Permanenţă Şi Continuitate Românească În Depresiunea Târgu
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The Annals of Valahia University of Târgovişte, Geographical Series, Tome 11 / 2011 __________________________________________________________________________________________________ ROMANIAN PERMANENCY AND CONTINUITY IN THE DEPRESSION TÂRGU SECUIESC Claudia CĂPĂŢÎNĂ1 1National Institute of Statistics Abstract: The establishment of the adequate framework for the living and the solidity of the human settlements in the Depression Târgu Secuiesc, according to historical realities and with the various writings of the times, proving the ancient, permanency and continuity of the Romanians in this area have concerned over time the Romanians and the Hungarians in the same time. Compelling testimonies highlighted by numerous archaeological discoveries are dating from the Paleolithic, Neolithic, Bronze Age and Iron and Feudalism, showing continuous occupation of this territory since ancient times and the absence of a population vacuum, even temporarily, at the coming migrants Hungarian, Szeklers (Székely) or other migratory. The Romanism aspect of the area is and was subject to controversy created especially by the Roesler's theory that the vacuum ethnic to the coming of Hungarians, theory "removed" not only by Romanian, but also by the representatives of the ethnic groups inhabiting, even by Hungarian ethnicity. Keywords: ancient, permanency, continuity, archaeological discoveries, autochthonous 1. Location and limits of the Depression Secuiesc Through the politico-administrative perspective, the Depression Târgu Secuiesc is part of Covasna County, occupying the north-eastern marginal part of Covasna County, being crossed by the Râul Negru (Black River) and its tributaries and surrounded on three sides by mountains. It presents a significant height, in the north part having 600 m, 530-550 m in the southern part, being stretched from north to south on about 35 km and from east to west on about 15-20 km. Fig. 1 The position of the Depression Târgu Secuiesc in the Covasna County - administrative map 141 The Annals of Valahia University of Târgovişte, Geographical Series, Tome 11 / 2011 __________________________________________________________________________________________________ From geographically point of view, the Depression Târgu Secuiesc, known from ancient as the Depression Breţcu or the Depression Black River, is individuality in the Depression Braşov, and represents the eastern section of the Depression Braşov. It is limited in the north-west and north part by Nemira Mountains and Bodoc Mountains, in the south and south-east part by Întorsurii Mountains and Breţcului Mountains and in the south-west by the Reci piedmont corridor, which delimits the Depression Târgu Secuiesc by the Depression Sfântu Gheorghe. Between these limits, the depression occupies an area of 600 square kilometers or 640 square kilometers according to some authors, having the largest extension within the Depression Braşov, being dominated by the Brateş plains and Estelnic and by the fields of lacustrine terraces from the right of Râul Negru, from Lunga to Moacşa (Székely, Zs., 1997, p. 12). Fig. 2 The position of the Depression Târgu Secuiesc within the Depression Braşov (Source: Google Earth) Currently, the Târgu Secuiesc Depression consists of a number of two cities: Târgu Secuiesc (with component locality Lunga) and Covasna (with component locality Chiuruş) and nineteen Commons: Boroşneu Mare (with villages: Boroşneu Mare, Boroşneu Mic, Dobolii de Sus, Leţ, Ţufalău and Valea Mică), Brateş (with localities: Brateş, Pachia, Telechia), Breţcu (with villages: Breţcu, Mărtănuş and Oituz), Catalina (with villages: Catalina, Hătuica, Imeni, Mărcuşa, Mărtineni), Cernat (with villages: Cernat, Albiş and Icafalău), Ghelinţa (with villages: Ghelinţa and Harale), Lemnia with homonymous village, Mereni (with Mereni and Lutoasa), Dalnic with homonymous village, Moacşa (with villages Moacşa and Pădureni), Ojdula (with localities Ojdula and Hilib), Poian (with localities Poian and Belani), Estelnic (with localities Estelnic, Cărpinenii and Valea Scurtă), Reci (with villages Reci, Aninoasa, Bita and Saciova), Sânzieni (with villages Sânzieni, Caşinul Mic, Petriceni şi Valea Seacă), Turia (with villages Turia and Alungeni), Valea Mare with the homonymous locality, Zăbala (with villages Zăbala, Peteni, Surcea, Tamaşfalău) and Zagon (with villages: Zagon and Păpăuţi). 142 The Annals of Valahia University of Târgovişte, Geographical Series, Tome 11 / 2011 __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Fig. 3 The Depression Târgu Secuiesc – satellitaire image 2. Documents certifying the organic unity of the Romanian ethnic bloc "Since antiquity, geographers and historians have noticed that locals (Carpathian autochthonous) are related to the land of their country as the tree roots into the earth (montibus inhaerent Daci)" (Mehedinț i, S., 1943, p. 17), as the Roman scholar Annaeus Florus said. The organic unity of the Romanians in the Carpathian-Danubian-Pontic area was the subject of dispute and tinting, over time. Proof of uninterrupted continuity of the Romanians in these lands are the writings of the times, of which highlight some of the most significant. Abraham Ortelius was the one who, in Atlas "Theatrum Orbis Terrarum" made in sec. XVI, has developed a unique work as value because it brings together maps published until then isolated and known by the author, in a unitary form, text and graphics. The Atlas consists of 58 sheets with numerous maps, which encompass the entire territory of Romania or components from its fundamental parts. It can be found here also the map namely Dacia prepared by Claudiu Ptolemeu. Ptolemeu (100 -170 AD) is the first scholar who devotes a map for Dacia unit, attesting mapping, through details, the complexity of the Carpathian area fundamentals, Danubian and Pontic, the political unity and territorial of the state (Cucu, V., S., p 115). In the work "Geography" of Ptolemeu (90-168 AD), the largest ancient cartographer of the Carpathian-Danubian area, is presented mapping the situation in the second century AD in this space, being played about 60 localities, most of them by Daco-Getae origin, but also the localities with purely Roman names like: Praetoria Augusta (in the central Transylvania) and Angustia (in the eastern Transylvania). In the Middle Ages, Ptolemeu's maps were circulated in manuscript, with the text of "Geography", by sec. XIV; they were published for the first time in Atlas in the Renaissance time, the late century XV (Şoneriu, I., 1984, p 242- 243). 143 The Annals of Valahia University of Târgovişte, Geographical Series, Tome 11 / 2011 __________________________________________________________________________________________________ Pârvan, V., 1972, p. 226 states that in Breţcu, the camp, located at the entrance in the Oituz step in Transylvania, is identical with Angustia of Ptolemeu, the meaning of "strait" of the name of this town just referring to that step. In the atlas of Ortelius is also the map drawn by the cartographer of Venice, the Austrian army general, Jacobo Castaldo, "Romaniae que olim Thracia dicta", made in 1584. This map is a genuine historical-geographical document of the unit of land and the Romanian people, reaffirming its position in the Carpathians, the Danubian and Pontic space. The originality is arising from the author preoccupation to depict the Vlachs in Transylvania alongside the Vlachs of Moldova and the Wallachia. This is the first time in the cartography of times when the Transylvania is recorded as Wallachia, respectively Interior Wallachia that inside. It recognizes on the well-established grounds, the idea of common origin of all Romanians, the idea of national unity. Specifying the position of "interior", Castaldo highlights the geographically aspects in which was the old Romanian province - Transylvania, intra-Carpathians position, ie inside of Carpathians (Cucu, V., S., p. 116-117). The last important ancient cartographic document containing information on our lands is map-route "Tabula Peutingeriana" of Roman origin, probably dating back centuries III-IV and known as a copy made in sec. XII (the name comes from Konrad Peutinger which in 1507 received it in possession by will). The map, drawn on 12 sheets of parchment, contains the known world by the Romans (from the British Isles in the west to the Ganges delta in the east) representing, essentially, the Roman road network, together with their localities and with the indication of the respective distances, this content corresponding to the military and administrative requirements of the Romanian state; of less interest are indications of physical-geographical elements, played very briefly and distorted, with the contours compressed more on latitude (Şoneriu, I., 1984, p. 243). Augustino Gerando in his work La Transylvanie et ses habitants also specifies that "the Romanians are sons of the defeated Dacians and of the settlers brought by Traian". In 1778, Josephus Benkö considered "Vlachs descended from Romans, meaning of colonies that the Traian and the other emperors have brought in Dacia. Today, they have reached in a state of servitude to the nobles in Transylvania; although many centuries have passed in the middle, they not completely left no language, no ancestral customs" (Coja, I., 1990, p. 25). The cartography of periods of feudalism has shown frequent the name as "Vlach" for all Romanian lands, registration that is found also in documents of history of general culture.