FRÜHBRONZEZEITLICHE BEFESTIGUNGEN IM OBEREN ŽITAVATAL: PROZESSE VON SYNOIKISMOS UND DIOIKISMOS

During recent research in the Upper Žitava valley, previously unknown Early Bronze Age fortifications were discovered near Hul and Vlkas. They probably represented the seat of relatively small social groups. In the Žitava valley only the site Vráble-Fidvár grew beyond this early stage into a large settlement of an area of up to 12 ha. In the course of a process of synoicism, the other sites were abandoned voluntarily or involuntarily, and the social groups there probably moved to Vráble. We may assume that this has also led to social division and hierarchisation, with the newcomers being dominated by the small group that had initially occupied Vráble. At the end of the Early Bronze Age in the course of a kind of dioicism, the large settlement of Vráble was abandoned. Afterwards, small settlements again dominated the settlement pattern.