The workshop is dedicated to a specific group of late antique settlements on hills that characterised the image of large parts of Roman and post-Roman settlement during Late Antiquity. Apart from the previous interpretations of these settlements as new centres of secular and ecclesiastical power, questions about their economic basis and trade relations have so far received little attention. However, it is clear that the (re)development of mineral resources was decisive for the foundation of numerous hilltop settlements. Access to resources combined with control over local mining and handicrafts testifies to the importance of a newly established elite in such places.

The workshop will discuss the economic production processes and networks that emerged in individual parts of Europe and changed Roman structures. Against the backdrop of the distribution of products and raw materials, the focus will also be on the infrastructural integration of settlements and their trade contacts in order to understand and compare their local and global connections.

The International Scientific Network »LAHIS« (=Late Antique Hilltop Settlements in Europe) was founded in 2022. It provides an interdisciplinary and international platform for the exchange and dissemination of knowledge on hilltop settlements, which had a decisive influence on settlement landscapes in many parts of Europe from the late 3rd to the 7th century AD.

The LAHIS network comprises forty archaeologists and historians from eighteen European countries. By adopting a pan-European perspective on hilltop settlements, it aims to pool research expertise and to compare and discuss theories, methods, and the current state and future prospects of research.

Concept and Organisation
Orsolya Heinrich-Tamáska, Ordanche Petrov, Lukas Werther, Marcus Zagermann