Population history and palaeoenvironment in the Skomantai archaeological site, West Lithuania: Two thousand years (original) (raw)
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SKOMANTAI HILL-FORT IN WESTERN LITHUANIA: A CASE STUDY ON HABITATION SITE AND ENVIRONMENT
archive.minfolit.lt, 2012
Hill-forts are visually distinct archaeological monuments of the Lithuanian landscape; despite excavations that have recently become more intensive, more often than not we still make judgments of hill-forts on the basis of their surviving image, which is assumed to reflect the final stage of their existence. Usually our knowledge about the size of the settlement at its foot, its planigraphy, and of course chronology, is too slender to make any conclusions. By employing complex non-destructive research methods (palynological, geochemical, lithological and geomagnetic analysis, as well as 14 C and thermoluminescence dating), the article discusses the time of the rise and the abandonment of Skomantai hill-fort and settlements, the hierarchical relations with the hill-fort as an object forming the settlement structure of the neighbouring area, both settlements at the foot of the hill, and the surrounding burial grounds and monuments, all of which make up a micro-region. As the economic model of the community and the social structure of society changed, the relations between the hill-fort and the settlements changed, as did the purpose of the hill-fort.
2019
Complex archeozoological, environmental historical and geoarchaeological results are presented from archeological sites of Rákóczifalva-Bagi-föld and Rákóczifalva-Rokkant-föld in Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County. In this area several hectares of archeological excavations uncovered masses of Gepida settlement features around two oxbow lakes. According to geoarcheological and environmental historical analyses a model for local settling and lifestyle strategies of the Gepid communities can be reconstructed. Based on the results of the digital relief model, maps, historical maps and analysis of geoarchaeological drillings, the Bagi-földek are located on a deeper and younger alluvial surface with good water supply and are connected to the development of the Tisza River, while the Rokkant-földek are located on an older residual surface and are rising above the alluvium of the Tisza River. The Gepid communities settled on a point bar system located on the high-floodplain and low floodplain in a semi-circular, semi-peninsula-like protected area. These surfaces provided different farming possibilities for the Gepid communities of the Migration Period: the utilization of the gallery forest, gatherings in the area of the forests and floodplain, fishing and hunting, extensive animal husbandry on the higher, drier areas and plant cultivation around the settlements and houses. According to our data, the inhabitants of the excavated Gepid settlement fully utilized the Tisza valley environment for food production on an organic (nonindustrial) level (Sólymos, 1995), or in the Anthropocene I. horizon (e.g. Crutzen & Stoermer 2000; Steffen et al. 2011) during the Migration Period in the 6 th century. The environment occupied by the Gepid community, the floodplain islands and residual surfaces in the Tisza Valley was inhabited from the early Neolithic. The exploitation of their environment, from settlement strategy to gathering, has a similar system as in the case of the Gepid settlement we have described. Our publication is a precursor to a comprehensive work with archaeologists, so we did not aim to analyze the individual cultures in detail from the perspective of environmental history and archaeology. We plan to do that together with the archaeologists who carry out the archaeological excavations. As a result, our article deals specifically with the settlement, geoarchaeological, bioarchaeological, and above all, archaeozoological analysis of the Gepid communities. Kivonat Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok megyei Rákóczifalva-Bagi-földeken és Rákóczifalva-Rokkant-földeken végzett több hektárra is kiterjedő régészeti ásatások során feltárt, két holtág körül található gepida leletekhez kapcsolódó komplex archeozoológiai, régészeti geológiai és környezettörténeti vizsgálatok eredményeit mutatjuk be publikációnkban. A rákóczifalvi gepida lelőhelyek geoarcheológiai és környezettörténeti elemzése nyomán egy modellt adhatunk a gepida közösségek megtelepedési stratégiájára és életmódjára. A digitális domborzati modell, a térképek és a történelmi térképek, a földtani fúrások geoarcheológiai vizsgálati eredményei alapján a Bagi-földek egy jó vízellátású, mélyebb és fiatalabb, a Tisza folyó fejlődéséhez kapcsolódó alluviális felszínen helyezkedik el, míg a Rokkant-földek az allúvium fölé emelkedő idősebb maradványfelszínen. A vizsgált területen megtelepedő gepida közösségek így a magas ártéren és az alacsony ártéren található, félkörívben,
Geoarchaeology of “Valley Forts”: Case Study at Jatwieź Duża (Podlasie, E-Poland) - First Results
Proceedings 2019
The territory of north-eastern Poland is experiencing a veritable archaeological renaissance through many research initiatives. In 2017, using the LiDAR method, 26 settlement sites located in the Podlasie Lowland were discovered. These sites have a similar form of construction and together they represent a compact settlement system. The main aim of this studies is to present the preliminary results of geoarchaeological studies of the Jatwieź Duża site as an example of this kind of settlement. This form is built by two distinct moats (circle shape) separated by earth embankment and a central flat area with a diameter of about 60 m. It is located on the Pleistocene clays, fluvioglacial sands and gravels. In the course of archaeological excavations, ten archeological resource objects with 79 parts of pottery and 83 flint artifacts were discovered. Technological and stylistic analysis of the pottery has shown that these artifacts belong to Urnfield culture communities from the Surash Group which is one of many regional groups of Urnfield culture in Poland. The communities of this group developed in the Podlasie Lowland in the Bronze and Iron Age based on a strong local tradition. Preliminary results of archaeological studies indicate that this structure was used as a storage facility by the communities of this culture in the Bronze Age (OSL dating).
Regarding the size of the investigated area, the Copper Age site at Balatonőszöd in Hungary is on par with Çatal Höyük, one of the largest excavated settlements of the prehistoric world. The chronological, spatial and cultural relationship between Boleráz and Baden, initially regarded as successive phases of the same cultural complex, and between Baden and Kostolác, the latter variously interpreted as an independent culture and as a post-Baden, modified phase, can only be studied through sites on which all three, or at least two of these cultures are attested. Very few such sites have been identified during field surveys or excavated, and of the ones that have been archaeologically explored, no more than two have been published: Hlinsko in Moravia and Gomolava in Croatia, both tell-like, hilltop settlements. As such, the occupation area was restricted by the natural environment, and owing to the use of the available space and the long occupation of the sites, a series of superimpose...