Already 2.5 thousand years ago, on the territory where the Königsberg castle was later built, there was a thriving settlement
During excavations on the territory of the Royal Castle of Königsberg, archaeologists encountered a sensational find: the remains of an ancient trading settlement were discovered. Archaeologists have concluded that already 2.5 thousand years ago, people lived on the territory where the king of Bohemia Ottokar Przemysl laid the foundation of the castle in 1255.
Archaeologists have been working on the castle grounds for several months
Photo: IKBFU I. Kant / kp.ru
“I believe that a real scientific discovery has been made,” says Edwin Zaltsman, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Researcher of the Sambi Archaeological Expedition. - These findings are unique in their kind, since they date back to about the 5th-3rd centuries BC. The settlement was miraculously preserved, and it was not destroyed during the construction of the castle. Thus, this is the first and very convincing evidence that people lived here already 2.5 thousand years ago, and maybe even earlier.
According to Zaltsman, the cultural layer was found in the area near the southwest tower, along the slope. Its thickness in some places reaches one meter.
“It’s dark gray in color and full of large pieces of stucco, which looks very uniform and clearly belongs to the same period,” explains Salzman.
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Remnants of molded utensils were found in the ancient cultural layer
Photo: IKBFU I. Kant / kp.ru
As they say in the Kant Baltic Federal University, the archaeological site was left by a group of tribes of the culture of the Western Baltic barrows, which were the predecessors and direct ancestors of the Prussians, who in turn inhabited the territory of the present Kaliningrad region in the first and early second millennia of our era. Moreover, judging by the density of finds, the settlement was a large center that existed for a long time. These tribes controlled the coast of the Baltic Sea and the gulfs and flourished thanks to the amber trade. From the 7th century BC Baltic amber begins to flow to Italy, where it becomes very popular with the Etruscans.
- The new settlement, apparently, was one of those that arose at the beginning of the Early Iron Age along the shores of the Vistula Lagoon and the rivers that flowed into it, the IKBFU notes.
Subsequently, the basements and foundations of the castle are planned to be preserved
Photo: IKBFU I. Kant / kp.ru
Excavations at the site of the Königsberg Castle, which is also called the Royal Castle, began in September this year. As the "Komsomolskaya Pravda" wrote, archaeologists managed to find the foundations of the corner towers of the western wing of the castle, the foundations of buttresses and other architectural elements. It is assumed that the basements of the castle will be mothballed and subsequently organically integrated into the museum and architectural complex of the western wing of the castle, which is planned to be restored for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. Kaliningrad, we recall, is one of the host cities of the World Cup.
FROM THE DOSSIER
What else did archaeologists find on the territory of the castle
In January 2014, sensational news spread around Kaliningrad - during archaeological work in the former Zakheim area, an unusual brooch was discovered - a medieval closure for clothes, which also served as a decoration. The metal circle consisted of separate images - shields with coats of arms, interspersed with smaller plates on which a cross is depicted. According to one version, the jewelry could have belonged to King Ottokar, the legendary founder of Koenigsberg.
And the most mysterious archaeological find on the territory of our city was a silver box, discovered back in 2005 on the territory of the Royal Castle. The box contained 11 occult objects, mainly rings. According to scientists, these items are related to secret magical rites that were performed in Königsberg in the Middle Ages by magicians and sorcerers who survived the Inquisition.
Kirill Alekseev