New evidence for the Bronze Age fortification at Pilsen-Hradiště, West Bohemia: A multidisciplinary approach

This paper presents a recapitulation of interdisciplinary research conducted in 2012 and 2013 on an important archaeological site located in the cadastral area of Pilsen-Hradiště (Hradiště u Plzně) in the central part of West Bohemia.1 The fortified site was reported for the first time in the second half of 19th century. Our new project, carried out as a summer training school for students of archaeology within a larger project “The Partnership in Research and Presentation of Archaeological Heritage”, 2 investigated the site with the aim to re-evaluate the knowledge of the site’s history compiled in the past. Furthermore, it aimed to address some newly postulated problems. The character of our research questions required close collaboration with a number of scientific disciplines, which can contribute to archaeological research with their own methodological approaches. We will recapitulate the history of research on the site and the main outcomes of our two research seasons. The fortified site is situated on the present-day southern margin of Pilsen at the coordinates 49.7136N:13.4007E, but historically this area functioned as a separate village, a part of the town’s economic hinterland. The ancient hillfort is located on a terrain spur elevated 20–30 m above the narrow neck of a large meander of river Úhlava. The layout of the fort is kidney-shaped (dimensions ca. 200 × 100 m, 1.65 ha), with a single line of enclosing rampart preserved to a varying height around its perimeter. While the remains of defensive construction are not discernible on the eastern side (where it may have been destroyed by erosion and road construction), on the north – where the access to the site is easiest – we can find a massive rampart. Here its top still rises up to 3 m above the inner area of the hillfort and up to 7 m above the meadow on the outer side. There are known (yet unpublished) traces of prehistoric and early mediaeval settlements on the nearby river terraces and – about 1 km to the north on the hill called Homolka - an early mediaeval burial ground, dated to the 10th–11th century AD