(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Street Prophets Friday: Archeopark [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-13 I had a lovely Friday the 13th out in the country. Picked a bunch of butternut squash, probably the last two zucchini— in fact, the whole garden pretty much seems to be done. I started clearing an overgrown corner of the yard. It's back where my woodfire ceramics kiln is and I've been thinking that I may try to do a short firing of the kiln before the really cold weather rolls in. Cut up a pile of old willow branches that had been laying there and got a start at chopping out all the tiny plum trees popping up from a nearby plum tree's root system. Today on dKos though, I'm still diarying my way through my summer vacation. When we were running around northern Moravia and Silesia for a week, we managed to catch the last tour of the day at an archeological park set up at the site of an old hillfort. So come on in, enjoy wandering around behind the palisades and set a spell in the comments. Share a bit of your day, a thought, a worry. Share a link, promote a cause, pitch a rock-crusher— it's all good. This is, after all, another fuzzy open thread. Archeopark Chotěbuz - Podobora In the Těšín area of Silesia, on a bluff overlooking the Olza river, a hillfort was built at the end of the 10th century BC to guard a ford on an important north/south European trade route through Moravia. I seem to remember our guide telling us that this is the most explored archaeological site in the entire Czech Republic. If not, a glimpse at the map below might make you wonder what could have possibly been more thoroughly excavated. The map shows the sites of half a century of archaeological dig sites (the pale-pastel green areas) and the earthworks (pale blue) The earliest signs of occupation on this site date back to the late Bronze Age, about two centuries later, in the 8th century BC, the settlement was captured and then rebuilt and properly fortified. The oldest fortified area, "the acropolis” here marked on a little map by the letter A In the 5th century BC, the fortified town built at the end of the bluff met a violent end and the site was left unoccupied for nearly 1200 years. The site was reoccupied in the early Middle Ages, the 8th century, and expanded in stages into the 9th century to include two outer baileys with moats and earthworks separating them. There followed a period when the hillfort was captured and occupied by Great Moravia, but the next wave of invaders at the beginning of the 10th century burnt the place down. Before the end of that century the site was again occupied although only the innermost acropolis area and some time in the 11th century the site began to lose its importance and population, probably the administrative and defensive heart of the region had shifted to a nearby town with its own bureaucrats and fortifications and gradually the site of “Old Těšín” was abandoned. These days, the only area that the general public can access is the acropolis, the innermost part of the fortifications, where a guide can show you around a little village built in a collection of the architectural styles that represent the early centuries of the site's occupation. Our guide begins his presentation The “decorative bridge” across the inner moat (we're standing in it)— yeah, apparently the bridge isn't insured for dozens of tourists tramping over it. We went around— to a rather non-historic side gate in the palisade. In the middle ages, this area would have been the noble neighborhood, where the wealthy and influential lived— not in these humble hovels I'm thinking. Here we could each take a turn at grinding a bit of whole wheat flour— a bit Neolithic, but fun to try. Not only couldn't they build fires inside the buildings (which meant that their thatch roofs were getting mossy and bug infested from the lack of smoke), but, to add insult to injury, safety regulations require the installation of fire extinguishers. These lovely garden plots are dedicated to plants that are used to make dyes. I forget what this one is— but I remember that it's an ingredient in a blue dye. Our guide poses next to a log house. Do you recognize what's hanging on the wall? It's a fish trap. Tucked in the far corner, beyond the fisherman's cabin and the longhouse they’ve built a little pagan shrine area. Inside the communal long-house Natural fiber yarns dyed using the plants grown in the garden. There’s that blue! A small metal working area with a primitive smelting furnace, and a storage hut. Thanks for stopping by. This is an open thread. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/13/2199182/-Street-Prophets-Friday-Archeopark?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/