What is a hillfort if not a very old, very permanent way of saying "stay out"? Obelijos piliakalnis, also known as Zaramkalnis or Obelytė III, is a fortification built into the northern end of a hill on the eastern shore of a lake. It dates back to the middle of the 1st millennium - beginning of the 2nd millennium.
The layout is surprisingly precise. The main yard measures 14 by 10 meters, protected by massive embankments. In the south, a rampart rises two meters high with a steep outer slope. About 3 to 4 meters below that first line of defense sits a 6-meter wide ditch, followed by a second embankment that is 1 meter high and 10 meters wide with a 2-meter high outer slope.
If you look at the western slope, you find a 5-meter wide terrace buried 8 to 9 meters below the yard. Today, the site is surrounded by a dendrological reserve, so the forest is allowed to grow thick around the ancient earth. It remains a quiet, sturdy relic of a time when history is preserved in the soil.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nicolo Ciampini
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