Open Access“Late Hallstatt” hillforts in the Western Carpathians: new contribution to an old discussion
Author(s) -
Barbora Lofajová Danielová,
Joanna Markiewicz,
Marcin Przybyła,
Jan Ledwoń
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
acta archaeologica carpathica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2719-4841
pISSN - 0001-5229
DOI - 10.4467/00015229aac.21.009.15350
Subject(s) - horizon , human settlement , radiocarbon dating , period (music) , settlement (finance) , plateau (mathematics) , archaeology , history , geography , stage (stratigraphy) , geology , art , paleontology , aesthetics , geometry , mathematical analysis , mathematics , world wide web , computer science , payment
The article presents new research on fortified settlements from the Early Iron Age in the Orava and Dunajec river valleys. Based on the characteristics of the construction of the fortifications and similarities in terms of material culture, we propose recognizing the hillforts discovered here as a manifestation of one cultural and settlement horizon related to the so-called Pre-Púchov stage. The radiocarbon determinations obtained for the contexts stratigraphically related to the ramparts from the Nižná-Ostražica, Zabrzeż-Babia Góra, and Maszkowice-Góra Zyndrama sites are already located on the calibration curve after the so-called Hallstatt plateau and allow this horizon to be dated to the 4th century BC, i.e. to the times corresponding to the La Tène B1–B2 phases. Our observations confirm the opinions appearing in more recent literature about the need to date the Pre-Púchov stage in Slovakia earlier, and discuss the thesis about the continuation of settlement at the beginning of the La Tène period. With regard to the Polish Carpathian zone, arguments indicating the possibility of the survival of settlements with Early Iron Age traditions up to the 4th century BC are presented for the first time. This allows us to assume that the process of the formation of the cultural tradition of the La Tène period here progressed in a similar manner to Slovakia, and it was not solely the result of migration from the latter.