The Šumava mountains in the Czech Republic are home to a mysterious site where Iron Age religious hermits may have retreated Sergey Fedoskin/Getty Images

A small, mysterious site in the Czech Republic’s Šumava mountains could have been a nature retreat for religious hermits 2200 years ago.

At an elevation of 802 metres, it is the country’s highest site from the late Iron Age, hidden in a forest near a river in Bohemia. Archaeologists found it in 2011 after an uprooted tree exposed pottery fragments from the La Tène culture. But its purpose has baffled researchers.

Now, a recent excavation …