Hill-fort (Gorodishche) in the village Malaya Kopanya

The village Malaya Kopanya (укр: Мала Копаня) is located at an altitude of 211 m above sea level on the banks of the river Tisa. It is not far from district center Vinogradov and it`s separated from «Black Mountain» (Chornaya Gora, 565 masl). The village is famous for its hill-fort (Gorodyshche) for several years since the time of the Soviet Union and it is located one and a half kilometers from the center of the village. More precisely, not the hill-fort is famous but the place where it was and where for many years the excavations conduct. The hill-fort reffers to the Dacian culture and occupies an area of almost 5 hectares of which only 2 were investigated. Dacians lived in the territory of present day Transcarpathia 2000 years ago. Culture began to develop approximately in the 60th BC, when the first Thracian tribes headed by Burebista, King of Dacia, submitting to his authority the huge Thracian territory of modern Moravia in the West to the Bug River in the East of the Carpathians in the North to Dionisopolis (modern Balchik) in the South, came to Upper Potyssya in search of prey. The first that they captured were Celtic settlements in the tract Halish and Lovachka not far from Mukachevo. Soon all the territory from Mukachevo to Vinogradov was invaded and inhabited.

This is a brief historical note. Thracians are ancient tribes lived in the east of the Balkan Peninsula and adjacent territories. They spoke Thracian language which is related to the Indo European language group. The historical regions: Thrace (Bulgaria and European Turkey), Dacia (Romania), Bithynia and Misia (northwestern Anatolia). Dacia (lat. Dacia) is a historical region of ancient times. It is a vast territory of mountain and plain lands adjacent to the north of the Balkan Peninsula and located between the Tisza, the Danube, Dniester and the Carpathians.

We return to the hill-fort. According to the research of the scientists, it was one of the centers of Dacia of pre-Roman time. The excavation of the hill-fort continues already 30 years, as the result, the cultural layer was mastered to 3,5 meters in depth. There were found the remnants of dozens of residential buildings, some hundreds of outbuildings, and a series of fortifications. The hill-fort was protected by dozens of defensive walls. Among the finds: coins, jewelry, pottery, tools of labor, equipping and armament of warriors, things of everyday life. By the way, the coins are found every year and collection is constantly increased every time. The collection includes two Celtic coins, four imperial, four Illyrian drachms, five Roman republican denarius, five dozen Dacian tetradrachmas. As scientists assume many coins were minted in the territory of the settlement. Part of them are silver, some copper and bronze coins.

In 2008 an expedition was excavating the hill-fort, stumbled upon a burial of men and women and many of jugs with human perishable leftovers. Men's remnants were with curved swords and daggers, women`s with jewelry. At that time, it was first found the gold ornament weighing 450 grams, in 80th -70th BC. It was also excavated the weapons of the horsemen : 4 Dacian and 7 Celtic swords, which also are dated from the first century BC. A little later, it was found the missing parts of Jewelry (torkvesa), which weighs 0,5 kg and most recently gold bracelets were found.

And finally, there are some photographic material. No comments, just pictures.

19.04.2011. 08:47

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