the Neolithic · 13th–11th centuries BC · to the 4th century AD · 10th–12th centuries Before anyone thought of a castleEšte pred akýmkoľvek hradom

The hill made itself long before anybody built on it. It is a plug of hard volcanic rock — andesite — left standing at 570 metres when the softer ground around it wore away, and its top is broad and flat. That is rare, and it matters: most Slovak castles had to squeeze onto a narrow ridge, while here there was room to spread out. People noticed early. Archaeologists have found occupation on the summit in the Neolithic, again in the late Bronze Age between the 13th and 11th centuries BC, again from around the turn of the era down to the 4th century AD, and again in the tenth to twelfth centuries. Every one of those groups worked out the same thing about the same hill.Kopec vznikol dávno predtým, než naň niekto niečo postavil. Je to tvrdý sopečný peň — andezit — ktorý zostal stáť vo výške 570 metrov, keď sa mäkšie okolie zvetralo, a jeho vrchol je široký a plochý. To je zriedkavé a je to podstatné: väčšina slovenských hradov sa musela vtesnať na úzky hrebeň, tu bolo miesta dosť. Ľudia si toho všimli skoro. Archeológovia doložili osídlenie vrcholu v neolite, potom v neskorej dobe bronzovej medzi 13. a 11. storočím pred naším letopočtom, ďalej od prelomu letopočtu do 4. storočia a napokon v 10. až 12. storočí. Každá z tých skupín prišla o tom istom kopci na to isté.