Lietuvos archeologija

The Sub-Neolithic hunter-gatherer-fisher (HGF) groups and Corded Ware (CW) agro-pastoral group interactions within the Lithuanian portion of the Neman Basin around ~3000 BC did not follow the same patterns of agriculturalisation seen elsewhere in Europe during Neolithization. The variation of interaction in this agricultural frontier zone provides valuable insight into the way information exchange between groups drives the exchange of intercultural information and how information exchange between groups ultimately the adaptive morphogenesis of culture. This article’s primary author has already studied this outlier behaviour and the Unified Agricultural Frontier Model (UAFM) was proposed in volume 45 of this journal (Troskosky et al. 2019). The article presented in this volume is a companion piece to the 2019 publication which further explains and tests the mechanics underlying the UAFM. The UAFM applies self-organised criticality (SOC) to the hypothesis that marked cultural shifts are most likely to occur in response to increased levels of stress affect within a society. Stress affect is defined as the dissonance between encultured expectations of reality and phenomenologically lived reality within a population. To test this hypothesis, The Arithmetic Logarithm Illustrating Cultural Exchange (ALICE) model was developed; it provides confirmation that information exchange drives the behaviour of the UAFM across frontier zones. This model provides strong computational confirmation that information drives the behaviour of the UAFM across frontier zones. Theoretically, ALICE supports a general model for information flow between different cultures, facilitating corresponding cultural changes across any frontier. It models how increased levels of stress affect within interacting groups can lead to shifts of societal behaviour marked by a pattern of periods of equilibrium alternating

The theory of Indo-Europeanization of the continent can be seen as a focal point in all Marija Gimbutas’s work and in her role in the history of archaeology. This theory has combined various directions of her interests and revealed the theoretical and methodological foundations of her research. This paper recalls the theory itself and its development, as well as its importance for European archaeology. The vicissitudes of this theory, which can be metaphorically described as the triad: reception – rejection – revitalization, illustrate the transformations of archaeology in the second half of the 20th century and in the first decades of the 21st century.

In this paper, we present the main results of interdisciplinary project that allowed us to formulate a new perspective on the economy of the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Baltic region. New excavations at the Late Bronze Age fortified settlements of Garniai 1 (Utena district municipality) and Mineikiškės (Zarasai district municipality) lead us to analyse the economy of the communities in much greater detail and to formulate a more reliable economical model than before. This paper reviews the new results of archaeobotanical investigations of these fortified settlements, as well as δ13C and δ15N data of food remains in Late Bronze Age pottery, grains and animal bone collagen samples. These analyses allowed us to refine and clarify the likely dietary practices of consumers of certain products in the Eastern Baltic region. The paper also publishes new data on the elemental composition and lead isotopes of metalware, thereby adding to our earlier findings These studies show that metallurgy as a specialized activity did not play a significant role in the Late Bronze Age economy, but its emergence was driven by the economic changes of the period. In contrast, the production of high-level bone-antler artifacts reflects the activity of specialized craftsmen in Late Bronze Age settlements.

In 2020, the construction of a pipeline led to a rescue archaeological excavation at the 130–240 cal AD Roman Iron Age settlement site near Skudeniai. The discovered material from its brief occupation has provided substantial new data on unenclosed settlements in the Late Striated Ware Culture. The distinct posthole accumulations in the surveyed area make it possible to identify building locations and to analyse the settlement’s structure by differentiating between the domestic and economic activity zones. The collection of pottery from Skudeniai’s brief existence provided a better understanding of the differences between the contemporary pottery groups. The first ever application of the petrographic method in the analysis of this culture’s ceramics also yielded important results that led to a new classification system that established distinctions between the three contemporary pottery groups. The archaeobotanical material from Skudeniai is of great importance for understanding the development of agriculture as it is only the second Late Striated Ware Culture archaeobotanical assemblege from a chronologically pure context. The article also analyses issues related to non-ferrous and ferrous metallurgy and trade connections.

The article discusses the model of the spread of cremation in the East Lithuanian barrow culture based on the data of radiocarbon dating. It proposes a review of the model established in literature that a wave of cremation spread from the south of the region to the north between the late 4th century AD and of the early 6th century AD. The stage of the earliest cremations can be dated to 248–335 cal AD, and the stage of the latest inhumations to 420–556 cal AD. This suggests that both inhumation and cremation were practised in Eastern Lithuania for about two centuries from the Late Roman period to the Late Migration period. The hypothesis that the practice of cremation spread from south to north is being corrected rather than refuted. While this process was quite sudden, it was due to the spread of a new tradition alongside the old rather than a wave of change regarding burial rites. Cremation spread early (c. 250–400 cal AD) in the northern part of the region and was an established practice alongside inhumation. The practice of cremation probably became prevalent earlier in Southeastern Lithuania. These processes are synchronous with the emergence of the horizon of the burials of chieftains and warriors in Eastern Lithuania, but the determination of an earlier date for this horizon provides grounds for new discussions about its historical, cultural, and social background.

Lithuania was the country to remain pagan longest in Europe, but it was not isolated from the rest of Europe. Although the locals in the late 13th – late 14th centuries were still mostly pagans, Lithuania’s grand dukes appreciated the benefits of Christian immigrants. These Christians brought not only their religion, but also a knowledge of crafts, their culture, and their own traditions. Although Christians, both Catholic and Orthodox, mainly wished to settle in Lithuania for economic reasons rather than from a desire to Christianise it, their presence in pagan Vilnius left traces, one of which, visible archaeologically, is the inhumation cemetery on Bokšto Street, where Orthodox Christians began to bury their dead in the last decades of the 13th century. By supplementing the historical context with this cemetery’s material, it is possible to talk about how the Orthodox community influenced the city’s urban landscape, burial traditions, and crafts.

The article is devoted to typological characteristics of the Early Paleolithic techno-complex of Layer VI of Korolevо site in the Transcarpathia (Zakarpattia) region. The industry is chronologically dated back to OIS 14. It is classified as Mode 1 (techno-complex without hand – axes).

The article focuses on the analysis of the wooden buckets used in human burials of the Ostriv cemetery studied in 2017–2020. The discovery of dominant culture-defining artefacts, such as penannular and ring brooches, zoomorphic bracelets, and spiral neck-rings, suggest that this ancient population may be originated from the coastal part of the East Baltic region, including Sambian Peninsula, historical Curonia and Semigallia and the results of anthropological and paleogenetic studies reinforce this theory. One of the characteristic features of the burial rite of the Ostriv cemetery was the presence of sacrificial food stored in vessels (buckets). Remnants of buckets – in the form of bandings hoops, handle mounts, and forged handles – were found placed at the feet of the deceased. Taking into account the fact that buckets were not generally incorporated into the burial practices of the Baltic tribes of that time, the authors of the article suggest that this rite infiltrated into their society after migration to the Porossya region of Ukraine and was associated with the complex processes of the Christianization of the Baltic settlers.