Although hill-forts from the end of the Bronze Age and the beginning of the Iron Age associated with Lusatian culture appear in vast areas of modern Poland, they are absent in Pomerania beside the Lower Oder region. This scarcity is surprising, especially taking into account the relatively numerous appearances of hill-forts in Greater Poland, the region directly neighbouring Pomerania to the south. On the other hand, investigations conducted in the 1960s and 1970s to verify Pomeranian hill-forts described as originating from the Early Medieval and Medieval periods resulted in the detection of at least a dozen sites with material from the Late Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age.
The aim of this paper is to present the problem of the supposed presence of Lusatian culture hill-forts in the central part of Polish Pomerania. It is highly probable that this kind of settlement played an important role in interregional contacts between eastern and western parts of Pomerania, together with Greater Poland and probably also Nordic Bronze Age zones. In a wider perspective, their role in the course and working of the Amber Road at the end of the Bronze Age should also be taken into account and investigated. It seems that new tools available for archaeologists, like Lidar data, modern geophysics and aerial photography, may provide new openings and new perspectives on research into this case study.
Journal:Archaeologia Baltica
Volume 13 (2010): At the Origins of the Culture of the Balts, pp. 140–152
Abstract
The fortification character of the double-ring palisade-structure of Ridala is discussed here. A crucial factor is the legend of the decline and desertion of the site, due to an outside attack. Bone arrowheads as possible explanations for this attack theory are examined, and the events behind the palisade-structure and inhabitation (formation, duration and break-up) are reconsidered. In the end, the function and purpose of the palisades are regarded as being of a symbolic character (religious and political) rather than sanctioned by military threats.
Journal:Archaeologia Baltica
Volume 8 (2007): Weapons, Weaponry and Man (In memoriam Vytautas Kazakevičius), pp. 32–38
Abstract
A characteristic of the Bronze Age in the area of present-day Latvia was a fairly wide range of bronze, stone and bone weapons. The possibility of military clashes, too, is indicated by the building of fortified residential sites, hill-forts. A whole corpus of evidence testifies to the new way of life adopted by the elite of Bronze Age society, where the ideology of warfare also played a certain role.