Memoria Satului Românesc 2012 www.muzeulsatuluibanatean.ro / www.cimec.ro Redaction Scientific Council of Banat Village Museum Ion Valeriu Olaru General Manager ASTRA Museum Complex Sibiu, Romania Otilia Hedeşan University Professor, Ph. D., West University of Timişoara Doina Benea University Professor, Ph. D., West University of Timişoara Liliana Roşiu Architect, Ph. D. Dan Leopold Ciubotaru Manager, Banat Museum Gabriela Luca Ph.D, University of Medicine and Pharmacy of Timisoara Claudiu Ilaş Manager, Banat Village Museum Maria Hadiji Section Head, Ph. D, Banat Village Museum Redactional Council Coordinator Editor Cătălin Balaci, Section Head, Ph. D, Banat Village Museum English Editor Lenuta Giukin, Ph. D., Associate Professor, State University of New York Romanian Editor Ioan Traia. Curator, Banat Village Museum Redaction Secretary Maria Mândroane, Ph. D., Banat Village Museum Redaction Members Andrei Milan, Ph.D, Curator Borco Ilin, Curator Melania Călărăşanu, Curator Marius Matei, Curator The responsibility of affirmations belong only to the authors ISSN 1843-2077 www.muzeulsatuluibanatean.ro / www.cimec.ro Banat Village Museum Timişoara Editura BRUMAR TIMIŞOARA 2012 www.muzeulsatuluibanatean.ro / www.cimec.ro www.muzeulsatuluibanatean.ro / www.cimec.ro Memoria Satului Românesc 10/2012 www.muzeulsatuluibanatean.ro / www.cimec.ro www.muzeulsatuluibanatean.ro / www.cimec.ro The idea to publish a volume in which in mirror, two regions of Europe (Banat and Pays Basque) are presented and analyzed started as a simple discussion between members of the Scientific Council of Banat Village Museum. At the time the main purpose was to obtain a volume useful for international change, into a major language and one of the members of the Scientific Council pointed out that a French scholar (Jean-Marie Aynaud) had submitted to her a very interesting study “Le pastoralisme, une pratique agricole traditionnelle commune au Pays Basque et au Banat” in which Banat and Pays Basque are compared and similarities are quite common despite the fact that those two regions grew apart and that the distance made the communication quite impossible. That started the present endeavor, hopefully a good one, the main goal was achieved and the volume is submitted to public view with the hope that the information and analysis will be helpful for interested parties all over the world. Claudiu Ilaş Manager Banat Village Museum www.muzeulsatuluibanatean.ro / www.cimec.ro www.muzeulsatuluibanatean.ro / www.cimec.ro SUMMARY Ioan Traia, Banat Chronology …………………………………………………………………………… 11 Ioan Traia, Cătălin Balaci, Banat Village Museum a brief history and presentation ……………………………………………………………………………………………….......... 23 Le Musee Basque et de lʼhistoire de Bayonne ……………………………………………….......... 35 Melania Călăraşanu The Ethnic Groups of Banat: Cultural Interactions …………….. 39 Michel Duvert, Contribution à une étude du peuplement de la montagne basque . 57 Maria Hadiji Vasinca, The Pottery Craft in Banat ……………………………………………… 109 Claire Noblia, Moulins et énergies renouvelables en Pays basque Nord – Iparralde ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 115 Jean-Marie Aynaud, Le pastoralisme, une pratique agricole traditionnelle commune au Pays Basque et au Banat ……………………………………………………………… 129 Maria Mândroane, The Resettlement of Old Village Precincts: the Backup Village .. 137 Rafael Ocete Rubio, Jesús Arrimadas Saavedra, Juanjo Hidalgo García, La vigne sauvage dans le Pays Basque, une ressource phytogénétique en danger . 149 Marius Matei, Tradition and creativity in the Banat folk costume ……………………… 173 Andrei Milin, Miodrag Milin, Cultural ‘patterns’ for Serbs in Romania …………........ 177 Sophie Cazaumayou, Le bulletin du musee basque: un outil au service d’un musee………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... 185 www.muzeulsatuluibanatean.ro / www.cimec.ro www.muzeulsatuluibanatean.ro / www.cimec.ro BANAT CHRONOLOGY Ioan Traia* Key words: Banat, geographical landmarks, historical landmarks, Banat chronology Banat, Geographical Landmarks A province with a complex history, the Romanian Banat’s current geographical configuration is an outcome of World War I peace treaties that divided a larger territory between Romania, former Yugoslavia and Hungary. The historical province of Banat with a total surface of 28,526 km² is situated at Romania’s south-western border with Serbia. It comprises a surface of nearly 19,000 km2 in Romania, more than 9,000 km2 in Serbia (the province Voivodina), and a small territory in Hungary. The Romanian Banat includes the Timiş and Caraş- Severin counties, a small part of Mehedinţi County west of Vârciorova village, and part of Arad County south of Mures River. Its borders are the river Mureş at north, the Danube at south, the mountains Ţarcu, Godeanu and Poiana Ruscă at east, and Serbia at west. The temperate-continental climate has Mediterranean and oceanic influences, balanced temperatures and average rainfalls. Resembling an amphitheatre oriented east to west, the Banat’s territory includes mountains, hills and rich plains, with an abundant river network that supported human life since ancient times. Banat’s mountains are rich in minerals such as coal, iron, lead, tin, uranium, copper, quartz, and useful rocks like common clays and flint clay, basalts, dolomite limestone, marble and talc. The land also contains reserves of oil and natural gas, as well as mineral water springs. Banat and Arad plains are part of the large Tisa River plain, divided by the river Mureş whose north and south banks have significant altitude differences. The plain’s soil structure includes alluvial layers of clays, marls and sands covered by a layer of loess and various fertile soils. This is one of the most fertile Romanian plains. Mureş, Bega and Timiş, the most important rivers crossing Banat’s territory, have many affluents. This slowly flowing hydrographic network with meanders, elbows and swamps produces many disastrous floods that require dam building to control and drain away the rivers. Besides mineral riches, the Banat Mountains have extended fir and spruce fir forests, beech trees on slopes, and on hills beech, durmast and yoke elm trees. Oak and elm trees grow on hills and depressions, tartar maples and sour cherry trees on plains, while the French oak and other species grow on holms. The wild life in Banat is just as rich comprising the bear, the wolf, the wild boar, the fox, the cottontail and many other animals and bird species. * Museum Curator Banat Village Museum Timisoara Aleea Avram Imbroane nr. 31 [email protected] 11 www.muzeulsatuluibanatean.ro / www.cimec.ro Ioan Traia, Banat Chronology The rich Banat soils and subsoils attracted early attention as well as conquerors interested in occupation and exploration. One cannot overlook two extinct volcanoes at Lucareţ and Gătaia: Piatra Roşie/Red Stone (211 metres altitude), and Şumigu (200 metres altitude). The largest European continental sands, the Deliblato sand dunes (Serbia) nowadays covered in vegetation are found here. This is the natural setting where the Banat material and spiritual folk culture and civilisation developed and the Banat people lived. “No native of this territory considers oneself anything else but a resident regardless of nationality, and, no one outside these territorial limits calls oneself a Banat resident unless born and raised in Banat, or born to parents from Banat’’ observes Marius Bizerea, an expert in Banat history. Banat’s Chronology Archaeological findings highlight that people inhabited this area from prehistoric times. Palaeolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic cultures emerged and developed leaving behind traces (tools, weapons, graves, pots, figurines etc.) that place this area among the most representative European prehistoric places. This rich history cannot be separated from the overall history of Romania as they often converge. Geologically, Banat’s territory was the bottom of an obstructed former sea called the “Pannonia Sea”. Many lowlands left with no drainage access to the hydrographic network became extended marshes and swamps, some surviving until recently. Archaeological findings confirm that humans inhabited the area ever since the Banat plain was an inland lake, and the people lived a primitive life on islands. Systematic or incidental archaeological discoveries prove the continuous existence of human life in Banat since Palaeolithic. 30000 B.C. In Visag village, the Victor Vlad Delamarina parish, there was the singular finding of a carved stone tool belonging to a late Musterian facies, or an early Aurignacian of the Upper Palaeolithic. 28000 B.C. Upper Palaeolithic Settlement, Aurignacian, discovered in the Româneşti village, Tomeşti parish, at the Dumbrăviţa point. 22000 B.C. Palaeolithic traces from the developed Aurignacian period are confirmed in the Coşava village, Curtea parish, on Cuca hill, in an archaeological site comprising 3 living levels certified through lithic tools, as well as in the Româneşti village, the Dumbrăviţa point. Discoveries from the Azilian Mesolithic age were also made in Băile Herculane, the Thieves’ Cave. Material traces multiply in the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron ages. Neolithic populations belonging to the Starcevo-Criş stage II culture occupy the fertile grounds on river terraces. With their arrival the first ceramics in the county’s prehistoric settlements appear. Archaeological searches were undertaken along the Timiş River, at Parţa, Foeni and Timişoara-Fratelia, and along the Mureş River at Dudeştii Vechi. 4500