Acta Musealia

Archaeological site Bílavsko - Castle Chlum as a part of a prehistoric communication corridor

This article summarizes the newly acquired findings from the archaeological rescue excavation in 2018 in Castle Chlum near Bílavsko and from the following research activities of a NAKI II grant project "Historical Landscape on the Border of Silesia and Moravia" and sets them into a wider connection regarding to the importance of the surrounding region in prehistory. The artifacts distribution analysis from the mentioned site indicates that a part of the preserved fortification system could be dated back to prehistory and that it was secondarily used with various rates of intensity in the Middle Ages. Surprisingly, this applies to the area of the second north outer bailey, which has so far been considered to be more or less a Late Medieval part of the castle, used as a military camp.
A relatively specific position and the geomorphology of the site determines its role in the aim of populating the wider area of the Kelč Uplands. While its western, flatter part, which becomes later the Upper Morava Valley, has the character of an old settlement area, the settlement of the eastern, undulating part of the upland, has a rather peripheral character, that was populated only during certain periods. Interestingly, the prehistoric periods of its settlement correspond in time with the settlement of the south-eastern, the right-bank part of The Odra Gate. It manifests itself mostly in the period of the urnfield culture. The zone of the settlements at that time stretched from the big settlement concentration in the bend of the Rusava stream near Hulín to the north-east, upstream and along the foothills of the Hostýn Hills, on whose promontories there are several hillforts or hilltop settlements. These are followed by sites in the upper part of the Moštěnka stream and other enclaves in the surroundings of Kelč all to way to the Bečva river. After crossing the Bečva river meandering at Ústí, or more precisely at Černotín, the settlement carried on with settlement enclaves on the right bank of the Oder river stretching all the way to the Ostravice river in the Frýdek-Místek region. A possible Bečva branch heading into the heart of the Moravian-Silesian Beskids presumably had its significance. In the past the Kelč Uplands most probably represented a certain parallel alternative branch of the Moravian Gate, or more precisely its southern part - The Bečva Gate, which, in some prehistoric periods, seems to have been even more important.

Keywords: Chlum near Bílavsko - prehistory - hilltop settlement - communication corridor