Arturas Bakanauskas Aug 10, 2013:

motte and bailey The earthwork from a wooden castle is called a castle mound, not a hillfort. There is at least one archaeologist who would prefer the term motte and bailey, presumably for completely man-made hills as opposed to modified natural hills, however this has also not entered general parlance.

Arturas Bakanauskas Aug 10, 2013:

Need to check internet I wrote hillfort enclosure because that is the generic term. Some of these hillforts, however, existed during the Germanic Orders' crusades, mostly on the Nemunas in response to the Teutonic Knights. These are frequently called wooden castles and so castle terminology would apply, i.e. castle courtyard, without wooden or hill. To find out, you have to look for an official or semiofficial website that gives the prevailing view of what the fortification was called.

And while precious little remains of the structures, prompting most logical people to call it a castle or hillfort SITE, because hillforts are considered to consist mainly of their banks and ditches, not the wooden palisade, hillfort is used rather than hillfort site. A hillfort site would refer to a location where the hilltop has been completely destroyed, for example, through river erosion or where the location has not been confirmed through archaeology, like Voruta.

Many of these hillforts are actually not hillforts, but promontary forts, but this concept is new to Lithuanian archaeologists and no one has yet to start using it.