The Lamata Hillforts in the Context of the Cultural Landscape’s Transformations

Abstract

[full article and abstract in Lithuanian; abstract in English]

The subject of this study is Lamata land hillforts in the context of transformations of cultural landscape. Before starting examine the main topic of this article there will be short summary about controversies of formation and ethnical dependencies of the microregion between Šilutė–Priekulė–Švėkšna in western Lithuania which, according to some scholars, had been existing as an ethnocultural Lamata construct in the (end of 6^th?) 7^th–13^th centuries. The main goal of the article is to examine the influence of the paleogeographical environment and fertile and non-fertile soils for an allocation and allocation changes of the Lamata hillforts in the 1^st millenium and in the beginning of the 2^nd millenium AD. Finally, there is examine the functional transformations of Lamata hillforts after 13^th century – the period when hillforts in Lithuania territory ceased to be used as a defensive fortifications.