This paper presents chronometric research at three Iron Age extreme upland sites (EUS) in the Western Carpathians, North Slovakia (
The view from the Liptov basin towards the Nízke Tatry mountain range. 1 – Demänovská hora (known also as Demänovská Poludnica, cadastre of Demänovská Dolina and Liptovský Mikuláš-Ploštín), 2 – Končitý vrch (cadastre of Závažná Poruba), 3 – Iľanovská Poludnica (cadastres of Závažná Poruba and Liptovský Ján), 4 – Bodová, 5 – Rohačka, 6 – Pod Rohačkou. © Photo by Lucia Benediková, modified by Mária Hajnalová.
Location of sites discussed in the text and other contemporary sites. 1 – Demänovská hora, 2 – Končitý vrch, 3 – Iľanovská Poludnica; a – sites discussed in the text, b – local pollen core of Demänovská slatina currently under study, c – archaeological sites dated to the period from Late Bronze Age to the Early La Tène period, d – the Liptovská Mara water reservoir. © Map by Jakub Tamaškovič.
The EUS are in the literature referred to as places of safety or
In the Liptov basin, up to 10 EUS are known (Benediková
We focus on the temporal aspect of the charred pulse and cereals crops at three EUS: Demänovská hora, Končitý vrch and Iľanovská Poludnica. The first two, with typo-chronologically identical pottery (
Pottery from excavations in 2015. 1–12 – Demänovská Dolina – Liptovský Mikuláš-Ploštín (Demänovská hora); 13–22 – Závažná Poruba (Končitý vrch). Drawn by Jana Gajdošíková. After Benediková et al., 2020, Figs. 20 and 21, modified.
Metal finds from surveys at Demänovská hora. 1–25, 40–44 – finds from 2018 survey; 26–39 – finds submitted to the Monuments Board Žilina office by treasure hunters. 41 – iron; others, bronze. Drawn by Martin Furman. After Furman et al., 2019, Figs. 2 and 3, modified.
With accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating of the charred crops, our aim is to test the narrative of short-event destructions in the Late/Final Hallstatt or Early La Tène periods. We are pursuing two main research questions:
Are the finds of crops at all sites contemporary? Do the plant macro-remains reflect an archaeological event of short duration?
The three studied EUS are situated in the mountain massif on the northern slopes of the Nízke Tatry mountain range. Going from lower to upper elevations, they occupy the summits of the second (Demänovská hora, Končitý vrch) and third lines of peaks (Iľanovská Poludnica) on the main ridges rising southwards from the Liptov basin. All are well protected hard-to-reach places clearly visible from the valley (
Based on the bronze and iron ornaments, weaponry, pottery vessels and coins discovered at these sites, it can be ascertained that they were in use in the Late and Final Bronze Age, Late and Final Hallstatt and Early La Tène period, and in the Middle Ages.
The studied EUS are understood as an integral part of the local Bronze and Iron Age settlement hierarchy (Pieta, 1981: 58, 59, 61, 1983: 44; Benediková, 2006, 2017; Benediková and Pieta, 2020). The Late and Final Bronze Age artefacts are known only from Iľanovská Poludnica and might connect this EUS with a hillfort on Bodová (Pieta, 2002: 156–158). The Hallstatt and Early La Tène finds were recovered at all three EUS (Benediková, 2006; Pieta, 1981, 1983; Pieta
Soil samples with plant macro-remains come mainly from 2015 and 2018–2020 excavations targeted at acquisition of controlled archaeological 14C samples and new artefactual evidence (Furman
Homogenous non-stratified cultural layer at excavated sites.
The plant macro-remains for 14C dating were extracted from deposits using water flotation. We have also analysed the plant remains from the 1974 samples rich in charred seeds and also used one already measured 14C determination on sample from the 1974 fieldworks (
Information on AMS dated plant macro-remains. Numerical codes (e.g. 19_348) represent samples pre-treated and graphitised in the radiocarbon laboratory in Prague, whereas other samples were prepared and measured in Debrecen (DeA) and Vienna (VERA) laboratories.
VERA-892 | 2385 | 30 | DH74PS1 | Demänovská hora | 1974 | no data | Seed | unknown | |
19_349 | 2397 | 21 | DH74HV | Demänovská hora | 1974 | 611 | Grain apex | 2 | |
19_348 | 2520 | 20 | DH74PS2 | Demänovská hora | 1974 | 611 | Seed fragment | 2 | |
19_356 | 2421 | 19 | DH15LC | Demänovská hora | 2015 | 1 | Seed fragment | 1 | |
19_357 | 2445 | 18 | DH15TS | Demänovská hora | 2015 | 1 | Grain | 2 | |
19_350 | 2236 | 20 | KV74PS | Končitý vrch | 1974 | 605 | Seed fragment | 6 | |
19_358 | 2150 | 18 | KV15PI | Končitý vrch | 2015 | 1 | Charcoal* | 1 | |
19_359 | 2166 | 18 | KV15PS | Končitý vrch | 2015 | 1 | Seeds | 13 | |
DeA-29815 | 849 | 21 | IP201 | Poludnica | 2020 | 1 | Charcoal** | 1 | |
DeA-29816 | 842 | 21 | IP202 | Poludnica | 2020 | 1 | Charcoal*** | 1 |
Fragment of unknown position within tree (11 tree rings).
Twig (12 tree rings).
Fragment of unknown position within tree (five tree rings).
AMS, accelerator mass spectrometry.
Samples for dating have not been characterised by IRMS. Graphite targets were prepared in the radiocarbon laboratories in Prague, Debrecen and Vienna (
All dated charred macro-remains of peas, lentil, spelt and barley belong to the Iron Age (SOM 2). Due to the absence of informative priors and assuming uniform distribution of events (Bronk Ramsey, 1995), we have investigated the start and end of activities leading to charring of cereals and pulses at Demänovská hora by the uniform phase model (
Demänovská hora. Likelihood (light grey) and posterior probability (dark grey) of 14C dates in uniform phase. All dates are included in the model. © Figure by Peter Barta.
Despite the coarse chronological resolution caused by the shape of the calibration curve (
Demänovská hora. Individually (vague-prior) calibrated 14C ages of charred seeds from excavations in 1974 and 2015. For visual clarity 68.3% probability ranges are shown. No stratigraphic relations are supposed between dated samples of crops. © Figure by Peter Barta.
As we assume no detectable time-gap between production of the crops, their transportation, storing and charring on the mountain summit, we date activity or activities leading to charring of vast amounts of pulse and cereal crops to the time window 650–400 calBC. Owing to the calibration curve shape and the lack of informative priors, the chronological resolution of radiocarbon dating remains coarse. Whether the earliest date measured on peas 19_348 is a statistical outlier or it represents a truly earlier archaeological event could be investigated if samples with strong archaeological priors would be available.
From Končitý vrch, we have two radiocarbon dates on pea seeds and a date on a fragment of pine wood charcoal (SOM 6). Without informative priors about the samples we could here estimate the timing of charring of the crops by the uniform phase model (Bronk Ramsey, 1995) with two 14C dates on peas (SOM 7,
Končitý vrch. Likelihood (light grey) and posterior probability (dark grey) of 14C dates in uniform phase. Date on the charcoal fragment (19_358) is excluded from the model. © Figure by Peter Barta.
Demänovská hora and Končitý vrch uniform phases. Start and end boundaries medians indicated with crosses. © Figure by Peter Barta.
The variety of crops, good preservation of seeds and their high density in the sampled matrix suggest that the context was not severely taphonomically altered. As supportive evidence on context's taphonomic integrity, we view also a 14C date on the charred pinewood 19_358, which is statistically same as that on pea 19_359 (R_Combine (2158,13)X2-Test: df = 1 T = 0.4(5% 3.8)) (SOM 8). Not to overinterpret the 14C determinations, we restrained from using the charcoal fragment in the model as
The above-given results indicate a time-gap between charring of the crops at Demänovská hora and Končitý vrch. According to multiple runs of the models, the median of Demänovská hora phase end boundary and the median of Končitý vrch phase start boundary are separated by around 10 years.
To estimate the minimal time-gap between activities at both sites, we have investigated the difference between closest directly and indirectly dated events, respectively.
If we viewed the charring of samples at each site as individual unrelated events, then potentially closest archaeological events took place in the latest year of the latest vague-prior calibrated date from Demänovská hora (DH74PS1 VERA-892:2385 ± 30 BP, SOM 2) and the earliest year of the earliest vague-prior calibrated date from Končitý vrch (KV74PS 19_350: 2236 ± 20 BP, SOM 6). Then, the latest alternative for charring events at Demänovská hora is 393 calBC and the earliest alternative for charring events at Končitý vrch is 382 calBC (95.4% probability). Both charring events are thus separated by around 10 years.
We also have investigated the difference between these latest and earliest directly dated events (Difference command of OxCal). The estimated difference between the two events is from 22 years to 456 years (95.4% probability; SOM 9).
As there are neither stratigraphic nor artefactual records usable as prior information about the samples, we could have not modelled time-relation (
To sum up, our analyses indicate that activities leading to charring of crops at both sites were not contemporary. According to the analysis of difference between potentially closest directly dated archaeological events (i.e. charring activities), there is at least 20 years between them. As for the difference between the potentially closest indirectly dated events, the most probable result is from 25 to 80 years, according to the raw output from difference analysis (code in SOM 10).
A small twig and a fragment of wood, both of coniferous taxa, are thought to represent locally grown trees. Even if the soil sample originates from layer bearing prehistoric artefacts, both charcoals are medieval and document anthropogenic or natural events leading to charring of the wood between the mid-12th to mid-13th century calAD (
Iľanovská Poludnica. Results of vague-prior calibration. © Figure by Peter Barta.
Our new 14C dates represent the first systematically collected chronometric evidence on human activities (cf. Barta and Pieta, 2004; Barta
In our 14C dates we see no indication that the activities leading to charring of the crops at Demänovská hora and Končitý vrch were contemporary. According to a simple comparison of closest vague-prior calibrated date ranges, they are separated by 10 years (SOM 2, SOM 6). According to the analysis of difference between the closest directly dated events from both sites, the time-lapse between closest charring events is 20–330 years (SOM 9). The difference analysis of the closest indirectly dated events confirmed this result with highest probability density for the interval of 25–80 years (raw output from analysis, code in SOM 10).
Taking the medians of boundaries in uniform phases as representative for reporting the results for estimating the activity producing the large amount of charred pulse and cereal crops, we can conclude the following. At Demänovská hora, the charring is dated to 650–400 calBC (
Presently, the characteristics of samples and absence of strong archaeological priors prevent us from dating the charred crops with fine chronological resolution. If the charring activities occurred repeatedly, they may have been of diverse nature. The violent destruction at Demänovská hora is strongly supported by the artefactual evidence (weaponry and fire destruction). At Končitý vrch the evidence for violent destruction is weaker and the finds of weaponry are less frequent (Pieta, 1981: 55, 1983: 40; Furman, 2020). Apart from their role as
Ultimately, the activities leading to large amounts of charred crops at the mountain summit sites of Demänovská hora (1304 m a. s. l.) and Končitý vrch (1310 m a. s. l.) were not contemporary and were not a consequence of a single short-time event. Even if the details remain elusive, the non-contemporaneity may well point to diverse reasons tied with local or regional cultural–historical circumstances during or at the end of the Early and during the Late Iron Age (e. g. Bujna, 1994: 9; Chochorowski, 2014; Kozubová, 2019; Teržan, 1998: 518, 519).