During 1996-1998 the archeological excavations at Old Orhei took place under the auspices of the Free International University from Moldova and the Center for Archeological Researches from the Republic of Moldova in collaboration with the Pedagogic University “Ion Creanga”, Moldova State University (Gh. Postica, I. Hancu, O. Munteanu, S. Musteata).

The archeological researches were centered on four main sectors: I. Raut’s meadow –Pestere Monastery sector; II. Fortress - Western Wall Sector; III. Fortress-Eastern Wall Sector; IV. Fortress-Precincts Sector. Simultaneously, in the central and eastern part of the complex several surveys to save or to control were made.

I. In the Raut’s Meadow-Pestere Monastery sector (648 square meters) traces of settlements form the Bronze Age, Early Iron Age (Chisinau-Corlateni culture, XII-X centuries BC), from the Late Laten (Poiesti-Lucaseuca culture, II-I centuries BC), from the Early Middle Ages, V-IX centuries, from the period of the medieval city Sehr-al-Jedid (XIV century), and from the times of the Moldovan medieval city Orhei (XV-XVI centuries) were found.

More representative seemed to be: the vestiges of the Poiesti-Lucaseuca culture, which is a on the surface dwelling, two deepened dwellings, eight pits for provisions, about four thousands pottery fragments (black fine pottery, with smooth surface or slipped), various object from clay, bone, etc; traces of a medieval culture from the XIV century – a hollow with three human skeletons, two household hollows, five Tatter coins, from the XIV century, Golden Horde like pottery, etc, and vestiges of the medieval culture from the XV-XVI century- a household pit, pottery, various inventory pieces. Other cultural horizons in this sector are represented by sudden sporadic pottery discoveries. From this a great interest presents a fragment from the V-VII century, hand worked, decorated with a cut cross.

II. Fortress- Western Wall Sector (376 square meters) have been discovered: traces from the Superior Paleolithic period (splinters and silex tools), indigene traces from the pre-Mongolian period XII-XIV centuries (the western trench of the land fortress with a total length of 21.0 meters and craggy pottery wheel worked with a incised decorations), vestiges from the period of the city of Sehr-al-Jedid, XIV century (western foundation of the stone fortress on three portions with a total length of 420. Meters, a huge oven kiln for burning lime, two household pits, a human grave, three Tatter coins from the XIV century, Golden Horde pottery, inventory pieces) and from the period of the Orhei city, CV-XVI century (red and gray pottery).

III. In the Fortress-Eastern Wall Sector (104 square meters)-traces from the time of the Mongolian city, XIV century were discovered (the eastern foundation of the stone fortress, a kiln to burn limestone, pottery) and from the Moldovan city period, XV-XVI century (45 graves, the ground wall no. 3, gray and red pottery).

IV. In the Fortress-Precincts Sector (280square meters). In the south western corner have been discovered, traces form the superior Paleolithic (tool and silex splinters, vestiges form the XII-XIII centuries (pottery pieces), traces from the Mongolian city period from the XIV century (a part of the southern foundation of the stone fortress with a length of 12.0 meters, a coin made in Sehr-al-Jedid, Golden horde type pottery, various inventory pieces), traces from the time of the medieval Orhei from the XV-XVI century (a deepened dwelling, and a surface stone building), about seven thousand gray pottery pieces, three coins from the times of Alexander the “Good”, two coins from Ilias-I, different inventory objects). On the ground surface in various sectors of the monument two coins made at Sehr-al-Jedid and one coined at Sarai in the seventies of the XIV century were found.

As a result of researches in the Fortress-Western/Eastern Wall a perfect stratigraphic situation was obtained with clear evidence and proofs, which make the problem of dating of the two medieval fortresses from the Old Orhei be seen from a different perspective. The stratigraphic observations had shown that the foundation pedestal of the stone fortress and the building layer of this fortification are part of the cultural frame of the Golden Horde from the XIV century. The archeological researches have also proved that the entrenchment of the fortress was covered with building remnants (stone, mortar, burned clay) and pottery from the Golden Horde times. On the other hand, it was determined that one of the pits for burning limestone from the times of the Golden Horde had been partially overlapped by the eastern edge of the entrenchment of the ground fortress. This fact lets us determine the date of the final phase of this fortification, and namely the middle of the XIV century.

The archeological researches in the above mentioned sectors confirm with evident proofs the traditional historiographic belief that the ground and stone fortresses from the Old Orhei are works of the Moldovan rulers, and namely of Alexander the Good and Stefan the Great. From the obtained data, we conclude that the ground fortress belongs to the native settlement from Orhei from the XII-first half of the XIV centuries, and the stone fortress was built by Mongolians in the middle of the XIV century and restored later, in the XV-XVI centuries by the locals.

Within the “save” survey from the centered part of the Old Orhei complex were discovered three medieval graves. Their dating (X-XIII centuries) was made based on a pottery chip with horizontal cuts.

At the eastern side of the Old Orhei City, in Raut’s meadow, within certain control surveys Gaeto-Dacian traces from the IV-III centuries BC, medieval vestiges from the V-IX, from the X-XIII, from the XIV and from the XV-XVI centuries had been registered.

Gh.Postica

• Foreword
• The archeological complex Old Orhei
• Monumental Buildings
• Archeological researches in the years 1996-1998
• Orhei Codrii
• The chronology of the medieval stone fortress
• Cave Monasteries
• The index of early medieval archeological monuments