Lietuvos archeologija

The article surveys the prehistory of the Dovilai microregion (Klaipėda District) in light of research conducted in the framework of the ‘Archaeolandscape’ project. It discusses the microregion’s Stone and Bronze Age finds and presents radiocarbon dates from the vicinity of Baitai cemetery. On the basis of the Baitai and Šernai cemetery material, assumptions are made about the founding of two neighbouring communities and the possibilities of the existence of a so-called ‘central locality’ or several important settlements/farmsteads in the microregion in the 3rd century that determined the economic life of these two communities. In the future the search for traces of habitation in the vicinity of Baitai cemetery will be facilitated by a 2009 geomagnetic survey conducted by the University of Kiel Institute of Geosciences and the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (Schleswig-Holstein, Germany). The fields to the N of Dovilai hillfort were also surveyed. An excavation was used to check one strip of anomalies here. Unfortunately, no archaeological structures have so far been found. Traces of an archaeological site, i.e. a sherd of hand built pottery, were found in Rusliai. Attention is focused on the situation of Baitai village on the border of the lands of the Teutonic Knights (East Prussia), a border which could be an interesting future research object in respect to the formation of the historical landscape. The old cartographic material, which attests to localities that disappeared in the 20th century or earlier, is important for research into the microregion.