Development Of Fortification Research Articles

Fortifications and the early modern city—between advantage and barrier. Example of Wrocław/Breslau, Poland

SUMMARY The modernization of fortifications during the early modern period and their spatial development had a profound impact on the structure of the city and the everyday lives of its inhabitants. Using the example of the city of Wrocław/Breslau in Silesia (present-day Poland), we discuss the changes that occurred in the perception of fortifications between the Habsburg period, when the city authorities were responsible for their development, and the Prussian period, when the development of fortifications was a subject to central authority. Drawing on written, iconographic, and archaeological sources, we obtain a comprehensive picture of the process of city prestige-building through investments in fortifications. Additionally, we observe fortifications as a factor that negatively influences spatial development and diminishes the quality of life in the city. Preserved documents allow us to trace the losses incurred by residents and institutions due to the expansion of fortifications.

NEW RESEARCH OF FORTIFICATION OF THE BASIVKA HILL-FORT

Defensive structures are the integral part of any fortified settlement. Their study requires significant labor costs, so usually the earthen constructions haven’t received enough attention from the predecessors.
 Basivka hill-fort is definitely the key settlement of the Scythian Age in the Sula River basin. Its total area is approximately 170 ha. The central, residential part is located on three well-fortified capes. Not all fortification areas were created simultaneously but had developed dynamically in time and space. Successful usage of natural topographic features at this settlement is combined with the basics of defense tactics.
 Modern agricultural activity and dwelling construction led to significant damage,and in some places to the destruction of earthen structures of Basivka hill-fort. This is especially true of the Great Outer Rampart which is well-preserved only in the eastern part.
 The complexity of the modern terrain and the significant forest cover were the determining factors that hindered the preparation of the most accurate topographic plan of this site. The paper presents a new plan of central fortifications but it also needs to be revised which is a matter of the future.
 A separate issue of the work is devoted to the placement of ancient entrances, which, like the fortification in general, could change over time and move from the main to the role of secondary ones.
 The paper highlights the results of excavations of the Great Basivka Rampart which were conducted in 2020—2021. It is ascertained that the defensive structures cover the cultural layer of the settlement. In general, valuable information was obtained regarding the development of fortifications in the Ukrainian Forest-Steppe of Dnieper Left-Bank area in the Scythian Age.

PRESUMABLE VARIANTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF FORTIFIED SETTLEMENTS OF THE DNIEPER-DON FOREST-STEPPE IN THE SCYTHIAN AGE

The intensive constructing of fortified settlements has turned the Dnieper-Don forest-steppe into a huge building site since the second half of the 6th century BCE. Mass development of fortifications has begun. Despite the local features related with topography and the availability of building materials, it is possible to distinguish some common vectors.
 The hillforts are traditionally perceived by researchers as static structures that have «frozen» in their original forms. Recent archaeological researches on the Tsyrkuny, Bilsk and Mokhnach hillforts in the Forest-Steppe, confirmed by the series of planographic observations on the other sites, allow us to classify some features of the development of fortified settlements.
 On the one hand, hillforts are formed on the basis of the unfortified settlements. Another part was initially built as fortification. Simple forms of defensive structures and poorly saturated cultural layer are the characteristic features of the fortifications of so-called «shelter-fortresses». The review of the sources allowed us to say that these sites are hillforts which, for some unknown reasons, were not settled down, capturing the first stage of the existence of fortifications, and their specific cultural layer cannot be the evidence of their belonging to certain cultural and economic type.
 The series of cross-sections of fortifications indicated the traces of restructuring and repairing of individual defensive lines throughout the entire period of their use. There are examples of expanding the area of the hillfort due to constructing of the new defensive structure as an extension of the main line or the creation of the fortification on the next cape that could be united by the common rampart. Also are known the examples of the special reduction of the area of hillfort. Similar situation is observed at the last stage of the Bilsk archaeological complex.
 In the Late Scythian period, a new type of monuments appeared on the territory of the Dnieper-Don Forest-Steppe, fortifications consisting of the acropolis (central fortified part) and large household yard.
 The current research allows to critically evaluate the popular models of classifications and the validity of their application for historical reconstructions.

Hillforts. From Emergence to Present Day

Hillforts. From Emergence to Present Day

Military use of geologists and geology: a historical overview and introduction

Abstract Napoleon Bonaparte was, in 1798, the first general to include geologists as such on a military operation. Within the UK, the following century saw geology taught, and national geological mapping initiated, as a military science. Nevertheless, military geologists were not deployed on a battlefield until World War I, first by the German and Austro-Hungarian armies and later and less intensively those of the UK and USA. Geologists were used primarily to guide abstraction of groundwater, construction of ‘mine’ tunnels and dug-outs, development of fortifications and quarrying of natural resources to enhance or repair supply routes. Only the USSR and Germany entered World War II with organized military geological expertise, but the UK and later the USA made significant use of military geologists, albeit far fewer than the c. 400 in total used by German forces. Military geologist roles in World War II included most of those of World War I, but were extended to other aspects of terrain evaluation, notably the rapid construction of temporary airfields and factors affecting cross-country vehicular movement (‘going’). After 1945, more military geologists were used in the USA than Germany or the UK, in these and wider roles, but mostly as civilians or reservists.

The Defence of Medieval Brittany: a survey of the establishment of fortified towns, castles and frontiers from the Gallo-Roman period to the end of the Middle Ages

The development of fortification in Brittany from the Gallo-Roman period to the end of the Middle Ages has recently attracted considerable local interest. Much valuable work has been done on both the documentary sources and the archaeological evidence but the results of these researches have not significantly entered into general discussions nor have these two aspects of the subject always been successfully combined by architectural historians and archaeologists. This paper aims to provide a basis for comparison with developments elsewhere by suggesting a chronology and examining some of the principal social and political factors leading to successive campaigns of fortification. In particular the development of feudal society, the role of the frontiers with neighbouring provinces and the relationship of dukes of Brittany with their leading lords (especially centring on problems of control, licensing and financing of castle and urban defences) are dealt with during a period when the duchy enjoyed a considerable degree of political independence from the crown of France.