Lietuvos istorijos institutas

This article is devoted to one aspect of the cultural activity of the Ancker timber merchants from Rusnė (Russ), namely their amateur interest in local prehistory and archaeological artefacts. In 1879 Johann Heinrich Ancker and his son, Ernst Heinrich, became members of the Lithuanian Literary Society in Tilsit. The society’s journal Mitteilungen der Litauischen litterarischen Gesellschaft briefly describes artefacts, which E. H. Ancker had called to the attention of the society’s members. Later (in 1887) these finds or some of them were donated to the Prussia Museum in Königsberg. Ancker also became a member of Altertumsgesellschaft Prussia. In 1891 the brothers, Ernst and Theodor Ancker, introduced Professor A. Bezzenberger to a few of the archaeological sites they knew in Šilutė (Heydekrug) District. Unfortunately we do not know what archaeological artefacts E. H. Ancker preserved privately in his house in Šyškrantė (Rusnė).

The article aims to discuss the chronological phases of the Roman-period cemeteries at Žviliai and Šarkai (Šilalė District) and the artefacts attributed to them as a form of cultural expression during certain periods. L. Vaitkunskienė published material from Žviliai in a separate monograph (Vaitkunskienė, 1999), but unfortunately that scholar’s insights into chronological issues have not received a broader response in academic discussions. This article uses statistical methods to return to the question of dating the Roman period burials in Žviliai Cemetery. Roman-period burial assemblages from Šarkai Cemetery have been added to the database in order to clarify the context of the grave-good types from the earliest group of Žviliai burials, which is less numerous. Artefacts typical of certain phases of these cemeteries are analysed over as broad an area as possible, not just the Balt context. The end of the article discusses the cultural unity and specificity of the communities which left the Žviliai and Šarkai Cemeteries in respect to the neighbouring Balt cultures and more distant areas of the European Barbaricum.

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.

This article surveys grave goods found in Žviliai and Pagrybis Cemeteries in the Upper Jūra region (West Lithuania) as symbols of gender. Using the WinBASP software seriation tool, male and female types of grave goods were distinguished as well as types common to both genders. The author seeks to detect changes and continuity in the burial traditions for males and females in respect to the tradition of placing specific types of grave goods in burials from the three periods (Late Roman Iron Age, Early Migration Period, Late Migration Period). If grave goods are regarded as gender symbols, their choice for males and females probably reflects areas of ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’ in real life. This phenomenon can be confirmed with the help of Baltic, Germanic, and Slavonic mythology sources in which the domains of the gods and humans are intertwined.

The aim of this article is to assess the value of Marija Alseikaitė-Gimbutienė’s (Gimbutas) 1946 dissertation published in Tübingen (Germany). It is also important to follow how much of an impact this work had on Lithuanian archaeology and what inspiration it may provide for scholars today. This paper concentrates on the parts of the book which deal with burial customs during the Roman Iron Age. Relevant problems of cultural divisions based on burial site types as per Gimbutienė are examined to see how much this classification may be accepted today. The second part of Gimbutienė’s dissertation, which focused on the meaning of burial customs, provides insights that are still important for scholarship today, and reveals the young scholar’s ability to reconstruct an old belief system and to discern the prospects for the further investigation of burial site material.

Grave-goods belong to the sphere of sacrum where property donated for the dead might reflect a distorted picture of reality. They are the result of creative activity performed in „real life“. Therefore finds from dwelling sites have great importance for connecting artefacts from burial grounds back to the sphere of profanum. Several examples from Lithuanian archaeology are presented concerning dwelling sites as centres of production and exchange of artefacts that later found their way into grave-sets. Some considerations are presented regarding the elements of costume of people of the Brushed Pottery Culture; comparision of distribution of Roman imports in cemeteries and dwelling sites; the importance of chronological indicators has been distinguished thanks to databases of burial sites for the dating of layers in dwelling sites. Finally we present some hyphotesis about the possible everyday or ceremonial functions of outfit elements based on the example of female temple ornaments.