Lietuvos archeologija / Lithuanian Archaeology

Gimbutas’ topicalisation of gynocentrism was of great significance in stimulating the study of figurines, influencing the humanities beyond archaeology, as well as a variety of international socio-political movements. The creations have a long tradition of being linked to fertility and suffer a predominantly onesided treatment in research. In this context, the intellectual history of the interpretation of prehistoric social living conditions is analysed, critically questioned and the extent to which historically evolved role models are present in past and recent research is examined. On the basis of selected examples, the methods of ethnological analogy and stylistic analysis are used to contribute to the interpretation of the decorations of the SE European Neolithic material. Additionally, an application-related interpretation is proposed for the Cucuteni-Tripolye figurines of the Poduri set. The second part addresses the impact history of Gimbutas’ opus. Regardless of the justified methodological criticism, its various imprints on e. g. ethnography, feminist studies, as well as outside academia will be acknowledged. The contributions profoundly inspired a variety of societal currents in the USA, Germany and post-socialist Lithuania.

Disc brooches from the Roman Iron Age are very diverse in style and execution throughout Europe. Their diversity in the tarand cemetery areas of modern day Estonia and North Latvia is also very high, with many unique traits and some multidirectional infuences being observable. Therefore, regionality in the tarand cemetery areas will be studied through these diverse brooches in order to see whether some motifs, typological groups, or alloys were more preferred in some areas than in others. A typological and compositional approach has been adopted for this. Based on the distribution of certain groups of disc brooches, their surface treatment, and the direction of the infuences, two distinct areas can be seen: Northeast Estonia and Southeast Estonia–North Latvia. !e study shows how people in the tarand cemetery areas adopted foreign techniques and stylistic features in accordance with local preferences and used them in their local culture.