Content:
Czech archaeology has a number of published inventories of hillforts and related sites. Although these are undoubtedly important works, they are collections of inconsistently structured information whose value for recording and research is limited. Even relatively new inventory works suffer from shortcomings, in particular incompleteness, problematic geographical delimitation of sites, confusions or issues on the theoretical level.
A few years ago, a comprehensive register began to be created within the framework of the Archaeological Map of the Czech Republic, which aims to offer an authoritative database of Czech prehistoric enclosures. There were included all archaeological sites that were at any point in the past (whether true or false) considered to be the remains of any type of prehistoric or early medieval hillfort or similar type of enclosure. This evidence thus includes a variety of site types ranging from Neolithic rondels, through Eneolithic ditch enclosures, Bronze Age and Iron Age hillforts or fortified upland settlements, to early medieval enclosures. It also includes objects that are mistakenly identified with hillforts (remains of field systems, vanished roads or mining traces, etc.), but which still appear in the literature and their existence has not been disputed.
All enclosures have been located with the greatest possible precision, delineated in GIS as polygons based on available data, incl. LiDAR, geophysics or aerial images, described in terms of recorded activity area types for specific archaeological periods and linked with references to sources. The database also includes information on the likelihood of the accuracy of the interpretation as a prehistoric enclosure and the state of preservation of above-ground relics. Each enclosure is given a unique identifier and the dataset is openly published in the AMCR Digital Archive (https://digiarchiv.aiscr.cz/). The paper summarizes our approach, gives an overview of the contained data and points out theoretical and methodological pitfalls.
Keywords:
Czechia, prehistoric enclosures, digital archiving, databases, sites records