Professional paper
THE HILL FORT OF KUNCI CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF ISTRIAN HILL FORTS
Vedran Kos
; Narodni muzej Labin 1. svibnja 6, 52220 Labin, HR
Abstract
SUMMARY
THE HILL FORT OF KUNCI
CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF ISTRIAN
HILL FORTS
Vedran KOS
According to available information, there are three phases of the settlement process
during the Bronze Age that can be distinguished at the hill fort of Kunci. The arrival of
the settlers at the site and the founding of the settlement constitute the first phase. The
building of the defensive walls mark the second phase, while the characteristics of the
third phase are the reinforcement of the entrances and the walls (Baćić 1970, 218 - 219),
which may have been caused by the Aegean migrations.
The establishment of the hill-fort settlements in Istria is generally dated to the end of
the early Bronze Age, or to Phase A2 according to the Central European chronology.
According to the chronology by Čović, the period would correspond to Istra II Period
(Čović 1983, 117) or to Layer IV of Gradac-Turan settlement (Mihovilić 1997, 43). Among
the published ceramic finds only two fragments can be dated to this period1, a foot of a
tripod and a fragment of a rim of a bowl with a thickening on the inside. However, the
latest research addressing deeper layers has brought to light a large number of knee-shaped
and X-shaped handles typical of the period in which the hill forts were established (Hänsel,
Mihovilić, Teržan 1997, 83 - 85).2 The settlement lived its most intense colonization
period in the course of Istra III Period (Phase B2 and Phase C). It is difficult to determine
the period of abandonment of the settlement. The latest information indicates that it was
still inhabited in the Iron Age, as testified by an iron fibula discovered in Layer 1 in the
course of the latest research (Kos 2006, 64 - 68) 3.
I hope that further research, which is under way, will bring about solutions to all the
dilemmas regarding the hill fort of Kunci.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
40938
URI
Publication date:
15.11.2007.
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