FORTIFICATIONS FROM THE LATE IRON AGE IN THE REGIONS OF POHRONIE AND POIPLIE

• Authors: Kovár Branislav
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Fortified sites from the La Tène Period belong to the main research topics of Karol Pieta. He has contributed to their field excavations in the mountainous environment of Slovakia to a great extent. He also very intensely deals with their classification and dating. In the text, I try to apply his knowledge on the research of the fortified sites in the regions of the Hron and Ipeľ river basins and also confront them with the latest research. K. Pieta has distinguished several types of fortifications: hillfort, castella, small hillfort, refuge place, etc. Unlike other authors, he did not consider only the size of the fortified area, but also its use. Individual fortifications and enclosed areas might have had a practical function, social or symbolic meaning. K. Pieta promotes mainly the defensive and protective function of the fortified sites in the territory of Slovakia. There had to be real reasons and favourable conditions for existence of fortifications, as they were often large structures challenging as for work power and its organization, project with some experience as well as available sources of building material and strategical thinking of the authors. Nevertheless, he does not exclude possible central, commercial or sacral function of the fortified settlements. I have selected the regions of Pohronie and Poiplie in the analysis for three reasons – they are more or less complexly processed and their character allows application of results also for other parts of the north of the Carpathian Basin, maybe with the exception of the area of the Bratislava oppidum. The third characteristics of the chosen region which was the reason for selecting it as a ‘model’ is that it is partly a peripheral area of the La Tène settlement in the north of the Carpathian Basin, where two cultural areas meet – the La Tène and Púchov cultures. According to the current state of research, there are 26 fortified sites of different sizes and forms in the area.

Keywords

EN

SLOVAKIA; LA TÈNE PERIOD; FORTIFICATIONS; HILLFORTS

• Publisher: Slovak Academy of Sciences, Archaeological Institute
• Journal: Slovenská archeológia (Slovak Archaeology)
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 69
• Issue: suppl 2
• Pages: 57 – 68

Contributors

author

Kovár Branislav

• Archeologický ústav SAV, Akademická 2, 949 21 Nitra, Slovak Republic

• https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9261-7005

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31577/slovarch.2021.suppl.2.5