THE POSSIBILITY OF IDENTIFYING OF PREHISTORIC UNITS OF LENGTH (O mozliwosciach poznania pradziejowych jednostek miary dlugosci)

• Authors: Gralak Tomasz
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

This paper is an example of making use of possibilities of measure analysis. Piskorzówek 14, district Olawa, has been the first analysed site. Some relics of a Lusatian settlement from the III EB period were discovered there. It has been noticed that the objects were situated along one line. Regularity of intervals has been observed among the objects. To reconstruct the original layout, a model has been constructed, according to which hypothetical homesteads were round in shape. The shortest distance between the objects situated along the axis organizing the settlement, which was 13 m, has been treated as the chord length. So, the reconstructed homestead was 132,665 square metres in area. If, however, the homestead is assumed to be square in shape, it could be up to 169 square metres in area. A Lusatian settlement from the Hallstatt C period from Wojkowice, site no. 15, district Wroclaw, has been the next analysed site. The reconstructed unit of measure is 78,5 cm. It has been recognized that repeated modules were used for laying out the buildings. These were a square of side lengths 4 x 4 units and a rectangle of side lengths 4 x 3 units. In the case of a settlement from the Hallstatt D period from Nowy Sleszów 4, district Wroclaw, layouts of discovered buildings have been compared with the findings from Wojkowice. The achieved results allowed to establish that the same unit of length was used in the both places. A rectangular module of side lengths 3 x 4 units and a square module of side lengths 3 x 3 units were used for laying out a building. Polwica 4, 5 and Skrzypnik 8, district Olawa, constitute the next analysed site. Several relics of pole buildings, dated to the early Roman period, have been excavated there. The reconstructed unit of measure is 71,5 cm. Repeated modules in the form of rectangular modules of side lengths 3 x 4 units and square modules of side lengths 3 x 3 units were used for laying out the buildings.

Keywords

EN

BUILDING; LAYOUT; MODULE; RECONSTRUCTION; UNIT OF MEASURE

Discipline

• ARCHAEOLOGY: ARCHAEOLOGY

• Publisher: Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Przegląd Archeologiczny
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 57
• Pages: 73-97
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Gralak Tomasz

• Tomasz Gralak, Uniwersytet Wroclawski, Instytut Archeologii, ul. Szewska 48, 50-139 Wroclaw, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

10PLAAAA08274