Havránok is an important archaeological site in northern

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. It is on a hill above the

Liptovská Mara Liptovská 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. It was built in 1965–1975. The area of the reservoir is 22 km ...

water reservoir around from the village of

Bobrovník Bobrovník ( hu, Bobrovnik) is a village and municipality in Liptovský Mikuláš District in the Žilina Region of northern Slovakia. History In historical records the village was first mentioned in 1273. Geography The municipality lies at an ...

, about halfway between

Ružomberok Ružomberok (; german: Rosenberg; hu, Rózsahegy; pl, Rużomberk) is a town in northern Slovakia, in the historical Liptov region. It has a population of around 27,000 inhabitants (45,000 with nearby villages). Etymology The name of the initia ...

and

Liptovský Mikuláš Liptovský Mikuláš (; until 1952 ''Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš'', german: Liptau-Sankt-Nikolaus; hu, Liptószentmiklós) is a town in northern Slovakia, on the Váh River, about from Bratislava. It lies in the Liptov region, in Liptov Bas ...

in the

Liptov Liptov () is a historical and geographical region in central Slovakia with around 140,000 inhabitants. The area is also known by the German name ''Liptau'', the Hungarian ''Liptó'', the Latin name ''Liptovium'' and the Polish ''Liptów''. Etymo ...

region. The archaeologists unearthed a prehistoric

Celt The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

and a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the Post-classical, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

wooden

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

in the 1960s, during the construction of the Liptovská Mara dam. Both objects have been partially reconstructed. During the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

and the

Roman Era In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom (753–509 BC ...

, 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 culture The Púchov culture was an archaeological culture named after site of Púchov-Skalka in Slovakia. Its probable bearer was the Celtic Cotini and/or Anartes tribes. It existed in northern and central Slovakia (although it also plausibly spread to th ...

(300 BCE - 180 CE), in which the dominant Celtic tribe of

Cotini The Gotini (in Tacitus), who are generally equated to the Cotini in other sources, were a Gaulish tribe living during Roman times in the mountains approximately near the modern borders of the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia. The spelling "Goti ...

mingled with the older people of the

Lusatian culture The Lusatian culture existed in the later Bronze Age and early Iron Age (1700 BC – 500 BC) in most of what is now Poland and parts of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, eastern Germany and western Ukraine. It covers the Periods Montelius III (earl ...

. The prosperous

oppidum An ''oppidum'' (plural ''oppida'') is a large fortified Iron Age settlement or town. ''Oppida'' are primarily associated with the Celtic late La Tène culture, emerging during the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, spread across Europe, stretchi ...

was destroyed along with other Celtic settlements in Slovakia around the beginning of the

Common Era Common Era (CE) and Before the Common Era (BCE) are year notations for the Gregorian calendar (and its predecessor, the Julian calendar), the world's most widely used calendar era. Common Era and Before the Common Era are alternatives to the or ...

either by the Germanic tribe of

Quadi The Quadi were a Germanic * * * people who lived approximately in the area of modern Moravia in the time of the Roman Empire. The only surviving contemporary reports about the Germanic tribe are those of the Romans, whose empire had its bord ...

or by

Dacia Dacia (, ; ) was the land inhabited by the Dacians, its core in Transylvania, stretching to the Danube in the south, the Black Sea in the east, and the Tisza in the west. The Carpathian Mountains were located in the middle of Dacia. It thus r ...

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 The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancien ...

living in northern Slovakia. Its wooden shrine was built in the 1st century BCE around an exceptionally high wooden column, probably a

totem A totem (from oj, ᑑᑌᒼ, italics=no or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While ''the wo ...

or a statue. Excavation of a ritual pit situated near this central cult object revealed bones of at least seven people sacrificed during

druid A druid was a member of the high-ranking class in ancient Celtic cultures. Druids were religious leaders as well as legal authorities, adjudicators, lorekeepers, medical professionals and political advisors. Druids left no written accounts. Whi ...

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 A fortified gateway is an element of a variety of fortified structures, such as a castle or walled town. Fortified gates or gateways appear in the Bronze Age and reach into the modern times. City gate Gatehouse {{main, Gatehouse ''Torburg'' ...

of the hill fort with a section of the stone walls (120-50 BCE), farmstead (300-100 BCE), a pottery

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

(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 the Liptovská Mara reservoir. The small medieval castle is also partially reconstructed and the whole area of Havránok is now an

open-air museum An open-air museum (or open air museum) is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts out-of-doors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is “the unconfined atmosphere� ...

. The site was proclaimed a national cultural monument in 1967.Liptovské múzea a galérie

Economy

The Celts of Havránok minted their own

coins A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to ...

. However, the simple

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

coins could not equal the quality of the contemporary silver

Biatec Biatec was the name of a person, presumably a king, who appeared on the Celtic coins minted by the Boii in Bratislava (the capital of Slovakia) in the 1st century BC. The word Biatec (or Biatex) is also used as the name of those coins. In the lit ...

s, minted by the

Boii The Boii (Latin plural, singular ''Boius''; grc, Βόιοι) were a Celtic tribe of the later Iron Age, attested at various times in Cisalpine Gaul (Northern Italy), Pannonia (Hungary), parts of Bavaria, in and around Bohemia (after whom the ...

Bratislava Bratislava (, also ; ; german: Preßburg/Pressburg ; hu, Pozsony) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Slovakia. Officially, the population of the city is about 475,000; however, it is estimated to be more than 660,000 — approxim ...

References

External links