A small, mysterious site in the Czech Republic’s Šumava mountains could have been a nature retreat for religious hermits 2200 years ago.
At an elevation of 802 metres, it is the country’s highest site from the late Iron Age, hidden in a forest near a river in Bohemia. Archaeologists found it in 2011 after an uprooted tree exposed pottery fragments from the La Tène culture. But its purpose has baffled researchers.
Now, a recent excavation hints at it being a retreat for religious hermits similar to Celtic druids. “It’s the most probable explanation after eliminating all other options,” says Dagmar Dreslerová at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, who led the study.
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She and her team unearthed around 500 pottery shards which originated from over 100 ceramic containers dating from 190 to 50 BC. Of the fragments, 24 were tested for fatty substances called lipids, which revealed traces of cow fat and olive or hazelnut oil.
What is more, a chemical was present that forms only when fat is heated above 300˚C. This suggests some pots were used for cooking beef or for making tallow to preserve meat or produce candles.
No signs of farming, animal slaughter or tools were found at the site, indicating the beef was cooked and potted elsewhere. Seasonal fishing, hunting or mining might explain why food was brought in, but there was no evidence of such activities.
A long-distance trade route is thought to have passed nearby, offering the possibility that path maintenance workers, guides or guards used the site. However, the olive or hazelnut oil suggests something else. “It’s unlikely these people would have such a luxurious item,” says Dreslerová.
But people of high social standing such as druids could have. Druids are confined to Celtic culture, but religious specialists are known to have existed in Iron Age Bohemia. So it is plausible they retreated to secluded areas such as caves or forests to spend time as hermits or to teach.
“It’s a very competent piece of work and their range of possible interpretations are sensible,” says Barry Cunliffe, a European archaeology specialist at the University of Oxford. “That it is a ritual or religious site is possible but unproven.”
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