(source: SME Ján Krošlák)
SLOVAK and German archaeologists have started research at a unique fortified town from the early Bronze Age located in Vráble near Nitra that should continue for several years. The research project will be financed mostly by Germany and its results are viewed as important for all of Europe.
“I am very glad that the big German project within the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (the German Research Association), an organisation that supports science and research, was passed because that means the work will be done much more intensively within the next five years,” Matej Ruttkay, the head of the Archaeological Institute in Nitra, told the SITA newswire.
Scientists will study the site using all archaeological methods and the results are expected to broaden knowledge about how society functioned during the Bronze Age. Slovakia’s territory was one of the regions where copper was mined and archaeologists believe that the ancient settlement was a distribution centre for this metal across Europe. By processing and using bronze human society developed markedly and scientists want to gather more information about the human development process in this part of Europe.
The settlement cover an area of 20 hectares, which makes it larger than the ancient cities of Mycenae and Troy, and scientists believe it was inhabited by about 1,000 people with its buildings built around streets together with three ditches that strengthened the fortifications. The site has been known among archaeologists for some time based on aerial photos and studies conducted with ground penetrating radar and magnetic mapping methods. Scientists believe the settlement is intact and mono-cultural – that it was not mixed with other historical periods.
