Castellieri culture

The Castellieri culture developed in Istria during the Early and Middle Bronze Age, and later expanded into Friuli, Dalmatia and the neighbouring areas.

The first Castellieri were built along the Istrian coast and show a similar monumental architecture with Cyclopean masonry which can also be found in the Mycenaean civilization.

[1] The Castellieri were fortified settlements, usually located on hills or mountains or, more rarely (such as in Friuli), in plains.

They were constituted by one or more concentric series of walls, of rounded or elliptical shape in Istria and Venezia Giulia, or quadrangular in Friuli, within which was the inhabited area.

A fundamental study of the pottery from the Castelliere settlements in Istria, which shows the integration of the Castelliere into the wider Early and Middle Bronze Age communication network, was published by Anja Hellmuth Kramberger based on the finds from Monkodonja.