but the urban areas diminished. The existence of local Christian communities can be assumed in Porolissum, Potaissa and other settlements. On the other hand, evidencemainly pottery with "Chi-rho" (Χ-Ρ) signs and other Christian symbolsis "shadowy and poorly understood", according to archaeologists Haynes and Hanson. Urns found in late 3rd-century cemeteries at Bezid, Mediaş, and in other Transylvanian settlements had clear analogies in sites east of the Carpathians, suggesting that the Carpians were the first new arrivals in the former province from the neighboring regions. Other Carpian groups, pressured by the Goths, also departed from their homeland and sought refuge in the Roman Empire around 300. Nevertheless, "Carpo-Dacians" were listed among the peoples "mixed with the Huns" as late as 379. The Sarmatians of the Banat were allies of the empire, demonstrated by a Roman invasion in 332 against the Goths, their enemies. Sarmatians were admitted into the empire in 379, but other Sarmatian groups remained in the Tisa plains up until the 460s. Gutthiuda: land of the Goths (c. 290–c. 455) The Goths started penetrating into territories west of the river Dniester from the 230s. Two distinct groups separated by the river, the Thervingi and the Greuthungi, quickly emerged among them. The one-time province of Dacia was held by "the Taifali, Victohali, and Thervingi" around 350. The Goths' success is marked by the expansion of the multiethnic "Sântana de Mureş-Chernyakhov culture". Settlements of the culture appeared in Moldavia and Wallachia at the end of the 3rd century, and in Transylvania after 330. These lands were inhabited by a sedentary population engaged in farming and cattle-breeding. Pottery, comb-making and other handicrafts flourished in the villages. Wheel-made fine pottery is a typical item of the period; hand-formed cups of the local tradition were also preserved. Plowshares similar to those made in nearby Roman provinces and Scandinavian-style brooches indicate trade contacts with these regions. "Sântana de Mureş-Chernyakhov" villages, sometimes covering an area exceeding , were not fortified and consisted of two types of houses: sunken huts with walls made of wattle and daub and surface buildings with plastered timber walls. Sunken huts had for centuries been typical for settlements east of the Carpathians, but now they appeared in distant zones of the Pontic steppes. The multiethnic Gutthiuda was divided into smaller political units or kuni, each headed by tribal chiefs or reiks. In case of emergency, the tribal chiefs' council elected a supreme