Excavations and field projects, prospection and remote sensing
Roman forts and medieval castles are still prominent in Europe’s cultural landscapes. It is, however, little known and subject to further scientific investigation that people have been erecting fortified settlements with strong walls ever since the Early Bronze Age. Since the turn of the 17th to the 16th century BC, these fortifications served both as protection against attackers and as nuclei of power from which territories and transport routes could be controlled.
Picture: Summit plateau of Mount Ipf at Bopfingen with fortifications from the Bronze and Iron Age (photograph: R. Krause)