Archaeological excavations at the Zyndram’s Mountain near Maszkowice in Southern Poland revealed remains of the possibly oldest stone fortifications known in the country, dated back to the 16th-15th century BC. The team of archaeologists from Jagiellonian University in Kraków led by Marcin S. Przybyła discovered these stone fortifications underneath two younger settlements, younger dated to 1000-50 BC, and an older dated to end of the Bronze and beginning of the Iron Age. The fortifications are said to be even half a millennium older than the latter one.

The newly discovered settlement corresponds with the Otomani-Füzesabony culture people who might have come from South, from the lands of modern Hungary. The fortified settlement might have been a colony of these people. Other such sites are known in Trzcinica near Jasło but the fortifications there are made of dirt and wood and not stone.

Stone remains form two parallel walls, of which the interior one is formed of neatly fitted blocks that are often ca. 1 metre in length. The outer wall is said to have been even 2.7 metres high and until present even 4-5 layers of stone are preserved in the structure. Remains of a gateway were also discovered together with a 1.5 metre wide corridor leading to the hilltop and the inside of the settlement.

(after Nauka w Polsce, A. Maślak & M.S. Przybyła)