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chile. From 1946 to 1947 he worked in peru, as part of the virú valley survey, where he excavated the mound at Huaca Prieta. Data from this excavation not only proved the existence of pre-ceramic cultures on the Peruvian coast, but also established textiles as the major form of expression of ancient Andean culture. Bird continued to work at smaller sites in South America, but in his final years he worked in panama.
Bird received the Viking Fund Medal and the Order of the Sun of Peru. He was president of the Society of American Archaeology and chairman of the Anthropology Section of the New York Academy of Sciences. He received an honorary doctorate from Wesleyan University in 1958.
The site of Biskupin is located in Bydgoszcz Province in northwestern poland. It is an early–Iron Age fortified settlement belonging to the late Lusatian culture and dates to approximately 750–550 b.c. Biskupin is the country’s best known archaeological site both within Poland and outside of it.
Biskupin
(Klaudyna Kucharska/Archivum Fotograficzne Meseum Archeologicznego)
The settlement at Biskupin was situated on an island, defended by timber breakwaters, and fortified by ramparts of timber compartments filled with earth and stones. The earth embankments were usually built on a foundation of beams and secured by vertical piles. The gateways to the settlement were an important part of fortifications, and the main feature of each was an approach that was lined on both sides by massive palisade walls and was probably covered on the top.
The settlement inside was constructed according to a plan, with a regular network of streets and communication tracks. The main arterial road was the street leading around the ramparts, and there were eleven parallel streets perpendicular to the arterial road. There was a small square near each of the gateways. The settlement consisted of 104–106 rectangular timber
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