{"id":714,"date":"2007-05-13T03:01:10","date_gmt":"2007-05-13T07:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=714"},"modified":"2018-08-18T00:32:16","modified_gmt":"2018-08-18T04:32:16","slug":"sunday-may-13-2007-sarmizegetusa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=714","title":{"rendered":"Sunday, May 13, 2007 \u2014 Sarmizegetusa"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"07-05-13<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Sunday,<\/a>We had two short rides from our camp\u00ading spot, one from a doc\u00adtor, anoth\u00ader from a sales\u00adman from Hune\u00addoara who was deliv\u00ader\u00ading a door to a vil\u00adlager. The door was tied to the roof of his Dacia [which is real\u00adly a Renault, with a dif\u00adfer\u00adent body]. The door turned out to be the wrong one, which result\u00aded in a long dis\u00adcus\u00adsion about the accu\u00adra\u00adcy of the sales cat\u00ada\u00adlog. I was sur\u00adprised at how easy it was to pick up the gen\u00ader\u00adal sense of a con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtion in Roman\u00adian, which is as obvi\u00adous\u00adly of Latin deriva\u00adtion as Ital\u00adian or Span\u00adish. In fact, apart from the odd\u00adi\u00adty of hear\u00ading the Slav\u00adic loan word \u201cda<\/em>\u201d for \u201cyes\u201d used repeat\u00aded\u00adly, often in strings (\u201cda-da-da!<\/em>\u201d), it sound\u00aded a lot like Ital\u00adian. This would prove very use\u00adful. In a pinch, I found that I could make a stab at guess\u00ading a Roman\u00adian word by call\u00ading up an Ital\u00adian word and replac\u00ading the end\u00ading with \u201cu\u201d or \u201ce\u201d, and the lis\u00adten\u00ader could usu\u00adal\u00adly guess what I was dri\u00adving at.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sunday,<\/a>But the two rides brought us only a small por\u00adtion of the way. The farm\u00adlands van\u00adished as we fol\u00adlowed the course of the Or\u0103\u015ftie Riv\u00ader into the moun\u00adtains. It quick\u00adly became a steep and nar\u00adrow val\u00adley, clothed in a thick for\u00adest of beech and spruce, occa\u00adsion\u00adal\u00adly break\u00ading into small patch\u00ades of alpine pas\u00adture. At one point, we were blocked by a bull\u00addoz\u00ader which had stalled in a crit\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly squeezed por\u00adtion of the road. It was nec\u00ades\u00adsary for anoth\u00ader doz\u00ader to arrive and shove it enough for its motor to start. The road quick\u00adly dete\u00adri\u00ado\u00adrat\u00aded, and our last ride let us off at the point where a four-wheel dri\u00adve vehi\u00adcle would be advis\u00adable. From there on, it would be exclu\u00adsive\u00adly on foot. It proved to be a long, tir\u00ading climb, with the road reach\u00ading an absurd degree of steepness.\"Sunday,<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sunday,<\/a>

At about the half-way point, we are already foot\u00adsore and appre\u00adci\u00adate a cool moun\u00adtain stream.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

I should explain that I am out of shape, after years sit\u00adting at home, work\u00ading on a com\u00adput\u00ader. I had an excel\u00adlent old tent for hitch-hik\u00ading, which had served well for many years, but when I set out for this trip, I dis\u00adcov\u00adered that it had dis\u00adin\u00adte\u00adgrat\u00aded beyond util\u00adi\u00adty. So I am tak\u00ading anoth\u00ader tent. Its an excel\u00adlent tent I acquired for the arc\u00adtic and north\u00adern bush coun\u00adtry, but it is three times as heavy as the oth\u00ader one, and not real\u00adly prac\u00adti\u00adcal for hitch-hik\u00ading. I also have the fool\u00adish habit of acquir\u00ading books and oth\u00ader need\u00adless\u00adly heavy items. For\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, we did\u00adn\u2019t have to car\u00adry much water, as there were springs along the way. But, all in all, I am not in shape for this kind of thing any more. We took our time, stop\u00adping now and then to rest and bathe our feet in the riv\u00ader, which quick\u00adly reduced to not much more than a moun\u00adtain stream. We passed through high\u00ader and high\u00ader mead\u00adows, sum\u00admer pas\u00adtures for hors\u00ades and sheep. As the day\u00adlight dwin\u00addled, the inter\u00admit\u00adtent pas\u00adtures van\u00adished, the road nar\u00adrowed to a bro\u00adken car-track, the for\u00adest dark\u00adened and closed in, and the grade var\u00adied between twen\u00adty and forty per\u00adcent, nev\u00ader lev\u00adel\u00ading off. It would be a tir\u00ading walk with\u00adout any\u00adthing on your back, but we were over\u00adloaded. Still, I felt per\u00adfect\u00adly com\u00adfort\u00adable most of the way. But some\u00adwhere along the way, I pulled a ten\u00addon, or did some\u00adthing to my back, and sud\u00adden\u00adly all the ener\u00adgy drained out of me. Every step for\u00adward was exhaust\u00ading and painful. I bul\u00adlied through as long as I could, but just a few kilo\u00adme\u00adters from our goal, Isaac sug\u00adgest\u00aded that we camp for the night and reach the site in the morn\u00ading. This met with my full appro\u00adba\u00adtion. We select\u00aded a spot in the woods, pitched our tents, and I dropped into imme\u00addi\u00adate unconsciousness.<\/span><\/p>\n

\""It's<\/a>

\u201c<\/span>It\u2019s just a lit\u00adtle bit farther\u2026!\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

\"My<\/a>

My (tem\u00adpo\u00adrary) Water\u00adloo. I could\u00adn\u2019t make one more step.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

In the morn\u00ading, we start\u00aded out again. It was obvi\u00adous that I had done some major dam\u00adage to my back, because walk\u00ading was still quite painful for me. The grade con\u00adtin\u00adued to steep\u00aden. Final\u00adly, we set down our packs at the last kilo\u00adme\u00adter from our goal, and agreed to vis\u00adit the site in relays. Isaac went first, return\u00ading after a while with the news that there was plen\u00adty to see, fresh water, and some\u00adone at the site. I then went up myself.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Sunday,<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

After walk\u00ading through the roman for\u00adti\u00adfi\u00adca\u00adtion, the walls of which snaked through the for\u00adest, I entered a clear\u00ading in which the Dacian ruins were spread out in the gold\u00aden sun\u00adlight. This was Sarmizege\u00adtusa. I had expect\u00aded to see the sort of thing that is nor\u00admal at an archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal site: a few vague out\u00adlines, some lumps in the soil and frag\u00adments of stone. Instead, I found quite spec\u00adtac\u00adu\u00adlar struc\u00adtures, includ\u00ading a huge cir\u00adcu\u00adlar tablet some\u00adthing like an Aztec sun-wheel, tem\u00adple sanc\u00adtu\u00adar\u00adies, and mas\u00adsive tum\u00adbled pil\u00adlar frag\u00adments. This was quite amaz\u00ading, con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00ading their antiq\u00adui\u00adty and loca\u00adtion on a remote moun\u00adtain top.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the most delight\u00adful sur\u00adprise was that the man on the site turned out to be Dr. Con\u00adstan\u00adtin, the archae\u00adol\u00ado\u00adgist in charge of exca\u00advat\u00ading the site. He was flu\u00adent in French, so he gave me a detailed tour.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was no mere for\u00adti\u00adfied mil\u00adi\u00adtary out\u00adpost or remote reli\u00adgious sanc\u00adtu\u00adary. It was a city \u2014 a pros\u00adper\u00adous city sur\u00adround\u00aded by exten\u00adsive agri\u00adcul\u00adtur\u00adal set\u00adtle\u00adment. Dr. Con\u00adstan\u00adtin showed me how the entire moun\u00adtain\u00adside had been ter\u00adraced for farm\u00ading. What is now thick for\u00adest was, when the Roman legions came, a land\u00adscape teem\u00ading with human activity.<\/span><\/p>\n

I should explain why it was that I endured such an exhaust\u00ading climb to vis\u00adit a Dacian archae\u00ado\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal site. I grew up read\u00ading his\u00adto\u00adry books in which there was a con\u00adsis\u00adtent image. Europe, north of the Roman Empire, was por\u00adtrayed as a kind of primeval for\u00adest, inhab\u00adit\u00aded by prim\u00adi\u00adtive trib\u00adal Celts and Ger\u00admans, who would lurk behind the trees, lis\u00adten to mys\u00adtic ora\u00adcles, and make bloody sac\u00adri\u00adfices, but who built noth\u00ading. The Romans then arrived, and after a few rip-roar\u00ading bat\u00adtles, installed indoor plumb\u00ading and Roman Law. The cow\u00ader\u00ading natives were only too glad to earn the right to dress up in togas and imi\u00adtate their betters.<\/span><\/p>\n

This was, no doubt, how the Romans saw things. It\u2019s also how the British saw things when their empire was strong. It was how King George III<\/span> thought about his Amer\u00adi\u00adcan sub\u00adjects. And it\u2019s how many Amer\u00adi\u00adcans now think about their con\u00adquest of Afghanistan. But this ver\u00adsion of his\u00adto\u00adry nev\u00ader sat well with me.<\/span><\/p>\n

In ancient Dacia, we have a clear exam\u00adple of a Euro\u00adpean peo\u00adple, north of the Danube, who built an urban civ\u00adi\u00adliza\u00adtion out\u00adside the Empire, before they were con\u00adquered and absorbed by Rome. I will explain more about the Dacians, and their role in his\u00adto\u00adry, in the next posting.<\/span>\"Sunday,<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We had two short rides from our camp\u00ading spot, one from a doc\u00adtor, anoth\u00ader from a sales\u00adman from Hune\u00addoara who was deliv\u00ader\u00ading a door to a vil\u00adlager. The door was tied to the roof of his Dacia [which is really \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-at-blog-2007"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9144,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions\/9144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}