Looking closer: the eastern gate of the Early Bronze Age fortifications on Zyndram’s Hill and its relation to ritual practices
In the oldest phase of the Early Bronze Age settlement on Zyndram’s Hill in Maszkowice (Western Carpathians), the hilltop plateau was partially surrounded by massive stone fortifications which were extensively excavated between 2015 and 2020. In...
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| Format: | Article |
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Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Acta Archaeologica Carpathica |
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https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/acta-archaeologica-carpathica/artykul/looking-closer-the-eastern-gate-of-the-early-bronze-age-fortifications-on-zyndrams-hill-and-its-relation-to-ritual-practices
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| author | Marcin S. Przybyła Jan Ledwoń Magdalena Makiel Aleksandra Wójcik |
| author_facet | Marcin S. Przybyła Jan Ledwoń Magdalena Makiel Aleksandra Wójcik |
| author_sort | Marcin S. Przybyła |
| collection | DOAJ |
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In the oldest phase of the Early Bronze Age settlement on Zyndram’s Hill in Maszkowice (Western Carpathians), the hilltop plateau was partially surrounded by massive stone fortifications which were extensively excavated between 2015 and 2020. In our paper, we shall focus on the unusual element of this fortification system, described as the “eastern gate”. This passage functioned only in the oldest phase of the Early Bronze Age settlement (ca. 1725-1690 BC) and was later filled in and partially destroyed – a change that could have been of a violent nature. Various features of this structure suggest that its function was not purely utilitarian, instead being to some extent related to ritual practices. We shall try to justify this assumption based on various categories of evidence: the layouts of the entire defensive system of the settlement on Zyndram’s Hill and of similar fortifications in the Balkans, the landscape and astronomical context, the symbolism of some of the elements used in the gate (stone stelae) and the artefacts discovered in it (anthropomorphic figurines), and finally, the results of archaeological-botanical and microstratigraphic analysis of sediments.
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| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c055824ed4904adb8aecfa91bfc698f0 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0001-5229 2719-4841 |
| language | deu |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Acta Archaeologica Carpathica |
| spelling | doaj-art-c055824ed4904adb8aecfa91bfc698f02025-02-05T12:26:34ZdeuPolish Academy of Arts and SciencesActa Archaeologica Carpathica0001-52292719-48412024-12-01202418312810.4467/00015229AAC.24.005.21118Looking closer: the eastern gate of the Early Bronze Age fortifications on Zyndram’s Hill and its relation to ritual practicesMarcin S. Przybyła0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9388-8736Jan Ledwoń1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2206-1026Magdalena Makiel2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6892-5494Aleksandra Wójcik3https://orcid.org/0009-0008-4760-9311 Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie Uniwersytet Jagielloński w Krakowie Szkoła Doktorska Nauk Humanistycznych Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, Kraków In the oldest phase of the Early Bronze Age settlement on Zyndram’s Hill in Maszkowice (Western Carpathians), the hilltop plateau was partially surrounded by massive stone fortifications which were extensively excavated between 2015 and 2020. In our paper, we shall focus on the unusual element of this fortification system, described as the “eastern gate”. This passage functioned only in the oldest phase of the Early Bronze Age settlement (ca. 1725-1690 BC) and was later filled in and partially destroyed – a change that could have been of a violent nature. Various features of this structure suggest that its function was not purely utilitarian, instead being to some extent related to ritual practices. We shall try to justify this assumption based on various categories of evidence: the layouts of the entire defensive system of the settlement on Zyndram’s Hill and of similar fortifications in the Balkans, the landscape and astronomical context, the symbolism of some of the elements used in the gate (stone stelae) and the artefacts discovered in it (anthropomorphic figurines), and finally, the results of archaeological-botanical and microstratigraphic analysis of sediments. https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/acta-archaeologica-carpathica/artykul/looking-closer-the-eastern-gate-of-the-early-bronze-age-fortifications-on-zyndrams-hill-and-its-relation-to-ritual-practices |
| spellingShingle | Marcin S. Przybyła Jan Ledwoń Magdalena Makiel Aleksandra Wójcik Looking closer: the eastern gate of the Early Bronze Age fortifications on Zyndram’s Hill and its relation to ritual practices Acta Archaeologica Carpathica |
| title | Looking closer: the eastern gate of the Early Bronze Age fortifications on Zyndram’s Hill and its relation to ritual practices |
| title_full | Looking closer: the eastern gate of the Early Bronze Age fortifications on Zyndram’s Hill and its relation to ritual practices |
| title_fullStr | Looking closer: the eastern gate of the Early Bronze Age fortifications on Zyndram’s Hill and its relation to ritual practices |
| title_full_unstemmed | Looking closer: the eastern gate of the Early Bronze Age fortifications on Zyndram’s Hill and its relation to ritual practices |
| title_short | Looking closer: the eastern gate of the Early Bronze Age fortifications on Zyndram’s Hill and its relation to ritual practices |
| title_sort | looking closer the eastern gate of the early bronze age fortifications on zyndram s hill and its relation to ritual practices |
| url |
https://ejournals.eu/czasopismo/acta-archaeologica-carpathica/artykul/looking-closer-the-eastern-gate-of-the-early-bronze-age-fortifications-on-zyndrams-hill-and-its-relation-to-ritual-practices
|
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