History of the structure

The hillfort in Klenica was erected most probably around the mid-9th century. It is thought that it was destroyed and abandoned before the mid-10th century. Such dating was determined on the basis of ceramic materials coming from excavation works and results of dendrochronological studies.

Site description

Location of the heritage site. The hillfort is located 1,000 m to the south-east of the centre of the village, 300 m to the west from the road running from Klenica to Bojadła, close to a drainage ditch. The site, with a landscape form standing out against the surroundings, is situated on an arable field.

Site description. The hillfort in Klenica has a shape of a hill with a width of approx. 120 m, levelled to the height of approx. 1.5-2 m due to intense land use. It belongs to a group of ring-shaped, lowland hillforts occurring in northern Poland and eastern Germany. The hillfort in Klenica was a single-component complex, erected on an oval floor plan, the external dimensions of which amounted to approx. 90-100 m. It was intensely used, which is reflected in a layer of anthropogenic deposits with a thickness of nearly as much as 2 m.

Progress and findings of archaeological fieldwork activities. The hillfort in Klenica was discovered in 1936 by Dr Ernst Petersen, who carried out excavation works in that year. Owing to wide-ranging research and its results, the early medieval site found its way to the academic world as a complex consisting of a settlement and a small lowland hillfort, where distinctive ceramic forms were discovered, with regard to which a term “Tornow-Klenica pottery type” was introduced. In the course of the studies conducted in 1936 the cross-section of the rampart and a section of the moat were fully exposed. A fragment of a layer of anthropogenic deposits of considerable thickness was also exposed in the inner yard of the hillfort. Subsequent excavation works were performed in 2007 by a team supervised by Prof. Feliks Biermann PhD and Dr Dominik Nowakowski. As a result of this study, it was determined that the hillfort in Klenica was a single-component complex with an oval outline and external dimensions of approx. 90-100 m. The thickness of the layer of anthropogenic deposits amounted to nearly 2 m. Two settlement stages were separated in the excavations. In older build-ups, items were encountered that should be treated as hearths. Numerous fractions of pottery were acquired from that layer, including fragments of grain roasting vessels and multiple animal bones, mostly unburnt. In the next settlement stage, the level of the inner yard was raised through depositing yellow and grey sand with a thickness of 0.7 - 1 m. Traces of a residential building with a quadrangular, regular outline and walls that were most likely erected in the wattlework structure originate from that layer. The walls were reinforced with single pillars. During the studies performed in 2007 the structure of ramparts was partially determined: they were made of wood and clay and supplemented with relatively shallow encircling ditches. Two fundamental phases of fortifications were established within the hillfort reinforcements. Traces of burnt material were found in the heap of the younger rampart as well as inside the complex, which attests to the destruction of the hillfort in a fire, perhaps as a result of an invasion. In 2007 twenty-four samples of wood were obtained from the excavation dug in the rampart. They were subject to dendrological and dendrochronological analysis. Dates of tree felling obtained as a result of the analysis allowed a more precise determination of chronological framework than previously thought.

Visitor access. The hillfort is available on the outside all year round; however, access to the site is difficult in the plant vegetation period.

Author of the note: compiled by Dr Krzysztof Garbacz, National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Regional Branch in Zielona Góra, 27-11-2017

Bibliography

• Petersen E., Der Burgwall von Kleinitz Kr. Grünberg, “Altschlesien”, vol. 7, issue 1, Breslau 1937, pp. 59-75.
• Langenheim K., Der Burgwall von Kleinitz, “Grünberger Hauskalender. Heimatkalender für die Kreise Grünberg und Freystadt auf das Jahr 1938”, Grünberg i.
• Schles., pp. 36-37, II.
• Biermann F., Kieseler A., Nowakowski D., Od ogniska do zniszczenia pożarem. Grodzisko w Klenicy, gm. Bojadła, w świetle wyników nowych badań wykopaliskowych, [in:] Jaszewska A., Michalak A. (eds.), Ogień – żywioł ujarzmiony i nieujarzmiony. VI Polsko-Niemieckie Spotkania Archeologiczne. Garbicz, 5-6 czerwca 2008, Zielona Góra 2011, pp. 329-348.