Ipf

The Ipf mountain was already inhabited in the Neolithic, and fortified since the Late Bronze Age (1200-800 BC). It had an important function and flourished in the late Hallstatt and early La Tène period (6th / 5th century BC) as a supra-regional center of power and hub in the long-distance trade network. [5]

Integrated in the archaeological layers of the late Hallstatt period are the foundations of two dry stone walls, which are aligned parallel to the slope edge. The oval summit plateau (diameter about 180 m) was formerly circumnavigated by a rampart, which carried a wood-stiffened wall about 5 m wide. About 15 m below a shallow slope ditch protects the plateau, the subsequent wall merges into the steep slope.

On the flat east side of the main wall is a moat, about 150 m long. Just 60 m to the east runs a third wood-stiffened stone wall. 50 to 60 m below the summit plateau finally runs a fourth wall around the south, east and north sides of the plateau, which is protected in the west by the steep slopes of the mountain. In the north, this wall, which is accompanied by a ditch, runs to the foot of the mountain and once protected three wells.

The fortifications of the plateau were constantly renewed and rebuilt over the centuries, as suggested by the Hallstatt stone foundations, which were found a few meters within the present slope. At the beginning of its settlement history the Ipf was not flat at its height as it is today. Over the centuries, the marginal areas were gradually filled up, until at some point the plateau was largely leveled. There is some evidence that this last transformation took place in the early La Tène period, in connection with the construction of the lower wall. The traveler from the east would then have been offered an impressive sight: the already imposing mountain was structured by the three white bands of limestone-faced post-slotted walls.

Fragments of Greek pottery were also found on the plateau dating from the Late Hallstatt period (6th century BC). The fragments consist of shards of black-figure Attic pottery representing a complete symposium set.


https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipf
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Digital reconstruction of the Ipf hill fort: https://www.zdf.de/dokumentation/terra-x/animation-der-keltenfestung-ipf-102.html