Lietuvos istorijos institutas

Tthe excavations conducted by the present author at Šventoji and Nida during 2006–2014, a survey of the earlier coastal Stone Age material, and new laboratory investigation results have allowed the beginning of agriculture on the Lithuanian coast and inland to be re examined. The obtained results show that Neolithisation did not last thousands of years in Lithuania and began not in the 5th or mid-6th millennium BC as had been thought before but was a comparatively rapid process that occurred as the result of the largescale migration of new inhabitants, the farmers and animal breeders of the Globular Amphora and Corded Ware cultures during 3200–2700 cal BC. The Lithuanian coast, owing to the richness of the lagoonal ecosystems was an exceptional location; at Nida and Šventoji distinctive Neolithisation trajectories with an important contributions by Globular Amphora culture immigrants and a mixed economy can be observed.

The Vishtynetskaya 1 site on the NW shore of Lake Vistytis (Lith. Vištytis) was first excavated by Vladimir Ivanovich Timofeev in 1981. The mixed cultural layer produced finds from the Bronze Age, Neolithic, and Mesolithic. A 2012 excavation on top of the dune yielded a representative Mesolithic inventory without any Neolithic contamination. The flint assemblage contains types characteristic of the Janisławice (Rus. Yanislavitse) and Neman (Lith. Nemunas) cultures including trapezes, triangles, and retouched inserts, but no Wieliszew type points typical of the Janisławice or tanged points typical of the Neman culture were found. This has lead to the supposition that contacts between the population of the Northern Janisławice culture and the late phase of the Neman culture occurred in this area and resulted in the formation of assemblages like those described in the following article.

The article presents the Trzciniec culture (Trzciniec cultural cycle), an Early and Middle Bronze Age archaeological phenomenon in Lithuania. It analyses various aspects of the concept and chronology of the culture and presents a history of the research in the culture’s territory. Priority is given to archaeological pottery, the main indicator for cultural identification. The article gives the main distinguishing features of the ceramic vessels, their types, their ornamentation, and their attribution to either the East-Trzciniec or West-Trzciniec culture. Finally the article analyses the Bronze Age cultural situation in the Eastern Baltic region and raises the question of whether the Trzciniec culture existed in Lithuania and in what form.

This article analyses the memoirs of Germany’s and Russia’s military and political figures Rüdiger Gustav Adolf von der Goltz, Pavel Bermondt, Gustav Noske and August Winnig, which are first of all analysed as a source for researching the genesis of modern statehood in the Baltic States. All the above authors of these memoirs admit and testify that they did not approve of nor support the emergence of the Baltic States’ statehood. Only Winning, as Germany’s representative for those states, formally gave his recognition when forced to do so by international circumstances, mostly under duress from the Entente countries, while Bermondt, factually supported by R. von der Goltz, tried to compromise the statehood of the Balts using military measures that the minister of war Noske and the entire German government did not even try to contain, whereas the Entente countries were incapable of doing so. Thus, international circumstances after World War I not only created the conditions for the emergence of the Baltic States’ statehood but also acted as obstacles for this statehood to exist, as the imperial aspirations of Germany, as well as Russia, remained vibrant and were still effective in the Baltic Sea region.