Prehistory

The results of long-term archaeological excavations show that the locality was occupied in two stages: first by people of the Lusatian Culture at the end of the Bronze Age and then by the Slavs during the Early Middle Ages.

The Lusatian Cultural Complex has formed during the Late Bronze Age, since approximately the mid-14th century BC. It also existed in the Final Bronze Age and on some territories it even continued in the Early Iron Age, which we also call the Hallstatt Period. The Lusatian Cultural Complex is internally subdivided into three phases: Lusatian, Silesian and Platěnice phases. Around the mid-5th century BC it has declined and was superseded by the dominant La Tène Culture which already represents the Late Iron Age. The hillfort of Chotěbuz-Podobora thus belonged to a vivid cultural sphere which in Silesia underwent a 900-year-long development.

The locality of Chotěbuz-Podobora was inhabited for the first time by people of the Silesian phase of the Lusatian Cultural Complex in the Final Bronze Age, at about the turn between the 10th and 9th centuries BC. This initial occupation was concentrated in the area of the acropolis. Probably at that time already a ditch was dug out separating the acropolis from later outer bailey. The occupation layers detected show that the settlement was captured at the beginning of the Early Iron Age, at about the end of the 8th century BC. After a settlement hiatus, the place was re-occupied by people of the Lusatian Culture in the 1st half of the 7th century BC. In this second phase gradually arose a rampart fortification which was still extended later, and a fully-fledged hillfort has emerged. At the end of the Hallstatt Period in the mid-5th century BC, Chotěbuz-Podobora was burnt down and local settlement ceased to exist until the arrival of the Slavs.

The subsequent centuries, which are called the La Tène Period, have proceeded under the sign of the genesis of the Celts. In the first century BC, the Celtic civilisation began to decline and was superseded in Central Europe by the Germans. In archaeology we speak of the so-called Roman Period. Since the 4th century then dramatic events have taken place which eventually resulted in an about 200-year-long Migration Period. At the end of this complicated and chaotic era, when the Western Roman Empire collapsed and the barbarian tribes laid the foundations of medieval European states, the Slavs appeared on the scene of history.