Shaping the Landscape in Late Iron Age Europe

The Terraced Mountains of the Dacians

Dados Bibliográficos

ID19492002
AutoresAurora Pețan (0000-0001-7373-8418, West University of Timişoara, autor correspondente)
Ano2026
Volume6
Fascículo2
Páginas19
Data de publicação2026-06-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoHumans (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2673-9461 • E-ISSN: 2673-9461
EditoraMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/humans6020019
OpenAlexW7163216206
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas23

Large-scale landscape transformation in mountainous regions during the Late Iron Age remains insufficiently integrated into broader debates on European urbanism. In southwestern Transylvania, extensive slope terracing came to define the spatial core of the Dacian political centre. This study examines the scale, organization, and social implications of this engineered landscape using high-resolution LiDAR data and spatial modelling. Over 4000 anthropogenic terraces were identified, and their spatial patterning was analysed through Kernel Density Estimation (300 m and 800 m radii) in order to evaluate intensity gradients and territorial articulation. The results indicate compact nuclei of high terrace concentration embedded within a broader, yet continuous, system structured along ridge corridors and circulation routes. The spatial correlation between terrace density and elevated architectural features suggests differentiated building practices and hierarchical organization within a territorially extensive settlement pattern. Rather than representing isolated fortified sites, the Dacian mountain core emerges as an integrated and infrastructurally connected landscape. These findings support the interpretation of the area as a form of Late Iron Age low-density urbanism, in which habitation, mobility, and social differentiation were materially embedded in large-scale topographic modification

Bronze Age · Erosion · Iron Age · Ridge · Settlement (finance) · Spatial ecology · Spatial variability · Terrace (agriculture) · Ancient and Medieval Archaeology Studies · Archaeological Research and Protection · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies