Mihăilești is a

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

located in

Giurgiu County Giurgiu () is a county ('' județ'') of Romania on the border with Bulgaria, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Giurgiu. Demographics In 2011, it had a population of 265,494 and the population density was . * Romanians – 96% * Romani ...

Muntenia Muntenia (, also known in English as Greater Wallachia) is a historical region of Romania, part of Wallachia (also, sometimes considered Wallachia proper, as ''Muntenia'', ''Țara Românească'', and the rarely used ''Valahia'' are synonyms in Ro ...

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 ...

. It administers three villages: Drăgănescu, Novaci and Popești. It officially became a town in 1989, as a result of the

Romanian rural systematization program The Romanian rural systematization program was a Social engineering (political science), social engineering program undertaken by Nicolae Ceaușescu's Socialist Republic of Romania, Romania primarily at the end of the 1980s. The legal framework f ...

. The town stands beside the river Argeș, which at this point is dammed, forming a lake about long. It was created as part of the Danube–Bucharest Canal project and feeds a hydro-electric plant.

Argedava

Popești village is the location of an important archeological discovery: a large

Dacia Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus ro ...

n settlement believed by some historians such as

Vasile Pârvan Vasile Pârvan (; 28 September 1882 – 26 June 1927) was a Romanian historian and archaeologist. Biography Pârvan was born in Perchiu, Huruiești commune, Bacău County. He came from a modest family, being the first child of the teacher An ...

and to be the

Argedava Argedava (''Argedauon'', ''Sargedava'', ''Sargedauon'', ''Zargedava'', ''Zargedauon'', ) was potentially an important Dacians, Dacian town mentioned in the Decree of Dionysopolis (48 BC), and maybe located at Popești, Giurgiu, Popești, ...

mentioned in the

Decree of Dionysopolis The Decree of Dionysopolis was written around 48 BC by the citizens of Dionysopolis (today's Balchik, on the Black Sea coast of Bulgaria) to Akornion, who traveled far away in a diplomatic mission to meet somebody's farther in ''Argedauon''. The ...

. This ancient source links Argedava with the Dacian king

Burebista Burebista () was the king of the Getae and Dacian tribes from 82/61BC to 45/44BC. He was the first king who successfully unified the tribes of the Dacian kingdom, which comprised the area located between the Danube, Tisza, and Dniester rivers, ...

, and it is believed to be his court or capital.

References

Towns in Romania Populated places in Giurgiu County Localities in Muntenia Archaeological sites in Romania Ruins in Romania Dacian sites {{Romania-hist-stub