The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary at Căpriana Monastery: Archaeological Stratigraphy

According to the Pisanie (stoneinscription) of 1821, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary at the Căpriana Monastery was "rebuilt" by the voivodes Petru and Ștefan in 1542, and in 1819-1820 it was repaired by Metropolitan Gavriil Bănulescu-Bodoni. Archaeological research confirms the inscriptions in the Pisanie, while providing new data on the history of the church. During the archaeological excavations, 109 stratigraphic profiles were documented, based on which 109 cultural deposits were delimited. Following the correlation of these data, 12 stages in the evolution of the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary were highlighted: the prehistoric stage (layer no. 109), the stage of the formation of the monastic space (cca. 1490) (layer no. 108, the stage of the construction of Church I (1491-1496) (layers no. 89-107), the stage of the demolition of Church I (cca. 1540) (Layer no. 88), stage I of Church II (1541 - cca. 1560) (layers no. 74-87), stage II of Church II (cca. 1560 - cca. 1600) (layers no. 68-73), stage III of Church II (cca. 1600 - cca. 1620) (layers no. 57-67), stage IV of Church II (cca. 1620 - cca. 1640) (layers no. 49-56), stage V of Church II (cca. 1640 - cca. 1700) (no. 39-48), stage VI of Church II (cca. 1700 - cca. 1818) (no. 21-38), stage VII of Church II (1819-1820) (no. 6-20), stage VIII of Church II (1821-2003) (layers no. 1-5