Coins in archaeological context Sutor (Optatiana) the vicus and the baths complex

The purpose of this volume was to bring together two previously published studies on two different archaeological units of the same site. This idea came as the authors have a long experience on what it means to keep searching and bring together information in order to have an overall picture on a subject. Furthermore, the stratigraphic and the numismatic analyses of the two archaeological units – the baths complex and the vicus – offer the possibility to synchronise the building phases between the baths and the vicus and to include the numismatic evidence in the general statistics of the site (tables; graphs).

Certainly, one can ask why we did not proceed from the beginning directly with a book? It was all depending on various unpredictable factors such as: the area of excavations; the length of the period for systematic investigations/year; the relevance – quantity and quality – of the numismatic evidence that was going to be collected during excavations; the financial support involved to allow, first, to continue the archaeological investigations, second, to which scale can the excavations be carried on.

The rescue excavations following the building of a segment of the motorway A3, Brasov-Bors, have led to the discovery of almost the entire area of the archaeological site of Sutor (hypothetically identified with the ancient Optatiana mentioned on the Peutinger’s Tabula): the auxiliary fort, the bath complex and the vicus. Unfortunately, as the investigations has proven, the auxiliary fort area cannot be properly excavated as the alluvial layer – a consequence of the numerous floods of the river Almaş in 1879, 1980 – has a thickness up to 2 m.