Unknown 2,000-Year-Old Settlement Hidden In The Polish Tuchola Forest Revealed By LIDAR

Conny Waters -  AncientPages.com - Finding an ancient unknown settlement is a great discovery, but this time archaeologists have achieved more than just that. Using LIDAR (light detection and ranging) technology scientists have found a 2,000-year-old settlement hidden in the Polish forest. The best news is – it’s completely preserved!

Credit: J. Czerniec

The ancient settlement is hidden in the thick Tuchola Forest, a place where one of the first of World War II occurred during the invasion of Poland in 1939.

Scientists say the discovered settlement can be compared to Biskupin, a 2,700-year-old defensive settlement of Lusatian settlers in north-west Poland.

"There are many indications that after the settlement was abandoned by its inhabitants in the first centuries of our era, it remained untouched. Therefore, its potential for further discoveries during excavations can be compared to the famous Biskupin settlement," said Mateusz Sosnowski, a PhD student at the Institute of Archaeology of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń Mateusz Sosnowski who conducts research in the Tuchola Forest together with Jerzy Czerniec, a PhD student at the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw.

Scans reveal the ancient site, together with adjacent fields covers an area of over 170 ha. "Images show that that individual fields could have several different owners," researchers say.

Credit: M. Jankowski

“Archaeologists usually only discover individual elements of settlements or other structures left as a result of human activity in ancient times. Such discoveries occur, for example, during construction of houses or roads, while conducting rescue excavations. A limited, small area is subject to research in such situations. There is also no possibility to conduct a wider search and check whether in the area, within a few dozen or several hundred meters, there are other equally interesting traces from the same period,” Science in Poland reports.

Credit: J. Czerniec

"Here we have a completely different situation: we have found previously unknown traces of ancient settlement in the Tuchola Forest. It is not a single house or fragment of a village. We have an entire settlement with its economic environment in the form of fields or pastures, all elements from the same period. It is unique!" Sosnowski said.

In the recent years, scientists have found many ancient mounds and important historical sites hidden in Polish forests, but nothing like this.

“It is uncommon to discover intact relics of arable fields dating back over 1,000 years. This way, from the very beginning of our research, we had a wider perspective and knew the layout of the settlement,” Sosnowski explained.

See also:

Giant 7,000-Year-Old Astronomical Calendar Discovered In Poland?

4000-Year-Old Large Bronze Age Cemetery Discovered In Lower Silesia, Poland

Discoveries In The Hanged Man Cave, Kostkowice, Poland

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The rectangular shape of the fields was somewhat surprising. “Their shape is reminiscent of the three-field system known in Poland only from the Middle Ages. Had it been used several hundred years earlier? We hope that our research will yield an answer also to this question" - the scientist adds.”

Expert analyses show that rye was grown in the fields and people who lived there had excellent knowledge of agriculture.

LIDAR technology is becoming a very valuable research tool allowing archaeologists to unearth ancient sites that are very difficult to access.

Written by Conny Waters – AncientPages.com Staff Writer