Ostalo
2010 Archaeological Trial Excavations of the Hill Fort of Sveta Ana – Gradina
Tatjana Tkalčec
orcid.org/0000-0003-3963-7706
; Institut za arheologiju, Zagreb, Hrvatska
Sažetak
In June 2010, the Institute of Archaeology conducted archaeological trial excavations of the hill fort above the village of Sveta Ana, near Đurđevac.
The site is situated on a steep hill directly above the village of Sveta Ana at 215.36 metres above sea level. The hill fort is located approximately 40 metres above the village. It consists of a higher, northern elevation with a long oval, almost rectangular, ground-plan, its size being 32.5 x 19.5 metres (N-S x E-W), and a smaller elevation (watchtower?) with a complex of ditches and defensive earthen walls. Between the two elevations, there is a ditch, its base being approximately 20 metres wide. Within the entire complex, there is also a relatively low and large natural plateau, east of the main elevation. The site can be accessed from the south along the ridge of a long hill slope, or from the west from the village of Sveta Ana, along an educational trail leading to the foot of the central elevation. At present, the site is covered with young woods.
The short, four-day excavation achieved outstanding results that broaden our knowledge about such sites, which have been insufficiently researched in Croatia. A 10 x 1.5-metre probe was opened, which encompassed the western edge of the main elevation and stretched towards the very centre of the hill fort. Two cultural horizons were identified with a series of pillar holes from a wooden structure and several waste pits with finds of late mediaeval ceramic tableware and kitchenware, animal bones and some glass and metal artefacts. The dense arrangement of holes from wooden pillars and their relatively large diameters might suggest the existence of a wooden construction that might have supported a relatively large building, maybe a wooden fortification or, as the tableware suggests, a noblemen’s residential tower. However, for a more precise determining of the conceptual framework of this potential structure, a larger surface needs to be opened.
Although the stratigraphic picture suggested two horizons of the fortification, the analysis of moveable finds resulted in no artefacts that would at the same time also suggest a more precise chronological differentiation between the two layers. A preliminary typological-chronological analysis of pottery finds from the trial excavations at the Sveta Ana-Gradina site, prior to obtaining the final results of absolute dating based on the radiocarbon 14C method, suggests the period from the second half of the 13th century until the middle of the 15th century, with the most probable period being the 14th century or the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries.
Ključne riječi
hill fort; archaeological trial excavations; Podravina; Sveta Ana; 13th-15th centuries
Hrčak ID:
89807
URI
Datum izdavanja:
25.10.2011.
Posjeta: 2.163 *