GRADIŠČA – ODSEVI PRAZGODOVINSKE POSELITVE
HILLFORTS – REFLECTIONS OF PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT

Summary/Abstract: Hillforts are generally fortified settlements situated on hilltops. They are characterised by large stone earthworks containing carefully built walls in drywall technique; they can also be settlements fortified with earthen entrenchments in combination with wooden palisades. Since the Copper Age hillforts have represented a reflection of specific prehistoric settlement n the varied Slovenian landscape. The main period of their existence is the Early Iron Age. The memory of a distant settlement is mirrored in the Slovene toponym Gradišče and its derivatives, but also in the numerous churches often erected on hilltops with a proven prehistoric hillfort. The abandonment and overgrowth of the formerly worked surfaces are changing the entrenchments, walls and interiors of the settlements into debris, and together with excessive construction in some areas erasing the image that was a component part of Slovenian countryside less than a century ago.

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