This abstracts is part of session #502:
Title:
Interdisciplinary Hillfort Studies at the Daugava River: Merging and Decoding Archaeological, Environmental and Linguistic Data (INHILLDAUGAR)
Content:
In Eastern Europe rivers represent the main gateways for trading flows between Scandinavia and south-eastern continental Europe. The Daugava River is one of the most important traffic arteries in the Baltic region. On the 350 km long Latvian river section, about 30 hillforts give evidence of the high significance of this waterway. Roughly half of them have not been investigated at all. The INHILLDAUGAR project takes this archaeological river landscape into macro scale research focus as a whole system, by combining palaeoenvironmental, archaeological and linguistic studies. The application of non- and minimal invasive field techniques like geomagnetic surveys, drillings and test pits, 14C- and dendrochronological datings are crucial for obtaining valid and evaluable data from a large number of fortifications in a short period of time for understanding the system as a whole in its chronological development. Drill catenae with the ram core auger through the rampart structures allow an approximation of their structure and stratigraphy. Geological and geomorphological investigations for palaeoenvironmental studies are carried out with the hand auger in the vicinity of the most important sites. Detailed drilling can uncover geoarchives and potential bioarchives that can be used for studies on the palaeoenvironment and human-environment relationships. The achieved data is transferred to a GIS. Crucial for validating the dating is a sufficient number of radiocarbon dates, on average about 20 per hillfort. The outcome of the project will be a GIS-based open access atlas, including standardized topographic maps of the archaeological monuments and their immediate surroundings, thematic maps related to the core questions of the project and digital modelling of the Daugava waterway in prehistory. In the talk will be presented the results of the first project year 2022.
Acknowledgement:
Beethoven-CLASSIC4 joint project funded by DFG (465100096) and NCN (2020/39/G/HS3/01542).
Keywords:
Hillfort Studies, Communication Networks, Water Trade Route, Conflict Resolution, Iron Age - Viking Age, Baltic Area
Main authors:
Jens Schneeweiss1,2,3
Co-author:
Timo Ibsen1
Piotr Kittel5
Jerzy Sikora6
Vanda Visocka4
Hans Whitefield1
Affiliations:
1 Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology
2 Cluster of Excellence ROOTS
3 Kiel University
4 University of Latvia
5 University of Lodz, Faculty of Geographical Sciences
6 University of Lodz, Institute of Archaeology
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