In this article the author presents some of the results from his dissertation, which he successfully defended at the University of Vienna in 2004, and which is soon to be published. The census of the population in 1771/72 was much larger than the previous census taken for military purposes and intended to serve as the basis for a new system of army recruitment. The numbering of buildings was carried out simultaneously. The census process was complicated and time-consuming, especially in Moravia. The census was supplemented by lengthy reports from the military bureaus about the social situations in individual countries, which present very strong criticism of the prevailing conditions in the monarchy. In some cases the numbering of buildings met with resistance from the population, whose comments are cited in the article.
The matter of analysis constitute the dimension of cultural territory, the archaeological sites arrangement, their relation to ground forms, groundwork, streams, altitude, etc. Moreover in interest there are: the structure of inventories, the size and character of encampments. Another question under investigation is the problem of raw material economy, particularly the presence of imported artifacts inside inventories. Incidentally the problem of hunting preferences and tactics of hunting is undertaken.
A scale of recently made rescue excavations enabled large areas to be uncovered and thus developed our understanding of the functional and spatial organization of settlements, previously studied to a small degree compared to cemeteries. Among recently excavated sites, including the discussed settlement, fenced structures have prompted great interest owing to their unique spatial organization. The focus of this paper is on the interpretation of the site when compared with other settlements containing similar spatial structures discovered in SW Poland.
The features dated to the Early Mediaeval period were found during the excavations of the site Cífer, admin. part Pác (district Trnava). The site is situated on the slight elevation on the right bank of the brook Gidra, 140 metres over the sea level. The paper deals with the Early Mediaeval settlement of this poly-cultural site, well-known because of its Roman buildings. The catalogue of settlement features and finds is contained in the first part of the paper (two sunken-floor houses, one oven, 5 storage pits with the pear-shaped section, 22 pits of other shape). The analysis, evaluation and interpretation of the facts are contained in the second part of the paper. The burial ground with 119 graves was excavated nearby, with the evidence of the continuity from 8th to 9th century. This might be probable indication of the Slavic ethnicity of inhabitants, settled here in the period of Avar Khaganate. The publication of the finds from Cífer-Pác widens our knowledge about the settlement structure of the area. Another approached topic is the Early Mediaeval settlement over the remains of the Late Roman buildings.
The aim of this article is to compare – on the example of the HD/LTA settlement in Tuněchody near Chrudim – former suggestions how to solve formative processes with new mathematic methods and contextual approaches. If the results of these methods support each other it would strengthen the supposition that positive results of formative process research within settlement sites are possible. To this end a new algorithm of the state of preservation of ceramic fragments was verified on all features of the site. Further presence of so called conglomerates from 25 features from seasons 2003 to 2008, which could be interpreted as sunken buildings or clay extracting pits and 29 features interpreted as storage pits was evaluated. The rest of the features were described as settlement pits or disputed features. The storage pits were mostly dated to the Hallstatt – La Tène period, but there were also six storage pits from the Roman period.
The settlement was discovered during the rescue research in the cadastre of Vysoká pri Morave from the Late Bronze Age. Most of the explored objects were post/column pits, in one case there appeared a storage pit, seven objects are representing not specified settlement pits. Fragmental findings from partially damaged post/column pits allow dating of this settlement to the older phase of the Middle-Danube Urnfield culture. It was possible to identify at least three ground planes of above-ground buildings, which, because of their size, were likely to be used as residential units. Their disposition is similar to other well-known buildings on the Late Bronze Age settlements in the Middle Danube area. Due to its atypical localization in the floodplain, this settlement represents a significant contribution to the settlement strategies of the Late Bronze Age.
Until now the knowledge of 'our' material outside Poland was negligible, and the Linear Band Pottery culture (LBK) settlement in the southeastern part of the country was viewed as peripheral and deprived of many elements recognized as typical in other parts of Europe. The article proves that the settlement region in the upper Vistula basin - in the scope of density and diversity of the settlement, its function, building constructions, and chronological extent - does not falls behind other centers of the culture in question. Analyzed carried out within our research allowed to draw a new picture of the settlement of the LBK in the upper Vistula basin. Two elements of this picture are especially important. The first on is related to the increasing number of domestic sites with long post houses. Our evidences suggest that such constructions might have been present on each permanently settled LBK site, and that their small (so-far) number is rather resulting from the state of the research. The second important conclusion is related to the distribution of LBK sites. Collected evidences revealed the presence of the concentrated settlement in areas so-far considered to be deprived of LBK traces, and - within already known groups - settlement more intensive than expected.
Aerial prospection and systematic field surveys have documented an exceptionally intensive and extensive settlement in Chotín during the Roman Period. Its beginnings go back to the second half of the 1st century, when it was settled by the Germanic tribes. It continued to grow in the 2nd century, flourished in the 3rd and 4th centuries and survived until the Migration Period in the early 5th century. Farmstead structure of settlements with trench fencing around residential and farm structures have been detected in some parts of the area. Traces of a Roman temporary camp dating to the Marcomannic wars have also been found there. The short distance of the settlements from the Roman borders on the Danube had a huge impact on the immediate contacts between the local population and the adjacent part of the Roman province of Pannonia. Here, in the foreground of Brigetio, an important market settlement was probably founded as early as in the 2nd century. It may have been this settlement that Claudius Ptolemy refers to as Kelemantia. The existence of the settlement is attested by a number of imported Roman goods. With 649 fragments of terra sigillata and 747 Roman coins, the settlement outnumbers all sites in the Central European Barbaricum, and documents the extremely intensive trade exchange with the neighbouring Roman territory. The Germanic settlements in Chotín are likely to have played a key role also in the distribution of Roman imports along the eastern branch of the Amber Road, which led further north to the nearer and farther regions.
In this paper author present a complex of two settlements from Rawa Mazowiecka sites 3 and 38 located to each others on the opposite slopes of Rawka river valley. The settlement in Rawa Mazowiecka site 3 is situated on the mildly slope in the western part of the valley. The houses and adornment processing workshops were found here. This settlement had existed from the mid of II century BC to the II/III century AD. The site 38 is placed on the opposite site of the valley in the elevation of relatively high jut of the terrace in the east part of the Rawka river valley. There was large, 'prestigious' household which comprises tripartie long house and several storage constructions and installations. This site had been inhabited from the mid of I century AD to the II/III century AD. Chronology of both sites 3 and 38 based on 14C dates and results of analysis of artefacts, and structure and development of the settlements reflect social structure of people lived here. It can be concluded that the group of enriched people have separated themselves from the settlement community (site 3), moved to the opposite part of the valley and build there a new household (site 38). Appearance of above mentioned reach group of people (resulting as leaders) took place on the turn of I century BC.
The settlement in Peder, which was partly investigated in 1963, provided a collection of pottery and small artefacts documenting settlement from the end of the Early and during the Late Roman period. Despite the small area of investigation, settlement features, farm buildings, technical structures and a well were studied. The results of this investigation were published in 1969. The aim of the submitted article is to complete the information on pottery and other finds in form of drawn reconstructions and evaluate them on the basis of more recent investigations and results of research in the Region of the upper Tisza River.
The paper sums up the present knowledge on settlement strategy of Eneolithic in the region of the Upper Nitra basin. It deals with the questions concerning settlements and with the relationship of settlement towards selected elements of natural environment (elevation above sea level, super elevation of terrain in the surroundings of the settlement, sloping of hillside and its exposition towards cardinal points, relation with soil types and the distance from nearest water source). This region was important in the past because it was an important communication line between the Ponitrie eventually Pohronie and Turiec, which is proven by numerous archaeological finds. The importance of the region was increased also by the presence of copper ore and by rich primary supplies for production of chipped stone industry.
In 2012, the revision of the settlement finds from Šebastovce-Barca (1961, 1962) has started. It was focused on the detailed technical evaluation of pottery assemblage that has been presented in the scientific literature in 1961–1969.
The complex archaeological prospection was realized in the Lontov district during the year 2016. The main aim of prospection was to verify the known data about the settlement on one side and to search for the unknown archaeological sites on the other hand. Within the prospection there were used also the methods of non-destructive archaeology (aerial prospection, geophysical measurement of known features using magnetometer). The above mentioned methods of archaeological research were realized on two designated sites (U Litaša and Nad kostolom), which distance is about 1 km from each other. Field prospection was focused on verification of anomalies seen on satelite pictures of GoogleEarth, as well as on aerial prospection. There were approved the archaeological situations/features on both sites, that were found during aerial prospection of the monitored area. By Geophysical interpretation there were located first of all settlement features, but also system of fortification. Regarding to location of each features measured by geophysics, it is possible to analyze the build-up area on both settlements. According to recovered ceramics it is possible to date both sites only to prehistory, as there are more cultures represented.
The paper sums up the results of archaeological research in the wider centre of Košice. After several decades it has brought out new archaeological sources of southern suburbs settlement from the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age. The relics of settlement are rather simple in terms of numbers and expression and so are the findings of material culture. However the added value is the fact that they have enriched a very narrow range of previously known findings from the area of former Košice suburbs and they have provided a good opportunity for their placement in the local historical and spatial context.
The number of recorded sites of the Hatvan culture has more than doubled since their publication by T. Nešporová in 1969. The sites are concentrated in two areas – the Danube basin and the Tisa basin. The geographical unevenness of both the quality and quantity of the source area affects their theoretical assessment. Settlement structures vary according to the natural conditions and the function of the settlements. The settlement continuity and vertical stratigraphy is proved by tell settlements. The higher accumulation of sites in a relatively small area (Veľké Turovce, Malé Kosihy) allows us to consider a nest-like settlement structure. The results of aerial surveys and excavations on sites Leľa and Pavlová indicate that circular ditch structures may have been part of settlement structures of the Hatvan culture in Slovakia. In Leľa geophysical measurements the findings of aerial photographs are confirmed. Relative chronology of the development of the Hatvan culture in Slovakia is rendered mostly by field observations, which have been conducted in the western part of the settlements in Malé Kosihy and Vráble, and in the eastern part of the settlement in Včelince. The significant lower layers VI and VI of the fill of an outer ditch in Včelince represent an earlier phase of the culture on the settlement. The later phase, represented by higher layers V and IV and structures, is characterised by an intersection of Otomani-Füzesabony cultural features and by their influence on the local Hatvan culture, which is referred to as a Hatvan-Otomani horizon.
The article deals with the closed settlement finds from rural areas from Turčianska kotlina and Žilinská kotlina basins and from upper Váh basin (the current districts of Považská Bystrica and Púchov), which date to the Early and High Middle Ages (8th-14th centuries). Our aim was to create a typology of ceramic material from collected objects and try to determine the chronological development of pottery in a given area. The essential issues included: relative chronology of pottery development in a given area, continuity or discontinuity of pottery development in a given area, relation of pottery production to neighbouring areas (south-western Slovakia, Silesia, Moravia, and possibly Lesser Poland) in the Early and High Middle Ages. Chronologically clear material from the processed area is insufficient and does not cover the whole period of the Early to High Middle Ages. Therefore, the continuity of pottery development can be neither confirmed nor disproved.
There are various ways how to monitor changes in the functional utilisation of the Vltava banks from the geographical point of view. We can understand the Vltava as a symbol of national identity, as a factor influencing the development of neighbouring areas and regions (namely tourism and recreation), as a communication path or as a barrier. The paper focused on three main sources of geographic information, the data from population census, the data on changes in the utilisation of areas (years 1845, 1948, 1990 and 2000) and briefly also information obtained from pictures (photographs of identical places at various times). The changes were assessed in four typologically different villages situated near the Vltava: the upper reaches (the Sumava Mountains), the Ceske Budejovice basin, the middle reaches (Central-Bohemian Highlands) and the lower reaches (from, and including, Prague to the confluence). As far as the number of inhabitants before the Second World War is concerned, the upper reaches were more densely populated than the middle reaches, in spite of worse natural conditions. The canyon in the middle reaches of the Vltava represented a serious barrier, and therefore, its banks became only an edge of inhabited area, while population centres were situated further away from the river. Another interesting feature is similar development of area utilisation along the upper and middle reaches in spite of very different historical development after 1945 (arrival of new settlers after the departure of Czech Germans versus permanent settlement). The similarity results not only from the construction of waterworks, but also from the reduction of the proportion of agricultural land for the benefit of other activities (mining, special utilisation etc.). A higher proportion of man-made categories in land utilisation (developed and other areas) and their gradual increase is typical of villages in the Ceske Budejovice Basin, of Prague and of villages situated north of it (the lower reaches). In future we can expect increased utilisation of the Vltava banks in both the urban regions as well as in the attractive, recently 're-discovered' Sumava Mountains. On the other hand, the middle reaches will be different, we can expect stagnation of recreational utilisation of this area and further marginalisation of this area which ranks among so called internal peripheries of Bohemia.
The long-standing hypothesis about absence or low number of the settlements comparing them with burial grounds from the period of Avar Khaganate is no longer acceptable regarding to the results of recent research and excavations. While the settlement of Avar Khaganate period in Slovakia was the sole case in the 1930’s, number of new settlements has increased during the course of three or four decades by archaeological excavations. Ten settlement sites were known in 1988. Currently, the corpus of settlements from Slovakia contains 28 items with excavated features from the period of Avar Khaganate; other seven sites were found by surveys. The large corpuses are the most important. The aim of the present study is publication of features and material culture from the sites of Šaľa II (district of Šaľa), Úľany nad Žitavou and Pavlová (both in the Nové Zámky district). Publication of the corpuses widens the archaeological sources for the period of the 8th century AD. The settlements had no convincing traits of the status differences among the features or indications of their hierarchy, although the social stratification is observed in the Avar burial grounds. The sites with higher number of habitable features appear to be a dispersed form of settlement with several clusters of features. The excavated settlements have shown that settlement forms in the period of Avar Khaganate do not differ significantly from Slavic rural settlements. This is not the evidence of the “Slavic ethnicity” of the forms of settlements (probably only the evidence of origin of some phenomena in Slavic milieu), but only a confirmation of similar or identical economic interrelations in the rural settlement structure. The traits from the settlement sites are evidence of the identical economic basis for the existence of Avar and Great Moravian ruling elite. The overview of other sites from the south-western Slovakia shows that there was no general rule for the establishment or abandonment of the settlements in the break of the 8th and 9th centuries. The diachronic differences between the horizons of the 8th and 9th century’s pottery are not yet well defined and regional differences possibly occur.
A new evidence of the final Early Roman period or the initial Late Roman period settlement was made in Prague district Bubeneč. One settlement pit was documented. Among the fragmentary ceramic finds there is a shard of domestic imitation of Roman metal vessel.
The relics of a possible settlement were identified at Ramiszów, site 4, in the course of archaeological excavation made in advance of the construction of expressway S8 linking Wrocław and Warsaw. Excavation was made of SE fragment of a site designated by a scatter of archaeological finds observed during a surface survey, an area of less than 4000 m2. Regrettably, the area available for excavation was restricted by the scope of the road construction project and could not be extended. Despite the relatively large size of the site subjected to exploration only two archaeological features were identified on the western boundary of the trench, suggesting it was the eastern outlying area of a settlement extending more to the west of the excavation. Ceramic finds determined the dating of one of the pits as early medieval (no. 1) and assigned the other pit (no. 20) to the Neolithic age and to the Linear Pottery Culture. Archaeological finds from this second pit are the subject of the present analysis. The 2.24×1.26 m pit survived only in its bottom fragment, as shown by its depth of just 0.24 m, with a fill of dark grey compacted humus. The inventory consisted of 131 pottery fragments and 69 flints. Despite substantial fragmentation of the sherds it was possible to identify nine vessel forms (Fig. 8, 9). It is characteristic that not one of them was a globular vessel typical for the older phases of Linear Pottery Culture; next to a single barrel-shaped form (Fig. 9c) there were only pyriform vessels with a flattened body and marked rim (Fig. 8a-c, f, 9b). Also notable is ornamentation which does not feature the musical notation motif, so typical for the older phases of Linear Pottery Culture. The designs observed on all the decorated sherds (except for the barrel-shaped form) are of Šarka variety, its most representative forms shown in Fig. 8a-g. The ornamentation of the barrel-shaped vessel is also striking, a typical stroke-ornamented design similar to the earliest ornamentation seen on Stroked Pottery Culture ceramics encountered in Lower Silesia in settlements dated to the final stages of Linear Pottery Culture (Skoroszowice, Strachów). All ceramic attributes named here help in dating the pit no. 2, and the settlement to which presumably it belonged, to the final stage of the Linear Pottery Culture, to be more precise - its youngest stadium, phase Šarka, transitional to the Stroked Pottery Culture. The flint inventory is of two varieties: Baltic moraine flint (89.8%) and Jurassic flint from the region of Kraków (10.2%). The series of 59 flints included cores, mostly of splintered piece type, flakes, blades and retouched tools (5 specimens). The pit is interpreted as a waste pit based on the presence of refittings of production waste (Fig. 15 and 16) from the working of cores by its edge. The site under discussion of truly exceptional relevance for the study of the extent of Linear Pottery Culture settlement bordering on the Odra River in Lower Silesia. This is because it is the first evidence, so well-documented by diagnostic ceramic material, of penetration of the areas on the right bank of the Odra, after the people of the said culture had forded the great river in the region where its joined by its tributaries the Oława, the Ślęza and the Bystrzyca. The source area of this group would have been the centre of dense settlement formed between the Oława and the Bystrzyca, with the river Ślęza as its axis. Ties with this region are indicted by some of the technological attributes of the pottery (copious tempering with mica or with coarse quartzite) and finds of Jurassic flint from the region of Kraków, which in settlements of this centre of settlement in southern Silesia is definitely the dominant variety, imported from western Lesser Poland.
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