Gheorghe Chis’s scientific contributions

The Neolithic shrine at Parta belongs to the Banat culture from the period of middle-late Neolithic age. Its size was 11.6 x 6 m. The shrine was divided in two rooms by a wall. On the dividing wall there was a round windiw-like opening about 35 cm in diameter. The shrine had a circular opening - about of 30 cm - on the western wall too. This room was the place where the people brought their offerings. The eastern room was the most sacred place, a sanctuary where only the priest was allowed. There stood twin Bull-idols forming a divine couple of the Bull God and the Great Mother Goddess facing east. From the astronomical point of view we prove that at the winter solstice sunset the sunlight illuminated a hand-loom in the NW corner of the shrine. In spring and autumn the sunlight entered the hole in the dividing wall and fell on the socle of the Bull-idols. During summer solstice sunset the Sun illuminated the place on the altar table where the grain offerings were brought. The vernal point was in the constellation Taurus in that time.

The paper deals with research into the orientation of graves and other remains, found in Transylvania, Romania, whose alignment was mainly done on the basis of astronomical considerations (solar phenomena). We start with the presentation of the graves found in the ancient (4200 BC) burial site at Iclod, where 72% of the graves were oriented within the solar arc defined by annual migration of the sunrise's direction. Similar research was carried out at the burial sites discovered at Tiszapolgár and Bodrogkeresztúr (Hungary), Gomolova and Mokrin (Yugoslavia) and Cernica (Romania). These results indicate the existence of a Sun-cult.

Necropolis Iclod from the period 4200 B.C. is located in Transylvania, near Cluj-Napoca. The graves and the skeletons often were orientated toward the azimuth of sunrise and sunset, or toward the cardinal points of azimuth (N, S, E, W) in burial day. Our goal is to show, through the calculation of Sun azimuth to the summer and winter solstice and through the graves orientation, the possibility of existence of a Sun-cult in 4200 B.C.