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ARCHAEOLOGY SITES
Sami Raninen
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innasmäki of Ihala is situated on the west bank of Raisionjoki River. Linnasmäki is a sheer cliff. In Iron Age, hill fortresses were built to protect the settlements. They were mostly sheer hills or rocks, in which the lower slopes were fit up with banks of stone or dirt, and on them, palisades of wood. At Linnasmäki of Ihala, no defensive works have been found, but the typonyme - Linnasmäki meaning 'fortress hill' - and the central location of it in the middle of the Iron Age settlements points to the conclusion that Linnasmäki was used a refuge when in jeopardy. The ancient fortresses may have constituted an alert system which used signal fires to report if a hostile ship or anything like that was approaching.
In Southwestern Finland the system probably reached from the archipelago to the coast, so that surprise attacks could be avoided. The next ancient fortress near Linnasmäki resides in Rusko; when a danger was menancing, the guardian was able to see the smoke of the signal fire of Linnasmäki, and vice versa, if the danger was menancing from the inland areas. Nowadays the slopes of Linnasmäki Hill are covered with wood and there are three private dwelling houses.
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