Rmíz: The oldest fort with stone faced rampart and its significance in the Neolithic/Copper Age Moravian landscape

By

Maximilian O. Baldia, Director/PI

Czech/American Research Program (CARPRO)

3616 Dinsmore Castle Dr.
Columbus, OH 43221-4410
USA

Research Associate

Inst. for the Study of Earth and Man

Heroy Science Hall

Southern Methodist University

3225 Daniel Avenue

Dallas, Texas 75275-0274

USA

And

Miroslav Šmíd
Ústav archaeologické památkové péce Brno
pracoviste Prostjov
Krízkovského 12
796 01 Prostejov
Czech Republic

Paper presented at the symposium: "Prehistoric Communication: The first wheels, roads, metals, and monumental architecture" at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the Society of American Archaeology, Seattle, Washington, USA.[1]

Abstract

The hilltop fort Rmíz, Czech Republic, is the oldest in a long chain of eleven similar central sites dotting the Early Neolithic/Copper Age Moravian landscape. Strategically located, the site was built in the earliest phase of the Funnel Beaker Culture's Baalberge Group (4000/3800-3600/3500 cal. BC). It was constructed in an area where several cultures overlap. The fort's earliest construction phase consists of the first stone faced rampart in Central/Northern Europe. There are traces of copper production, including slag. Three tomb clusters with dozens of long-mounds and tumuli yielded cloth fragments and evidence of changes in burial practices.

Introduction

Located in Central Europe , the ancient hilltop fort Rmíz by Laškov, Czech Republic, appears to be the oldest in a long chain of eleven similar "central sites" dotting the Early Neolithic/Copper Age Moravian landscape. In Moravia, this period is characterized by the appearance of pottery from the Funnel Beaker culture or TRB (Fig. 1). Evidence of the earliest stone-built defensive wall in Central and Northern Europe, together with its state of preservation, sheer size and multiple construction phases, make Rmíz one of the most significant sites in Central Europe. Located some 30 miles SW of the beginning of the strategic Moravian Gap or Gate, traditionally viewed as the pass for the "Amber Road," which connected North and SE Europe, Rmíz is a pivotal site in the control of communication and the burgeoning copper trade.

Cultural affiliation and Chronology

In Northern Europe the TRB belongs to the Early Neolithic dated 4100/3900 - 3500/3400 cal. BC, which is followed by the Middle Neolithic, lasting up to 2900/2800 BC.[1] This is part of the Copper Age or Eneolithic in Central Europe.

Centered far to the north, the TRB is seen as only one of several overlapping and partly coexisting pottery stiles in Moravia. The early TRB seems intrusive in this region, once dominated by the Danubian Bandkeramik or Linear Pottery of the first farmers. The Bankeramik-derived Lengyel pottery, known as Moravian Painted Ware (MPW), Jordanov (Jordanów/Jordansmühl), and other pottery styles seem to coexists stratigraphically with early TRB (Table 1).

The TRB pottery of the Czech Republic belongs to the South Group. Its earliest ceramics are related to the Baalberge Group, concentrated along the upper Elbe of Bohemia and Central Germany. This pottery may, therefore, be intrusive in Moravia, where it ultimately replaces the ancient Danubian-derived Lengyel stiles. The Moravian TRB can be divided into two main phases, which can be further subdivided. The C14 dates, suggest the existence of Baalberge (TRB I) roughly between 4000-3600/3500 cal BC.

The following period, TRB II dates to ca. 3600/3500-3200? BC. It is characterized by an apparently gradual, but increasing drift toward Baden-like “channel ware” pottery, starting during Baden I (Boleráz Phase). A similar situation is noted in Austria, Slovakia, and Poland. The Baden-like pottery ultimately replaces the TRB South Group entirely.

The precise dating of these phases is uncertain, stressing the acute necessity for the systematic effort to date the TRB in Moravia. However, investigations since 1998 by the Czech-American Research Program (CARPRO) has provided the first OCR dates (see below).

The fortified sites of Central Moravia

Rmíz is part of a ca. 60 km long chain of eleven similar "central sites," ranging from Rmíz and Olomouc in the north to Brno in the south (Fig. 2). Additional sites, such as Starý Zámek by Jevišovice (Map) may extend the line to the Austrian border. The "central sites" in the immediate research area are shown on the Map and described in Table 2.

This is a total of nine sites in a ca. 340 m² area, not counting the tomb groups that hint at additional villages and somewhat contemporaneous Langyel sites.[2] The hilltop sites appear to be largely intervisible, in a manner similar to Pueblo sites in the US Southwest. The sites have been only briefly surveyed, making modern, large-scale excavation a necessary.

The research area still contains four preserved enclosed hilltop sites and two that have been largely destroyed. The precise relationship of these sites must be established through a comprehensive research project. Nevertheless, nine test trenches at Rmíz (Smíd 1995 Fig. 3), excavations at the satellite site (Smíd in press), and of several burial mounds establish the site as one of the most significant.

The hill fort of Rmíz

Rmíz is a multiphase (TRB I and II) walled hilltop site with a (TRB II) satellite copper production site and two adjacent burial mound clusters. The satellite site is some 400m SW, but in the valley below, adjacent to two Lengyel sites. It is close to a creek that feeds the narrow Šumice stream and yielded a partly destroyed "kiln" and copper slag. The two tomb clusters are located 200 and 800 m north of Rmíz, across the paved logging road that follows a pass between the hills of Rmíz and Kremela. They cling to the Kremela's eastern side, just where the terrain slopes most gently down to the narrow Šumice valley.

There are four enclosures at Rmíz (Fig. 3 ).[3] The outermost perimeter in the north is defined by a shallow trapezoidal ditch and palisade. This enclosure encompassed 17.5 ha (Zone 1). Indications are that it was concomitant with the earliest occupation (TRB I) and could have functioned as a coral. However, the lack of diagnostic artifacts directly associated with the feature makes its dating uncertain.

The massive stone-faced rampart of Zone 3 with its ditch dates to the TRB I (Fig. 4). It was erected during TRB I B Baalberge phase. Preliminary investigations in June 1998 yielded OCR dates that indicate the human building activity just inside the wall started around 3800 BC. The enclosed area is 9.4 ha. The unique 1.4 m thick wall is made of local stone slabs, occasionally reaching a length of ca. 100 cm (Fig. 5). A platform of 1.2 m separated the wall from the ditch, which was hewn into the bedrock. In 1999 CARPRO discovered that two stone walls existed next to each other. Several additional ditches, possibly with additional walls, can be seen in front of the main rempart.

The rampart may have been entered through a gate via a roadway, similar to the later fieldstone cobbled road at Hlinsco, by Lipník nad Bečvóu west of the Morava River (Location). At the eastern terminus of the rampart is a slight, followed by a mound-like (natural?) elevation that could have functioned as a kind of lookout tower.

Outside of the Zone 3 rampart is a spring fed reservoir, that was later incorporated into Zone 2. This 11 ha zone of settlement debris was demarcated by an earth wall and ditch during the TRB II. The wall/ditch height differential reaches a 2.7 m in places.

On the steep southern slope is an undated refuse heap or midden. A brief survey indicates rubble and well preserved, but undated animal bone on the surface.

The cultural landscape of Rmíz creates a most imposing impression. Located imposingly above the valley of furtile soils (Fig. 6, 7, 8), it suggests the seat of a powerful group, possibly an elite, controlling communication, copper production and burial ritual of the surrounding countryside.

The Rmíz tombs

Adjacent to Rmíz are three tomb clusters. The most distant one must belong to an unknown "central site," that guarded the far end of the Sumice valley. Kremela I is 800 m and Kremela II is merely 200 m north of the palisade.

Kremela I consists of 58 mounds. They range from round tumuli to oval and rectilinear long-mounds, varying in length from 6-29 m and in width from 5-12 m. Mounds can reach a maximum height of nearly 2 m. The excavation of Mound 2 revealed a rectangular drywall enclosure ( Fig. 9). Within the eastern end of the enclosure, along the central axis two cremation burials were unearthed. Among the cremation remains were fragments of "petrified," black colored cloth. The tomb provided evidence of minimally two construction phases. The first was the enclosure in which the burial took place. This was covered up to the height of the enclosure with clay. After the burial ceremony, the mound was completed. This was the first evidence ever of multiple building phases.

At Kremela I seventeen mounds can be identified. Their length ranges from 6-11 m. Mounds 8 and 9 were excavated. Mound 8 contained two destroyed cremation burials at its eastern end. Mound 9 contained three cremation burials in pots, which were placed upside down. Each pot had been broken with a well aimed hit. One urn contained remains of a child. The two others contained bones of one or two adults. The occurrence of multiple burials in the same grave is thus far unique. The grave also contained twelve additional pots.

The excavations have not yet found the earliest burials. Kremela I Mound 2 belongs to TRB II A. Kremela II Mound 9 belongs to TRB II B, when the TRB comes to an end in Moravia. However, excavations of other tomb clusters round out our knowledge of the evolution of burial practices that can be linked to Rmíz itself.

Tomb evolution

The first Burial mounds appear in the TRB I B2, i.e. the later part of the Baalberge culture ( Table1). This implies that they are the result of internal social changes. The tiny chambers, made of stone slabs, contain single individual, resting on their side in a flexed position. This layout is typical for the entire Baalberge culture, suggesting intensive interregional communication, also evident in the pottery. The oldest mounds are thus far only known from Borí I (Slatinky). There one oblong mound, topped with locally available stones, contained a pair of side by side cists (Borí I, Slatinky, Smíd 1990 Fig. 4). The ceramic contents is synchronous with the second stratigraphic layer at Rmíz.

The second stage of burial construction develops during the TRB II A. It is characterized by substituting the mound's stone cover with rectangular to oval drywall, showing increased emphasis on the external aspects of the tomb, as shown at the Rmíz tomb cluster Kremela I, Mound 2. The cists are replaced by a burial area, serving as platform for cremation urns. The individual burials harbor personal belongings, including cloth, pendants beads. Mound 4 at Borí II (Slatinky) contained numerous pots, including a collared flask and a ground stone ax (Smíd 1990).

The final stage correlates with the TRB II B (Ohrozim phase). Stone construction disappears from the mound entirely with the occasional exception of a smattering of stones used to cover the grave. One of the two graves in an egg-shaped mound at Slatinky had an upside down urn placed into a pit (ibid.). On top of it were two smaller upside-down pots. The TRB emphasis on relatively elaborate tombs wanes, as the Baden pottery stile, coming from the Carpathian Basin in the south, begins to dominate.

Summary and conclusion

Rmíz gives every promise of having been a major center-with metallurgy, cloth production, trade and communication, monumental architecture, occasionally reaching nearly megalithic proportions, and very possibly an incipient or even complex status inequality. Survey and preliminary excavations indicate that this strategically located settlement was established at an early stage of the TRB occupation. Most significantly, Rmíz is the oldest known hilltop fort in North and Central Europe with a stone-faced rampart and deep, parallel ditches. Further ditches and an outer palisade enclose 17 ha.

Rmíz is the northwestern most link in a long chain of eleven similar "central" sites dotting the Neolithic/Copper Age central Moravian landscape. Together they suggest control of communication in the Drahane highlands and the Hana Valley access to the Moravian Gate. The Moravian Gate has traditionally been viewed as part of the "Amber Road," connecting Scandinavia with Southeastern Europe. The metallurgical footprint of copper found near Rmíz and the site distribution suggests a line of communication with the Mondsee Culture of Austria (Type site location) and the TRB in Poland. The tendency to build enclosed "central sites" coupled with nearby satellite sites suggests a link with southern Polish TRB found in a related the landscape (Bogucki 1988:141-43, Fig. 6.4), indicating a far-flung, intercultural communication network. The region may even have been responsible for the first appearance of copper in Scandinavia, where no local copper was available.

It is urgent to investigate the sites, before economic development and industrial expansion eradicates these usually well preserved places. Another threat are pot hunters, which in 1997 and 1998 had recklessly pitted Rmíz and another such site.

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[1] This paper was written and presented on behalf of Dr. M. Šmíd by Dr. M. Baldia. Originally, Dr. Šmíd was listed as the only author. However, numerous changes and additions have been made to this paper by Dr. M. Baldia.