Mont-Terri Castle

The oppidum at Mont Terri at Cornol in the Swiss canton of Jura is a fortified hilltop settlement from the 2nd half of the 1st century BC, the mountain peaks of the Mont Terri is a four acre trapezoidal plateau, bounded on the south and west by steep slopes will.

The site has been used in the Neolithic period. Finds from this period are countless artifacts of flint and polished axes. Based on the finds of pottery sherds and a bronze pin with a pyramidal head is also a useful in the 14th century BCE, at the end of the Middle Bronze Age, can be assumed. Stray finds from the Early Iron Age have a woman's grave. Also in the La Tène period, named after the Swiss town of La Tène, stood here already an oppidum.

Middle of the 1st century BC, during the time of the Gallic War, Gaius Julius Caesar in 58 BC led against the Helvetii, burnt down the settlement. A little later the hill was fortified. A massive wall of a container filled with stones and earth timber framing ( Murus gallicus ) and a cover of a dry stone wall, which was reinforced with vertical posts, originated in the north and east. The inhabitants of the settlement left their pottery ( including wine amphorae from Italy), brooches, coins and a bronze Weinsieb. From the second half of the 3rd AD to the middle of the 4th century BC a surrounding built on the remains of the old Walls Palisade the area.