Lietuvos istorijos institutas

In the 14th century, the Teutonic Order and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania engaged in severe armed conflicts whose central element was raids on enemy territory. Since nearly all written evidence was authored by one side in the conflict, the chroniclers of the Order, the reliability of the reports in respect to violence and cruelties is not clear. Therefore, archaeological discoveries are of great importance for understanding these wars and their reality. An instructive example is the deserted town of Alt-Wartenburg in Warmia (Barczewko near Olsztyn, Northeast Poland), which was captured and destroyed in 1354 by a Lithuanian army and afterwards abandoned. Recent research has revealed considerable traces of the town’s violent end: burnt houses, weapons, skeletons of the victims, and other traces of ravages and violence. The site and the finds are discussed against the background of the written record, the warfare of its time and region, and other archaeological witnesses of this period.

Lietuvos vėlyvųjų viduramžių – ankstyvųjų naujųjų laikų (XIV a. pabaigos – XVIII a.) senkapių kontekste išsiskiria kapai, įkasti į geležies amžiaus pilkapius. Iki šiol Lietuvoje rasta mažiausiai 400 vėlyvų kapų 26-iuose pilkapynuose, dar bent apie 25-is pilkapynus turima fragmentiškos informacijos. Ankstyviausi kapai senuose pilkapiuose datuotini XIV a. pabaiga – XV a., tačiau masine tokia laidosena tapo XVI–XVII a. Pagrindinis šio papročio sklaidos arealas yra Žemaitija ir Šiaurės Lietuva. Įranga, orientacija, įkapių komplektais šie kapai niekuo neišsiskiria iš istorinių laikų senkapių. Kapinynų sugrįžimą į senuosius pilkapynus reikia sieti su Lietuvos christianizacija. Viena vertus, iki XVI a. Lietuvos provincijos gyventojų evangelizacija nebuvo intensyvi, todėl neįsitvirtino laidojimas bažnyčių šventoriuose ir krikščioniškos apeigos. Kita vertus, Reformacijos ir ypač Kontrreformacijos laikotarpyje sutankintas bažnyčių tinklas, išaugęs Bažnyčios spaudimas laikytis krikščioniškų laidojimo apeigų bei lupikiški mokesčiai už jas, krikščionybės autoriteto stoka galėjo skatinti gyventojų priešiškumą. Jiems teko ieškoti nuošalesnių vietų kapinynams, ir jas kai kurios bendruomenės rado senuose pagoniškuose pilkapynuose.

Straipsnis skirtas aptarti iki šiol Lietuvoje detaliau nenagrinėtam antriniam daiktų panaudojimui. Pavyzdžiu pasirinkti geležies amžiaus pentiniai kirviai ir kapliai, kurie buvo deformuoti ir perdaryti, pakeičiant jų funkciją. Nepaisant korozijos, atrodo, kad tiek kirviai, tiek kapliai prieš persukimą buvo naudoti. Kirvių ir kaplių gamybos technologija panaši, o juos persukti nesunku. Tačiau vargu ar galima šį veiksmą paaiškinti tik praktiniais motyvais. Straipsnyje bandoma išaiškinti galimas tokios transformacijos priežastis. Persukti kirviai ir kapliai nagrinėjami kaip žmogaus elgsenos pavyzdžiai, atskleidžiantys ne tik funkcinius, bet ir socialinius, komunikacinius bei psichologinius antrinio daikto panaudojimo aspektus.

The SE Baltic Bronze Age is characterized by a lack of indigenous metalwork traditions as it had been a time when metal finds were predominantly imported or were cast locally, but in foreign styles. This paper analyses the bronze casting remains found in the SE Baltic and discusses the role of these production sites within a wider European network. Through typological identification of the negatives in casting moulds, we assess predominantly Nordic artefact casts, in which the production of KAM (Kel’ty Akozinsko-Melarskie) axes was distinguished at a higher frequency. We hypothesize that several coastal regions were temporarily settled by people of Nordic origin who participated in an exchange with local SE Baltic communities via itinerant bronze production. Foreign settlement areas as indicated by stone ship burials are known in Courland and S Saaremaa as well as in N Estonia and the Sambian Peninsula. From these territories, further communication was developed with local communities settled mostly in enclosed sites in coastal areas and inland, in the vicinity of the River Daugava, the SE Latvian and NE Lithuanian uplands, and the Masurian Lakeland.

We present a unified model for the movement of agricultural frontiers based on the construction of the parallax shift and its relation to normalizable science. The model is based on data from the Baltic Basin, where for thousands of years, complex and semi-complex hunter/gatherer/fishers and agriculturalists remained in an equilibrium state. When agriculturalization occurred, it occurred in a punctuated

Šventoji 2/4, which is situated on the Lithuanian coast, is among the most important East Baltic Stone Age sites due to the extraordinary preservation of archaeological finds in waterlogged gyttja and due to extensive excavations ongoing since 1967. This paper presents the results of excavations in 2014 and subsequent laboratory analyses. This new research has allowed for the revision of the site’s chronology and function as well as provided valuable environmental data. In 3200–2700 cal BC the site was used as a fishing station constructed in the deepest part of the shallow lagoonal lake. Remains of various fishing gear and other human waste left during fishing expeditions accumulated there. Enormous amounts of cranial fish bones left during the initial processing of the catch that was carried out directly at the fishery indicate that cyprinids, pike, and zander were mostly caught at the site. The site most likely continued to be used in similar way during the beginning of the Neolithic, although Globular Amphora culture fishermen did not process fish on the site and transported the entire catch to dwelling sites instead.

Šventoji 43 is one of eight Comb Ware culture sites known in Lithuania at present. The site was excavated in 2013 and 2014 and revealed a homogeneous pottery assemblage, which was classified as Comb Ware and was radiocarbon dated to 3900–3650 cal BC. As a result of this dating, it has been found that Comb Ware is the oldest pottery type to have been produced in coastal Lithuania. In fact, the pottery assemblage of Šventoji 43 also suggests that Comb Ware originates from a distinct phase in the pottery sequence of coastal Lithuania that both predates all other phases from Šventoji pottery bearing sites and has not been previously recognised in other assemblages. Zooarchaeological analysis has revealed that the site was occupied during the early spring and mostly used for fishing zander and pike in the lagoonal lake and for hunting seals and forest game. The unique character of the flint industry, which combined hard hammer percussion and bipolar knapping that resulted in the production of microliths on irregular blades, suggests that the local Šventoji 43 community had Mesolithic roots. Furthermore, this evidence supports the hypothesis that Comb Ware had reached Lithuania through intense contact between East Baltic hunter-gatherers rather than due to a mass migration of the population from the Northeastern Baltic. The much wider distribution of Finno-Ugric hydronyms, compared to that of Comb Ware sites gives an impression that some other Subneolithic pottery types in addition to Comb Ware might have been produced by Finno-Ugric speaking people.

XX a. paskutiniais dešimtmečiais – XXI a. pradžioje Užnemunėje sistemingai buvo tyrinėjamos priešistorinės gyvenvietės. Per dešimtį sezonų aptikta per penkiasdešimt akmens, žalvario ir geležies amžių paminklų bei pavienių dirbinių radimviečių, kasinėti Kubilėlių, Žiūrių, Padusio, Aradninkų, Paveisiejų gyvenvietės ir kapinynai. Sąlygos keramikai išlikti Užnemunės paminkluose nebuvo palankios – kultūriniai gyvenviečių