Confirmation of the first Neolithic rondel-type enclosure in Poland

Abstract

The early Neolithic rondel is a large curvilinear ditched and palisaded enclosure found in increasing numbers in Central Europe. It has close links with the tells of the Danube region, themselves highly suggestive instruments of the earliest Neolithic. Here the authors extend the distribution of rondels further to the north-east, with the discovery and verification of the first example in Poland. As they point out, it is aerial photography that made this advance possible and we can expect many more discoveries, given appropriate investment in the art.

Revealing the extent of Neolithic rondel enclosures in Lower Silesia using non-invasive prospection

“…These eight features have then been mapped using a combination of data sources (Table 1) to determine their spatial and morphological characteristics (Table 2). Two previously identified sites are also included in our overview: Bodzów, mentioned above (Kobyliński et al 2012; Welc et al 2019; Figure 3), and Proszkowice, discovered in 2012 by the ArchaeoLandscape Europe project (; Figure 4). Both were identified during ad-hoc aerial prospection over a period of 14 years.…”

“…The first indications that rondels might extend north of the Carpathian and Sudeten Mountains emerged as a result of the wider adoption of aerial prospection in Polish archaeology. Aerial photographs taken by Otto Braasch in 1998 and by Włodzimierz Rączkowski in 2008 led to the identification of two rondel enclosures: at Bodzów (Lower Silesia; Kobyliński et al 2012) and at Wenecja in the north-east Wielkopolska region (Rączkowski 2009). The discovery of these two sites raised the question of whether the absence or rarity of Neolithic rondel structures north of the Carpathians and Sudeten Mountains was potentially an artefact of the prospection methods traditionally applied in this region (e.g.…”

Jaroslav Řídký, Petr Květina, Petr Limburský, Markéta Končelová, Pavel Burgert and Radka Šumberová, 2019. Big Men or Chiefs? Rondel Builders of Neolithic Europe (Oxford & Philadelphia: Oxbow Books, 208pp., numerous b/w and colour illustr. and tables, hbk, ISBN 978-1-78925-026-8)

“…It will be of particular interest to researchers who cannot read German, Czech, or Hungarian, given that only a handful of publications regarding rondels are written in English (e.g. some papers in Bertemes & Meller, 2012;Hašek & Kovárník, 1999;Kobylinśki et al, 2012;Pásztor et al, 2008;Petrasch, 2015;Řídký et al, 2014;Zotti & Neubauer, 2011). The main thesis of the book is certainly worthy of much discussion.…”

Krzemień lokalny w osadzie użytkowników? Gospodarka surowcowa w kulturze ceramiki wstęgowej rytej na stanowisku w Bodzowie, woj. lubuskie

“…1); jest pierwszym w Polsce -odkrytym oraz badanym wykopaliskowo -neolitycznym obiektem typu rondel (Kobyliński, Nebelsick, Wach 2011;Kobyliński i in. 2012).…”