Cercetări de geografie istorică şi arheologie medievală la Coşteiu (jud. Timiş) / Research of historical geography and medieval archeology at Coşteiu (Timiş County)

Abstract

Field identifi cation of deserted settlements is a great challenge of Romanian medieval historiography and archaeology. Habsburg maps made in the eighteenth century (# e First Military Survey especially designed for Banat in the years 1769–1772) are of great use in fi eld researches. By overlaying these and the contemporary maps we can identify with suffi cient precision the old chores of village settlements, even those missing today. Coşteiu is one of the cases, where documentary information in conjunction with cartographic data led to the fi eld identifi cation of the old settlements Possa and Kostill, also confi rmed by archaeological excavations. A part of the settlement was investigated at the missing Possa, where archaeological material dated in the XVth – XVIIIth centuries were found; and also at the location of the deserted Kostill, where the discovered archaeological materials can be dated to the XVIIIth – XIXth centuries.