The strategic position at the southernmost river section of the Danube from the early Iron Age to the end of the Roman limes. Archaeological investigations of settlements and fortifications at the Tash Bair hill near Novgrad (Bulgaria)

多瑙河的最南端在保加利亚城市斯维什托夫和扬特拉河口之间，在现代，这段河流仍然具有重要的地缘战略意义。该项目基于先前的扩展调查，揭示了Tash hair山上的多阶段遗址综合体对于了解Yantra河下游的聚落系统的重要性。在第一个三年资助阶段，这些地点由跨学科合作使用一系列综合方法进行审查。塔什头发和它的周围，包括大部分的扬特拉低地，进行了密集的调查。对五个主要遗址进行了地磁调查，并对一些重要结构进行了有针对性的考古探测。我们的研究发现，从战略地理角度来看，这个山脊被认为是多瑙河最南端的一个重要地标。朝南的斜坡和直接从Jantra河口进入多瑙河的通道可以被认为是有利于定居在这里的基本地理因素。在中间的斜坡上，有一个属于青铜时代中晚期（约公元前1900年和公元前1400/1300年）的两相圆形围墙。在南部山脚的一个广阔的遗址上，自新石器时代晚期（大约2000年）以来，大型和部分设防的定居点不断发展。公元前5000年)。除此之外，在铁器时代早期（公元前8 / 7年）和中世纪早期（公元前8至11世纪早期）之间，沿着古老的延特拉曲流的堤防几乎完全定居下来。在研究项目的第二部分，计划工作的重点将是对尚未调查的聚落和工事结构进行有针对性的探索，以找出它们在聚落层次中的功能和位置。将利用这些地点的高科学潜力，通过扩展数据基础，更精确地描述Jantra河口的沉降过程，特别是关于连续性和非连续性的过程。此外，鲁汶大学（比利时）的一个工作组正在继续进行Jantra低地旧河曲流重建的地貌学研究。到目前为止获得的数据表明，环境条件的变化伴随着曲径的逐渐淤积，可能是中世纪早期之后塔什海尔和低地上所有定居点被完全放弃的决定性因素。该项目的研究结果将发表在一份综合出版物中，其中塔什头发的定居历史将嵌入多瑙河下游的史前和早期历史发展中。

The river Danube reaches the southernmost point of its course between the Bulgarian city Svishtov and the mouth of the Yantra River, and still in modern times this river section owned a geostrategic importance. This project is based on previous extended surveys that revealed the crucial importance of a multi-phase site complex on the Tash bair hill for the understanding of the settlement systems on the lower course of the Yantra river. In the first three-year funding phase, the sites were examined by a cross-discipline cooperation using a comprehensive range of methods. The Tash bair and its surroundings, including large parts of the Yantra lowlands, were investigated by an intensive survey. The five main sites were surveyed geomagnetically, and some important structures explored by targeted archaeological soundings. As a result of our research, it was found that this ridge was perceived as an important landmark on the southernmost section of the Danube River from a strategic- geographical perspective. The south-facing slope and the direct access to the river at the mouth of the Jantra into the Danube can be considered fundamental geographical factors that favoured the settling here. At the middle slope, a two-phase circular enclosure was located which belonged to the Middle and Late Bronze Age (around 1900 and 1400/1300 BC). At an extensive site on the southern hill foot, large and partly fortified settlements have repeatedly developed since the late Neolithic (approx. 5000 BC). Besides that, the embankments along the old Yantra meanders were almost completely settled between the early Iron Age (8th / 7th c. BC) and the early Middle Ages (8th to early 11th c.).In the second part of the research project, the focus of the planned work will be on targeted explorations of settlement and fortification structures that have not yet been investigated in order to find out their function and position in the settlement hierarchy. The high scientific potential of the sites is to be used to enable a more precise description of the settlement processes at the mouth of the Jantra, in particular with respect to continuity and discontinuity, by an extension of the data basis. Furthermore, the geomorphological research on the reconstruction of the old river meanders in the Jantra lowlands is being continued by a working group from the University of Leuven (Belgium). The data obtained so far indicate that the change in environmental conditions accompanied by a gradual silting up of the meanders was probably a decisive factor for the complete abandonment of all settlement sites on the Tashbair and in the lowlands after the early Middle Ages. The results of the research project will be published in an overall publication in which the settlement history on the Tash bair is to be embedded in the prehistoric and early historical development on the lower course of the Danube.