Introduction. Eugen Comşa Eugen Comşa during the International Congress of Anthropology and Ethnology, in Tokyo-Kyoto, 1968. My Father As I am the daughter of Eugen Comşa, some people might assume that the following lines will reflect a subjective view of my father. Even so, I take the risk and state that my father was not only a very good specialist in his field, but he was also a wonderful person. How could someone describe a lifetime within a few words without including a summary of the most important events that happened? As my father had never had My Father XV such intention, or opportunity, I will do it myself, considering that his scientific and personal life were intertwined in a most interesting way. He was born on October 20, 1923, the only son in his family. According to the stories told by people who met them, his parents were nice, decent and honorable people. He was raised surrounded by the great love of his parents, spending the wonderful years of his childhood with his friend, Colea (whom is his friend even today, after 80 years), wandering the environs of Chişinău, his native town, which was at that time, a part of Romania. But, those years have passed rather quickly and as a young man, he studied at the high school “Alexandru Donici” from Chişinău. During World War II, through various circumstances, he lost his father and later his mother and was cared for by his grandmother. He eventually joined the war and this is why today he is a war veteran. At the end of the ordeal, he graduated high school in Bucharest, where his family initially took refuge, at the today National College “Cantemir Vodă”. Afterwards, he was admitted at the University of Bucharest- Faculty of History, where he became one of the faculty’s most promising students. He was also fortunate enough to have prominent personalities as teachers. We could mention here Ion Nestor and Gheorghe Ştefan. During his student life, he had eagerly learned and worked on the excavation sites, trying to achieve the best possible knowledge of the field of archaeology. This is probably the reason why he was chosen by Prof. Ion Nestor to be his assistant at the Chair of History after he graduated. He worked there for few years, but was replaced, along with his master and many others in 1952, due a debatable decision. I have no detailed information about that but I know that my father is even now gifted as a professor. He is a man who is able to spend a lot of time explaining the evolution of phenomena or other important things; he is comprehensive not only to the specialists but also to novices. He is able to do all of this without losing his temper. For those eager to listen, he was involved and passionate when he spoke about archaeological matters. For those who did not talk to him on this topic, he was almost silent. He told me that his models as specialists were Ion Nestor and Mircea Petrescu-Dâmboviţa and that these were also the archaeologists who taught him a lot of the archaeology secrets. During the 1950s, probably before one of the archaeological campaigns from Garvan, he met my mother, also an archaeologist and, in 1955, they were married. In 1959 my sister Delia was born, and I, Alexandra, followed in 1963. We were a very happy family and we tried to spend as much time together as we could. This is why our parents took us, as children, with them to most of their excavation sites. We were fascinated by the objects found in the earth and whenever we were allowed we were glad to give a helping hand for washing or wrapping them. Our holidays always partially consisted in such experiences. Yet, later on after beginning high school, my sister and I were unable to join them anymore and, truthfully speaking, we were not as interested as we had been when we were younger. Yet, we missed both of them, especially when they would leave Bucharest for a few months. At that time, in most of the villages the telephone was a luxury so XVI Introduction. Eugen Comşa we were glad even when we could talk to them once a week. In time other troubles appeared, as well. There was no proper transportation, or the living conditions were quite poor so we had a lot of things to worry about. In some villages where my parents worked, there was not even a doctor. After high school, my sister attended the Academy of Economic Sciences- Bucharest, whence she graduated. For some time following her studies, she worked in the Institute of National Economy-Bucharest and later at the private Ecological University-Bucharest, at the Management Chair. In the meantime she was married to Bogdan and had a daughter, Ana. I graduated from the University of Bucharest-Faculty of Biology and later specialized in Iaşi as an anthropologist. Both, my sister and I prepared and graduated as PhD candidates, my sister in economical sciences and myself in physical anthropology. Some have said that it is rare to have four doctors in one single family, but ours had. And here the story takes a turn for the worse. In 1991, my parents were notified that they had to retire. Everything happened very fast, without any prior notice. After working for about 55 years in the same professional position, one that was more appropriate for a young and newly trained specialist, they retired and went to pension. Still, considering the results and prestige of their research, they were allowed to continue their work at the Institute and they did so, being happy to return as volunteers to their usual activities. But as it happened, this was just only the first and simplest of their troubles. The pleasant atmosphere of our family fell under a shadow when my mother unexpectedly died after a heart attack in 2002 and it completely disappeared in 2003 when my sister passed away from breast cancer, living behind not only her daughter and husband, but also my father and me. Since that time, both my father and I became increasingly detached from the surrounding world and we could hardly concentrate upon our daily activities. We were fortunate enough to have beside us not only our remaining family, but also people who were supportive and helped us to recover. Now that my father also passed away, I cannot say that my wounds will heal soon, although memories of my family and the friendship of my colleagues encourages me and gives meaning to my life as an archaeologist-physical anthropologist. Alexandra Comşa Memories about Eugen Comşa Childhood Memories about Eugen Comşa I spent my childhood and youth in former Bessarabia (more precisely in Chişinău) where I lived with my parents until 1941 when we took refuge in Craiova. Remembering about Eugen Comşa XVII My both parents, but mostly my mother, had a very close relationship with George Comşa`s family, whom she visited very often. On those occasions, my brother Alexei (Leoncic) and I used to spend most of our time with Jenea (Eugen), who was one year older than I. I remember that Jenea was attracted to archaeology because, during our trips while we explored the hills around Chişinău, he used to gather all kinds of burnt ceramic fragments. He “studied” them and arranged them according to “his science”. When we returned from our trips to the hills of Rîşcani (Rîşcanova), Jenea would have his pockets full of burnt ceramic fragments and his grandmother would chastise him for bringing home “stones” again which, rather often, she used to throw away - without his knowledge, of course. A certain detail I should mention here is that as we prepared for our trips, my brother Leoncic, always wanted to join us. He followed us crying because we did not want to take him with us. He was 5 or 6 years old and he was much too young for our “missions”. I seldom saw Jenea’s parents, because they were very busy at the office, working most of the day. I remember that Jenea’s mother was a distinguished and beautiful lady who was elegantly dressed and had good taste. His father was also a very handsome and distinguished man, temperate and a good family man. Jenea’s grandmother often convinced me to serve lunch to him because she said that when we ate together it was a way to make him eat better. All this happened before we went to school. After we began school we rarely saw each other because he studied in one school, while I studied in another. I made some friends at school and he had his own friends among his schoolmates, but we never forgot our friendship. And after that, during our first years of high school, when Jenea studied at the “Alexandru Donici” High School, we rarely saw one another because both of us were very busy with our homework. Everything continued pleasantly in this way until 1940 when, after the Ribbentrop- Molotov pact, my family and I remained in Chişinău, under the Russian occupation, while Eugen and his family took refuge in Bucharest. We met again after those hard times and we have remained friends until today. N. A. Remembering about Eugen Comşa We met 63 years ago, in 1945, when we were colleagues at the University of Bucharest- Faculty of History. Even then, at the beginning of our studies, the two of us were a part of a team that undertook the excavations carried out in the site from Sărata Monteoru, on the spot “Cetăţuia” (E.