Human Settlement ENG

The oldest evidence of human settlement and activity in the territory of the Geopark is dated back to the Early Stone Age (approx. 80,000 years ago) when hunter-gatherers settled rock crevices and overhangs (for instance Bělá u Rozumova). However, more extensive settlement of the landscape only took place in Middle Stone Age (9,000-5,000 BCE) in the area of rock towns, valleys around Trosky, and Žabakor. In this period, prominent mining for precious stones is documented at Kozákov; the stones served for chipped stone industry. Various rock crevices were used as workshops, for instance the caves Babí pec, Kudrnáčova pec, Ludmilina jeskyně, etc. The Later Stone Age (approx. 5,500-4,200 BCE) saw the rise of the first actual agriculturalists, who settled fertile land around the Jizera river. They brought along the know-how of stone processing, which was used for manufacturing of grounds stone tools made of a durable rock called metabasite. Its outcrops are found in Jizerské Hory (Jizera Mountains) in a line between Jablonec nad Nisou and Tanvald. The mined rock was roughly processed in the place of extraction, and manufacturing of tools took place farther downstream the Jizera (for instance in Ohrazenice u Turnova, Nudvojovice, and Příšovice). At present, we know that in the Later Stone Age, metabasite from the Jizera Mountains was distributed to a vast area including Bohemia, Moravia, western Slovakia, southern Poland, Germany including Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, and the Netherlands. In the southern part of the Geopark, settlement was concentrated around Sobotka, in the basins around Jičín and Železnice, the region of Prachovské Skály (Prachov Rocks), and around Veliš. At the turn of the Later Stone Age and the Chalcolithic (approx. 4,200-2,000 BCE), the first fortified settlements are built (for instance Čertova Ruka near Mašov and Mužský near Mnichovo Hradiště). The Jizera region yielded finds of the Řivnáč culture (Mužský-Klamorna, Pěnčín, etc.) and the Globular Amphora culture (Pěnčín). Towards the end of the Chalcolithic, our territory was settled by people of the Corded Ware culture (Turnov, Svijanský Újezd, etc.).