Rescue archaeological excavations took place in the summer of 2014 at the multi-period site of Bălata-Schit, Șoimuș commune, Hunedoara County, adding to the existing information on one of the most important sites on the Mureș Valley. Amongst the numerous discoveries, fragments from at least two bronze cauldrons were uncovered. The morphological characteristics, especially the cross-shaped handles decorated with geometric patterns, indicate their dating in the final stage of Ha B2, as also suggested by other analogies in Transylvania. The vessels belong to the categories Merhardt B1 and B2a. The bronze recipients from Bălata reveal an unknown chapter in the archaeology of the Early Iron Age in southwestern Transylvania, offering new data on the spirituality of the respective times.

The preventive archaeological research fulfilled on the Deva – Orăştie highway route, led us to discover a large settlement belonging to the Bronze Age, on the terrace of the Mureş River, at Şoimuş – Teleghi (Hunedoara County). Some of the investigated features from this site contain large quantity of pottery and bone artefacts. These artefacts are vessels with celestial symbolic representations, decorated hearths and portable stoves (pyraunoi) with anthropomorphic plastic applications. Among these, there are animal bones such as vertebras and phalanges, some of them processed and with intense using traces. Another category of special objects was the clay wheels models, which were found in several pits, whole or fragmentary. Despite being part of the assemblage of a clay wagon model, these items were found separately, indicating that the wheel itself had a special meaning in the imaginary of the community. We consider that all these artefacts had a special function in rituals activities and also that they were used, probably, in shamanic practices.

Early Neolithic communities penetrated in southwestern Transylvania and were established in the Mureș Valley where they found suitable territories for domestic animal herds and probably plant cultivation. The present study tries to answer questions related to the beginnings of the neolithisation in this area, from an interdisciplinary perspective, valuing archeozoologically and archeobotanically the Starčevo-Criș site of Soimuș-Teleghi (Hunedoara County), dating to the 7th–6th millennium BC. Animal skeletal remains and phytoliths are the proxies analysed in this paper, offering data about the palaeoeconomy and palaeoenvironment of the Early Neolithic settlement. In the archaeozoological samples, the remains coming from domestic mammals are the most frequent, being identified as cattle (Bos taurus), sheep/goat (Ovis aries/Capra hircus), pig (Sus domesticus), and dog (Canis familiaris). The fact that pig remains are almost absent in the samples is significant, suggesting a mobility of the evaluated communities. The skeletal remains of wild mammal species are rare, belonging to red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), aurochs (Bos primigenius), wild boar (Sus scrofa), and polecat (Mustela putorius). The strong dominance of grasses is attested through the phytoliths’ assemblages. Elongate dendritic phytoliths are well represented. This morphotype, which originates from the inflorescence or the husk of Poaceae, is most likely derived from cultivated plants (cereals such as wheat, barley, etc.). Archaeozoological and archaeobotanical data resulting from this study suggest an open environment around the Early Neolithic settlement, where communities of the Starčevo-Criș culture mainly raised herds of cattle and sheep/goat. Sporadically, hunting and gathering molluscs were practised by the inhabitants, as indicated by archaeozoological results.