摘要：The Giurgiulești earthen fortress is situated on the left bank of the Prut river, on a high cape, at a distance of approximately 1500 meters from where the river flows into the Danube and defends the shallow river known as “Vadul Boului”. Several opposite hypotheses have been advanced regarding provenance and dating of the fortress. In connection with the building of a section of the railroad Cahul-Giurgiulești in 2007, along the route and on the cape “Cetatea” very limited rescue excavations were carried out. Thus, a ditch and burnt remains of a wooden palisade have been discovered as the result of excavations. “Mushatin type” ceramic vessels were found at the bottom of the ditch, researched and dated second half of 15th - beginning of 16th centuries. Inside the earthen fortress a half-earth type construction (12×12 m) had been revealed and partially researched. The pottery allowed to date the construction to 18th – beginning of 19th centuries. It is proposed that the earth fortress near Giurgiulești was constructed in view of the deterioration of the political and military situation in the Lower Danube in the middle 80s of the 15th century. Apparently, it was erected before the Ottoman forces conquered the Moldavian fortresses Chilia and Cetatea Albă in 1484 or right after their loss in order to fortify the southern boundaries of Moldova along the Lower Troian mound. According to the Moldavian chronicle, several earthen and stone fortresses such as Birlad, Tintiul, Cetatea Nouă, and Palanca on the Dniester river had been constructed, restored and fortified because of the Turkish invasion. Among them could be constructed the earthen fortress on the Prut river researched by us which subsisted for a very short time. In the end of 18th – beginning of 19th centuries during Russo-Turkish wars, food and household warehouses were constructed inside the deserted fortress, afterwards revealed by the archaeologists.
