Cercetările arheologice de la biserica „Adormirea Maicii Domnului” – Strâmbeanu din Pitaru (com. Potlogi, jud. Dâmbovița) / Archaeological research at the “Dormition of the Virgin” – Strâmbeanu Church in Pitaru (Potlogi comm., Dâmbovița County)

The present study discusses the results of the archaeological research conducted at the Strâmbeanu Family chapel from Pitaru, Potlogi commune, Dâmbovița County. The lack of written documentary sources regarding the family’s genealogy (with some of its members featuring the votive picture in the narthex of the chapel) and the uncertainties related to the year of the chapel’s construction, represent shortages that the study of the archaeological artefacts and the anthropological research tried to overcome. Carried out between December 2019 and January 2020, as part of the preliminary stage of the church’s restoration project, the archaeological excavations managed to offer new historical meanings to a definitory monument of Wallachia’s religious architecture at the dawn of modernity. Seven funerary complexes with several individuals have been uncovered, a situation largely triggered by the re-burials in a relatively narrow space. Two graves had funerary inventories consisting of seal rings with heraldic representations, clothing accessories and coins.