Lietuvos istorijos institutas

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.