Prospection Results in the Žitava Valley (original) (raw)

2016

Abstract

In the spring of 2014, a joint German-Slovak prospection of the Žitava Valley was conducted with the intent of extending archaeological knowledge from Vráble – Fidvár to other sites in the Žitava Valley, an area in the Carpathian foothills which included a chain of Early Bronze Age fortified. A series of 14 different known or suspected Early Bronze Age sites were evaluated, on three of which we decided to carry out further surveys (Maňa-Veľká Maňa, Bešeňov – Žitavský hon, Hul – Kratiny), including with field walking, augering and geomagnetics. Despite very comparable surveying conditions, these three sites yielded very different results attributable to the different states of preservation and functions of the sites. In Maňa-Veľká Maňa, a slope of up to 7 % was recognized which contributed to the strong erosion and bad preservation of subsoil features. According to the geomagnetic results, the site at Bešeňov was not fortified. It seems likely that it was settled only intermittently or for a short period of time during the Early Bronze Age. The prospection in Hul yielded the best results. A fortification consisting of a ditch was detected by magnetometry. According to the pXRF-analyses, there was no human impact on the filling of the ditch, which suggests that the site was inhabited only for a very short period of time. In addition to the Žitava Valley work, a field walking campaign was carried out in Vráble – Fidvár. The distribution and density of the collected finds correlates well with the prospection completed in 2007. In February 2015, additional augerings were performed there to collect sediment from the topsoil at approximately 40 cm beneath the surface. According to pXRF analyses, the concentration of Phosphor correlates with the pottery density.

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