Abstract
The Causewayed enclosures phenomenon has been in the focus of European archaeology since the beginning of the last century. These monuments are amongst the characteristic manifestations of European agricultural prehistory.
Since the beginning of the interest in these monuments, there has been extensive discussion of the interpretation of their purpose. The spectrum of hypothetical interpretations of the purpose of these enclosures is very wide.
It ranges from their interpretation as strategic military fortifications, fortification of residential areas, through places of exchange and markets to sanctuaries with funerary function and worship of ancestral cult. Although unambiguous interpretation of these structures seems to be rather complicated, we believe that targeted research using a wide range of modern archaeological and natural science methods can at least in a general outline reveal the ways of construction and decline of individual enclosures, as well as the intensity and nature of their use and thereby contribute to the interpretation of their importance to prehistoric society.