Havránok is an important archaeological site in northern
SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
. It is located on a hill above the
Liptovská MaraLiptovská Mara is a reservoir in northern Slovakia, on the Váh river near Liptovský Mikuláš, in the Liptov region. The dam is named after one of the inundated villages....
water reservoir around 2 km from the village of
BobrovníkBobrovník is a village and municipality in Liptovský Mikuláš District in the Žilina Region of northern Slovakia.-Geography:The municipality lies at an altitude of 568 metres and covers an area of 6.780km²...
, about halfway between
RužomberokRužomberok is a town in northern Slovakia, in the historical Liptov region. It has a population of around 30,000.-Geography:It is situated at the westernmost reaches of the Sub-Tatra Basin, more exactly its subdivision Liptov Basin, surrounded by the mountain ranges of Chočské vrchy, Greater...
and
Liptovský MikulášLiptovský Mikuláš is a town in northern Slovakia, on the Váh River. It lies in the Liptov region, in Liptov Basin near the Low Tatra and Tatra mountains...
in the
LiptovLiptó is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in northern Slovakia...
region. The archaeologists unearthed a prehistoric
CeltCelts is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic language...
ic
hill fortA hill fort is a type of fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages...
and a medieval wooden
castleA castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The term has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning, but it is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress, in that it describes a residence of a monarch or...
in the 1960s, during the construction of the Liptovská Mara dam. Both objects have been partially reconstructed.
Havránok is an important archaeological site in northern
SlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe with a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia borders the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is its capital, Bratislava...
. It is located on a hill above the
Liptovská MaraLiptovská Mara is a reservoir in northern Slovakia, on the Váh river near Liptovský Mikuláš, in the Liptov region. The dam is named after one of the inundated villages....
water reservoir around 2 km from the village of
BobrovníkBobrovník is a village and municipality in Liptovský Mikuláš District in the Žilina Region of northern Slovakia.-Geography:The municipality lies at an altitude of 568 metres and covers an area of 6.780km²...
, about halfway between
RužomberokRužomberok is a town in northern Slovakia, in the historical Liptov region. It has a population of around 30,000.-Geography:It is situated at the westernmost reaches of the Sub-Tatra Basin, more exactly its subdivision Liptov Basin, surrounded by the mountain ranges of Chočské vrchy, Greater...
and
Liptovský MikulášLiptovský Mikuláš is a town in northern Slovakia, on the Váh River. It lies in the Liptov region, in Liptov Basin near the Low Tatra and Tatra mountains...
in the
LiptovLiptó is the name of a historic administrative county of the Kingdom of Hungary. Its territory is presently in northern Slovakia...
region. The archaeologists unearthed a prehistoric
CeltCelts is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic language...
ic
hill fortA hill fort is a type of fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze and Iron Ages...
and a medieval wooden
castleA castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The term has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning, but it is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress, in that it describes a residence of a monarch or...
in the 1960s, during the construction of the Liptovská Mara dam. Both objects have been partially reconstructed. During the
Iron AgeIn archaeology, the Iron Age is the prehistoric period in any area during which cutting tools and weapons were mainly made of iron or steel. The adoption of this material coincided with other changes in society, including differing agricultural practices, religious beliefs and artistic styles.The...
and the
Roman EraThe Roman era is a period in Western history, when Ancient Rome was the centre of power of the world around the Mediterranean Sea, where Latin was the lingua franca. The era precedes the Middle Ages....
, the shrine of Havránok was an important religious center of the Celts living in Slovakia.
History
The Havránok hill fort was an important religious, economic, and political center of the
Púchov cultureThe Púchov culture was an archaeological culture named after site of Púchov-Skalka in Slovakia. Its probable bearer was the Celt Cotini tribe. It existed in northern and central Slovakia between the 2nd century BCE and the 1st century CE...
(300 BCE - 180 CE), in which the dominant Celtic tribe of
CotiniCotini was a Celtic tribe most probably living in today's Slovakia, and in Moravia and southern Poland. They were probably identical or constituted a significant part of the archaeological Púchov culture, with the center in Havránok.The tribe was first time mentioned in 10 BC in the Elogium of...
mingled with the older people of the
Lusatian cultureThe Lusatian culture existed in the later Bronze Age and early Iron Age in most of Poland, parts of Czech Republic and Slovakia, parts of eastern Germany, and parts of Ukraine...
. The prosperous
oppidumOppidum is a Latin word meaning the main settlement in any administrative area of ancient Rome. The word is derived from the earlier Latin ob-pedum, "enclosed space," possibly from the Proto-Indo-European *pedóm-, "occupied space" or "footprint."Julius Caesar described the larger Celtic Iron Age...
was destroyed along with other Celtic settlements in Slovakia around the beginning of the
Common EraCommon Era, abbreviated as CE, is a designation for the calendar system most commonly used world-wide for numbering the year part of the date...
either by the Germanic tribe of
QuadiThe Quadi were a smaller Germanic tribe, about which little definitive information is known. The history of non-literate peoples is written by their opponents, and we can only know the Germanic tribe the Romans called the 'Quadi' through Roman eyes...
or by
DaciaIn ancient geography, especially in Roman sources, Dacia was the land in East-Central Europe inhabited by the Dacians. Ancient Greeks called the same people "Getae"...
ns.
A medieval wooden castle existed near the remnants of the ancient hill fort from the 11th to 15th century CE.
Celtic shrine
The hill fort was a religious center of the Celts living in northern Slovakia. Its wooden shrine was built in the 1st century BCE around an exceptionally high wooden column, probably a
totemA totem is any supposed entity that watches over or assists a group of people, such as a family, clan, or tribe.Totems support larger groups than the individual person. In kinship and descent, if the apical ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it is called a totem...
or a statue.
Excavation of a ritual pit situated near this central cult object revealed bones of at least seven people
sacrificedHuman sacrifice is the act of killing human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practiced in various cultures throughout history...
during
druidA druid was a member of the priestly and learned class active in Gaul, and perhaps in Celtic culture more generally, during the final centuries BCE...
ic rituals. The victims were beaten to death, quartered, and in some cases also burnt. Parts of their bodies were subsequently thrown into the pit. A large number of agricultural tools in the vicinity of the pit indicate that human sacrifices may have served to insure a good harvest.
The shrine also included a number of smaller wooden columns, with burnt offerings (mostly jewels, agricultural products, and animals) buried next to them.
Other buildings
In addition to the shrine, the reconstructed buildings include a fortified gateway of the hill fort with a part of the stone walls (120-50 BCE), farmstead (300-100 BCE), a pottery
kilnKilns are thermally insulated chambers, or ovens, in which controlled temperature regimes are produced. They are used to harden, burn or dry materials...
(300-100 BCE), and huts from various periods.
In the Iron Age and the Roman Era, Havránok was surrounded by several Celtic villages. Some of them were inundated by Liptovská Mara reservoir.
The small medieval castle is also partially reconstructed and the whole area of Havránok is now an
open air museumAn open air museum is a distinct type of museum exhibiting its collections out-of-doors. The first open air museums were established in Scandinavia towards the end of the nineteenth century, and the concept soon spread throughout Europe and North America. Open air museums are variously known as...
. The site was proclaimed the national cultural monument in 1967.
Economy
The Celts of Havránok minted their own
coinsContextObjects in Spans, commonly abbreviated COinS, is a method of embedding latent OpenURL ContextObjects in the HTML code of Web pages. This allows client software to retrieve bibliographic metadata, e. g...
. However, the simple
copperCopper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color...
coins could not equal the quality of the contemporary silver
BiatecBiatec was the name of a person, presumably a king, who appeared on the Celtic coins minted by the Boii in Bratislava in the 1st century BC. The word Biatec is also used as the name of those coins. In the literature, they are also sometimes referred to as "hexadrachms of the Bratislava type"...
s, minted by the
BoiiBoii is the Roman name of an Iron age tribe located at the beginning of their history in central Europe, perhaps in or including the regions that still bear their name: Bavaria and Bohemia...
in
BratislavaBratislava is the capital of the Slovak Republic and, with a population of about 429,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River...
.
External links