Výroba a sídla v době laténské

The study region, which lies in the catchment area of the upper course of the Loděnice stream in the NW part of Central Bohemia, is highly conspicuous archaeologically. Unusual quantities of certain types of archaeological finds are noteworthy, appearing during every survey, this being in particular the case for pieces of sapropelite and lumps of bloomery slag. The strange black discs - the cores of sapropelite bracelets manufactured in the La Tène period have even been given the popular name of "fallen stars" by local villagers. The whole of the study area intersects the Kounov coal seam, which is accompanied in its overburden by the black material - Kounov-sapropelite (švartna in Czech). The outcrops of the seam were exploited during the La Tène period (LT B2-C1, i.e. from the 3rd to the beginning of the 2nd centuries BC), as were the iron-rich materials that are also to be found in the vicinity of the seam. Both sapropelite working and iron production characterise most of the La Tène settlements in the region. The attention that has been devoted to this area was heightened by the discovery in 1943 of the stone head of a "Celtic hero" at Mšecké Žehrovice, associated with a La Tène period quadrangular enclosure. Between 1979 and 1988, archaeological excavations were undertaken on the site, and their results, particularly as regards the local industrial settlement, prompted further archaeological surface survey projects. Of these, the first was a traditional site-oriented fieldwalking project complemented by some excavation work (1991-1992), while the second (1993-1995) was undertaken using a random sampling methodology over a larger contiguous area, and its results were then processed with the GIS software and by mathematical methods (Neustupný - Venclová, this volume, with refs.). The aim has been to demonstrate the settlement and production pattern of the study region in the La Tène period, and in so doing to compare the results of the traditional approach and (for Bohemia) non-traditional types of surface survey. At the same time, parallel research was conducted into the manufacture and distribution of sapropelite ornaments, and in the compilation of the database of production sites and sapropelite end products in Bohemia that forms part of this volume.