ISOLATED MIGRATION-PERIOD FINDS: THE BRONZE FIBULA FROM RADOAIA (SANGEREI DISTRICT)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.14795/jaha.13.1.2026.1420Keywords:
Radoaia, bronze fibula, Prsa-Levice type, 5th century AD, OstrogothsAbstract
The article presents a 5th-century AD bronze fibula donated in 2020 by a local resident to the Sangerei Museum of History and Ethnography (Republic of Moldova), together with several archaeological heritage items discovered at various locations in the vicinity of the village of Radoaia (Sangerei district, Republic of Moldova). In all likelihood, the artefact originates from the archaeological site Radoaia II (Sangerei district), which preserves evidence of habitation dating to the Late Roman period. The fibula under discussion was cast in bronze and features a semi-circular arched bow in cross-section. It is fitted with two terminal plates, one triangular and the other lozenge-shaped, both decorated in the Kerbschnitt (chip-carved) technique. It belongs to the Prša-Levice type, according to J. Werner’s typology, a type predominantly distributed in the Middle Danube region and in Crimea. This category of fibulae is dated to phases D2/D3 (AD 430–470) and is attributed to Germanic populations. The Radoaia specimen, which is typologically comparable to the find from Parcani (Soroca district), represents, together with the latter, the first discoveries of this type within the Prut-Dniester interfluve. The closest geographical analogies have been identified in the Migration Period cemetery at Botosani — Dealul Caramidariei, dated to the 5th century and attributed to the Ostrogoths.
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