Ion Horaţiu Crişan (1928–1994) was a

Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania **Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditional ...

historian and archaeologist. He conducted research in South-Eastern and Central

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, focusing on

Geto-Dacians The Dacians (; ; ) were the ancient Indo-European inhabitants of the cultural region of Dacia, located in the area near the Carpathian Mountains and west of the Black Sea. They are often considered a subgroup of the Thracians. This area include ...

and

Celts The Celts ( , see Names of the Celts#Pronunciation, pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples ( ) were a collection of Indo-European languages, Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apoge ...

. He has been was very involved with the research at the archaeological site called '' Şanţul Mare'' (The Big Ditch), 7 km from

Pecica Pecica (; ; ; /''Pečka'') is a town in Arad County, western Romania. In ancient times it was a Dacian fortress called Ziridava and today it is an important archeological site.Barbara Ann Kipfer, ''Encyclopedic Dictionary of Archaeology'', p.428. ...

Arad County Arad County () is an administrative division ( județ) of Romania roughly translated into county in the western part of the country on the border with Hungary, mostly in the region of Crișana and few villages in Banat. The administrative cente ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. He placed the Dacian settlement

Ziridava Ziridava (''Ziridaua'', ) was a Dacian town located between Apulon and Tibiscum, mentioned by Ptolemy in the area of the Dacian tribe of Biephi (today's Romania, Banat region). Ancient sources Ptolemy's ''Geographia'' Ziridava is ment ...

, mentioned by

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

in his

Geographia The ''Geography'' (, , "Geographical Guidance"), also known by its Latin names as the ' and the ', is a gazetteer, an atlas, and a treatise on cartography, compiling the geographical knowledge of the 2nd-century Roman Empire. Originally wri ...

, at this location with a high degree of certainty. He wrote a book named ''Ziridava - The digs from "Șanțul Mare" from 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964'', focused on the archaeological digs performed in 1960s at this ancient city.

Bibliography

Burebista and His Time
Volume 20 of Bibliotheca historica Romaniae: Monographies, Bucharest, Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, 1978
Ziridava - Săpăturile de la "Șanțul Mare" din anii 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964
(Ziridava - The digs from "Șanțul Mare" from 1960, 1961, 1962, 1964), Arad, Comitetul de Cultură și Educație Socialistă al Județului Arad, 1978

About him

Notes

References

Ancient

Modern