from contemporary sources. In view of the consolidation works to be carried out on "Milescu" House, a heritage building, the Institute of Archeology in Iasi provided the archaeological assistance. The excavations near the Talpalari church, conducted in 2016 and 2017, led to the identification of the skeletal remains of 14 individuals in relatively certain funerary contexts. It was also possible to estimate, based on minimum number of individuals calculation method, the presence of 11 other individuals from which we have only disparate fragments due to repeated disturbance events. The present paper presents a detailed analysis of the funerary features, from historical, archaeological and anthropological points of view. The research focuses on both elements of funerary inventory (including potsherds), and animal osteological remains identified in a secondary context. Six coins have been identified as a grave goods. The excavation of the features has led to the finding of several buttons and hook-eye fasteners. In particular, based on the interpretation of the numismatic material, we could see that the graves corresponding to this level in the cemetery of the Talpalari church can be chronologically framed between the last decades of the sixteenth century and the first decades of the next. Therefore, the written sources of the time argue for the existence of Talpalari church in the seventeenth century, however, the field research leads us to the hypothesis that this place of worship was preceded by another one that operated in the previous century and which hosted the cemetery of that neighborhood.