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The inner curtain wall of Sterrenberg Castle, above Kamp-Bornhofen on the Middle Rhine (one of the two castles commonly known as the 'feuding brothers'), has traditionally been described in the literature, and lately also at the site itself, as a 'Romanesque' curtain wall. This made it appear to contrast with the forward, outer curtain wall, which - undoubtedly with good reason - is regarded as 'Gothic'. The essay does not call into question the assumption that the original - imperial - castle, which unquestionably dated from the 12th, if not even the 11th, century, already occupied the area extending from the inner (second) neck ditch. However, it does cast doubt on the supposition that, in terms of design and substance, the whole of the curtain wall that latterly existed dated back to the older ('Romanesque') phase, as one would not expect to find fully developed curtain walls constituting self-contained, defensively autonomous structures in the 11th and 12th centuries. The 'restoration' in 1977 extensively modified the original remains and rendered them unrecognisable; it has therefore become virtually impossible to conduct any architectural research into the fabric. The modifications made in 1977 were based primarily on a drawing dating from 1855, when the curtain wall still survived throughout its length. The same drawing was also responsible for the striking form of two merlons containing slits, whose presence has already prompted several commentators to suggest either that the parapet might have been altered or that the curtain wall might have been raised somewhat in the 'Gothic' period. Citing examples from the first half of the 14th century, the essay shows that the merlons reconstructed with crenels open at the top must have been based on an excessively direct acceptance of the evidence provided by the drawing from 1855 and that therefore the form that the battlement is likely to have taken in reality is indicative of the first half of the 14th century. Drawing on numerous photographs from the periods before and during the 1977 work, the author considers whether this means that the building as a whole must now be seen as dating from that time or whether this finding merely indicates a minor secondary alteration to the upper part of the curtain wall. Observations of the wall itself and a comparison both with sections of wall in the enceinte that can confidently be dated as older and with other elements of the main building lead to the conclusion that the curtain wall probably replaced an older, most likely lower and less defensively strong, rampart in the same place, a small part of which may well have been reused as a kind of base or substructure. The round-arched gateway which no longer exists but is visible in the 1855 drawing cannot be taken as evidence that the complex as a whole dates from the 'Romanesque' period, as similar ones were included in 14th-century buildings in many places. The author supposes that the original access route to the main building was located to the side of the current curtain wall and of the older rampart (to the northeast), taking the form of a ramp carved out of the rock, interrupted by a void. This access route must have been abandoned in the first half or middle of the 14th century, when the curtain wall was built, its function being taken over by the new gateway, which was designed more with considerations of prestige in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author first provides an overview of motte castles on the Lower Rhine, a well-known and well-researched region where they occur. In this lowlying landscape in the northern Rhineland, there are some 300 castles of the motte type. According to Hermann Hinz, the principal element of a motte castle is the elevation on which the main castle building stands, which gives it its name, a 'mound of earth which is most commonly conical but may on occasion be oblong or pyramidal'. Hinz regards them as forming part of the overall category of tower castles. As a rule, the hill was surrounded by moat or a moat/rampart system. In addition to the main castle building, there was often an outer ward. As distinct from a motte castle, a tower castle on a hill has its main building located on a hill, which may be either natural or artificial. The possible classifications then would be: tower castle (keep), tower castle on a hill, motte castle (on an artificial mound). The term 'Hausberg', which is mainly used in the Austrian region, refers essentially to what constitutes a tower castle on a hill. 'Hausberg' is therefore a broad term for castles on symmetrical/conical hills, while in cases where it has been shown, or may be assumed, that the hill is artificial, it constitutes a genuine motte. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Early-Bronze-Age settlement with an enclosure was unearthed in Brandýs nad Labem in 2007-2016. The settlement pits and the ditch yielded one of the richest collections of Early Bronze Age pottery in the whole of Bohemia. Since the previous knowledge about Early Bronze Age settlements is very poor, the site of Brandýs nad Labem offers a good opportunity to introduce the typology of settlement pottery and to sketch the possibilities of chronology and their relation to the burials. On the basis of the poor evidence for the classic phase of the Únětice culture and numerous analogies in the Věteřov culture, is it possible to date the ceramic ensemble to the post-classic phase of the Únětice culture, which in some cases contradicts the radiocarbon dates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]