Fortificația Frumușicăi: un șanț de apărare din eneolitic la Bodești (jud. Neamț)

Evidence of a Chalcolithic ditch at Bodeşti Cetăţuia Frumuşica (Neamţ County Archaeological investigations carried out between 2011 and 2013 verified and confirmed some of the previously known data regarding the prehistoric habitation from Bodeşti Cetăţuia Frumuşica (in Eastern Romania, near Piatra Neamţ). The site preserves the remains of a Chalcolithic settlement with Cucuteni A, A-B and B layers as well as Early and Middle Bronze Age features. The dominant position of the plateau surrounded by steep slopes towards the north, west and south fully justifies the settlement choice of the first inhabitants. As the older archaeological researches returned unclear data regarding the man-made defences of the site, in 2013 we opened a trench to verify the layout of a hypothesized earthwork of the eastern side. A segment of a transverse ditch barring the point of the easiest access was uncovered here. The ditch is about 11 metres wide and more than 3.5 metres deep, cutting through the archaeological deposits, the clay subsoil and the underlying marl bedrock The stratigraphic evidence as well as the artefacts retrieved from various depths indicate several filling sequences (with the most consistent occurring during Cucuteni A). Further cross-sections through this ditch are necessary in order to validate our data. Cuvinte cheie: Eneolitic, Cucuteni A, fortificație, șanț.