History
In 1859 the Society of the Transylvanian Museum (Erdélyi Múzeum-Egylet) was founded, which, among other things, also accumulated a Numismatic and Antiquities Collection. Among this, a significant collection of Roman epigraphic and sculptural pieces was built up through acquisitions, donations and archaeological excavations, most of which came from the intra-Carpathian area of the province of Dacia.
In 1872, the “Franz Joseph I” University was founded, and the collections, including the antiquities collection, became part of the University’s patrimony, and was moved to its headquarters in 1901. There, in a basement of a building, the collections were opened to the public in 1903. In 1912, a new exhibition space was rented in the building where the National Museum of Transylvanian History still remains today, and the following year some of the collections were brought here. Roman epigraphic monuments were exhibited in the corridor at the entrance of the building.
In 1919 the collections of the Transylvanian Museum were taken over by the Institute of Archaeology and Numismatics of the “King Ferdinand I” University. Ten years later, the institute was reorganized under the name “Institute of Classical Studies”, under which the collections were managed by the Museum of Antiquities. All the archaeological, historical and numismatic items from the University building were moved to the new space. The collections were organized chronologically and according to the characteristics of the cultural goods. The Roman Lapidarium was located on the ground floor of the building. The official opening of the Museum of Antiquities, including the Roman Lapidarium, took place on May 27, 1933. The collection was enriched with numerous monuments discovered during archaeological research in settlements and forts in Roman Dacia. In 1948 the Institute that managed the museum became subordinate to the Romanian Academy and was renamed the Institute of History.
On January 1, 1963 the History Museum of Cluj was established, subordinated to the State Committee for Culture and Art. After 1960, the exhibitions were reorganized in order to align them with the ideological agenda of the time, eliminating some exhibits with obvious religious significance or highlighting artefacts that emphasized the life of the people in struggling social classes. However, the Roman Lapidarium was not affected by these changes.
After the events at the end of 1989, most of the museum’s exhibitions were gradually reorganized in order to eliminate elements specific to the communist agenda, with the exception of the Roman Lapidarium and the Medieval Lapidarium. The latter still remained open, but guided tours were limited due to the lack of visitors, which in fact characterized all the museum’s exhibitions during this period. The lack of funds did not allow the renovation of the Roman Lapidarium. Lacking a functional heating system, in addition to the desolate appearance of the hall, and the displaying of stone pieces from archaeological research directly on the floor, were a few reasons that made the exhibition space completely unusable. Gradually, it was closed to the public in the early 1990s, and was occasionally opened only for specialists, university lectures, etc.
In 2024 the Roman Lapidarium was refurbished on the basis of a project funded by the Ministry of Culture and MNIT, and is now reopened to the public.
General presentation of the exhibition
The Roman Lapidarium contains pieces that are representative for the history of ancient Transylvania, most of which come from the intra-Carpathian territory of the province of Dacia.
Many of these pieces are well-known to specialists, illustrating – through text or image – all aspects of the life of the inhabitants of Roman Dacia. Epigraphic and sculptural monuments are thus important sources for the study of ethnic, social, economic, administrative, military structures, but also for the study of religious life, funerary and artistic events, and even daily life and the language spoken in the former province of the Roman Empire. Some pieces are of particular scholarly importance because of their special character, uniqueness or the type of information they provide to specialists.
The pieces in the collection are inscriptions, reliefs or statues made of marble, limestone, sandstone, tuff, quarried in Roman Dacia or imported from other provinces. In terms of their function, they fall into several categories: funerary monuments, votive monuments, public monuments and architectural fragments.
FUNERARY MONUMENTS
This category includes pieces that materialize the beliefs and practices of the ‘afterlife’, those monuments that the inhabitants of the Roman provinces placed in a necropolis:
1. Sarcophagi that were used for the burial of the earthly remains of the deceased, consisting of the arca (box) and the operculum (lid);
2. Funerary monuments (stelae, altars, tomb stones, blocks, pilasters) with inscriptions that contain information about the life of the deceased. They usually begin with the standard formula D M (Dis Manibus – ‘Spirits of the Dead’) followed by the name of the deceased, the title or occupation, the dignity or rank held (if applicable), the length of life or military service, the names of those who ordered the monument (family members, heirs or brothers-in-arms). To these, elements used in the construction of composite monuments such as medallions, reducers, bases, pine cones, crowns are added. The pieces feature reliefs illustrating the image of the deceased and symbolic funerary scenes and images;
3. Funerary constructions such as aediculae, mausolea, funerary enclosures. There is also a variety of elements from these constructions (canopies, bases, epigraphic plaques). Funerary statues representing the deceased may also have been placed in these constructions.
VOTIVE AND RELIGIOUS MONUMENTS
This category includes pieces that illustrate the mythical and religious universe of the province and that constitute the documentary basis for the study of religious phenomenon, of a mortal’s relationship with the sacred:
1. Altars with inscriptions dedicated to Graeco-Roman divinities, but also to ‘barbarian’ divinities such as oriental, Celtic or Germanic ones. The votive texts are written in Latin. They mention the deity to whom the monument is dedicated, the one who dedicates it, and sometimes the occupations or dignities occupied by the latter. Occasionally the reason for the dedication is also mentioned;
2. Votive and cult reliefs representing deities. Sometimes they may also be accompanied by inscriptions mentioning the deity and the one who dedicates.
3. Votive and religious statues representing deities.
PUBLIC MONUMENTS
We included here some pieces that have a public, official role and are related to the political allegiance of the provincial society, to the building and construction activity:
1. Statue bases with inscriptions dedicated to emperors;
2. Mile markers indicating distances (miliaria), placed on the main roads, showing the direction of the road, the distance between two important settlements, the name of the person who ordered the road to be built, the date etc.
ARCHITECTONICAL PIECES
Intact or fragmented, they are a suggestive illustration of how the Dacians built and decorated the buildings they constructed. The columns, capitals and bases come from public or private buildings.
PLASTER REPLICAS OF GREEK, HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN MONUMENTS
Although they were never integrated into the collection of the Roman Lapidary and were only treated as a graphic support for the exhibition, these plaster replicas are cultural assets, as they are modern objects that reproduce famous ancient monuments, for didactic purposes. Some of these pieces are displayed on the edge of the ‘balcony’. They are part of a larger collection which also includes replicas of Egyptian and medieval monuments.