Ancient site · Settlement
Biskupin
Biskupin in north-central Poland was a fortified wooden town on a marshy island, built by people of the Lusatian culture. Tree-ring dating shows its oak logs were felled between 747 and 722 BCE.
About a hundred log houses of the same size and plan stood in neat rows along streets paved with planks, all inside a timber rampart. A schoolteacher and his pupils found it in 1933. Parts of the town have been rebuilt as an open-air museum.
- Dates
- built c. 747–722 BCE; lived in into the 6th century BCE
- Still standing
- Yes
- Location
- 52.79° N, 17.74° E
How we know
No writing existed; tree rings in the oak timbers show when the trees were cut, and radiocarbon dates the later use.
Nearby sites
- Nebra sky disc find site (Mittelberg) disc buried c. 1600 BCE
- Hallstatt salt mines and cemetery c. 1200–350 BCE (prehistoric mining)
- Tollund Man (find site) died c. 405–384 BCE
- Heuneburg 7th–5th century BCE (mudbrick wall c. 600 BCE)
- Ötzi the Iceman (find site) died c. 3230 BCE
- Sarmizegetusa Regia 1st century BCE – 106 CE
Related
- Urnfield culture archaeological culture
- The world in 1000 BCE: Out of the Collapse chapter