ALONG THE BORDER BETWEEN PAGANISM AND CHRISTIANITY. GRAVES WITH RITUAL FIRE HEARTHS DISCOVERED IN THE NECROPOLIS OF ALBA IULIA-‘IZVORUL ÎMPĂRATULUI’ DURING THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL CAMPAIGNS OF 2006 – 2007

Three graves were discovered during the archaeological excavations (2006, 2007) in the cemetery of Alba Iulia-‘Izvorul Împăratului’ (Alba County, Romania). All three presented a fire hearth on the side of the burial pit. The graves share some common features, including the male sex of the deceased, the orientation on the W – E axis (grave 86; 155), except grave 168 (WSW – ENE) and the stone edging of the grave pits. The grave inventory consists of pottery (ritually broken in grave 86; 155; 168), a sickle (grave 86), steel, flint (grave 155), an arrowhead, a sabre- sword (Säbelschwert) and remains of a wooden sheath with traces of textiles (grave 168). It may not be by chance that such a ritual hearth was also set up for the leader of Gyula’s military entourage (grave 168). The role of these unique findings, appearing at the borderline between paganism and Christianity, can be correlated with the purification of the deceased before passing into the afterlife. All the elements of funerary rites and rituals allow us to place all of these burial findings in the second half of the 10th c.