Archaeologia Baltica

The article presents certain features of Sambian-Natangian culture in the Roman Period. The author directly links characteristics of the social structure of Aestian society, which formed at the turn of the B2/C1–C2 periods, to the nature of the amber trade, in which members of Sambian-Natangian culture participated widely. It is possible to draw some conclusions on the basis of the interrelations revealed, and to attempt to give a very general and subjective reconstruction of the Aestian social structure which had developed by the end of the Roman Period.

The emergence of Iron Age elites in the Baltic lands is discussed here in the context of western Lithuania, a region with local amber deposits and distant interregional connections, with reference to what is called the West Lithuanian Group, with cemeteries with stone circles. No interregional status symbols have been recorded in the area, but it is possible to identify local prestige goods, such as equestrian equipment, horse offerings, drinking horns and decorative belt sets (male indicators), and elaborate headdresses and necklaces, and splendid pectoral ornaments (female indicators). Precious imports and silver or silver-plated* ornaments are to be found in both male and female graves. The inhabitants of western Lithuania in the Roman and Early Migration periods differed according to their social status. It is possible to distinguish quite a large number of well-equipped graves, but no exceptionally rich ones. Local elites existed in certain small territorial communities, but there were no regional elites. The destroyed grave 31 at Baitai may be an exception to this rule: it presents a sign of the appearance of people of very high rank, a process which developed further in later periods.

The article presents the latest data on tenth to 13th-century imports, graves with weapons and horse harnesses in the north Prussian area. The study is made on the basis of five recently investigated Prussian cemeteries, and on vast prewar published and archival data. Questions of the Sambian Aschenplätze and social differentiation in Medieval Prussian society are also partly described. In addition, the 12th and 13th-century and Teutonic Period inhumation graves with weapons and horse harnesses are analysed briefly, in order to demonstrate both the continuity of tenth to 13th-century Prussian culture and its transformation brought about by 13th-century political changes.

The Civitas Rutenica area, inhabited by Orthodox believers, emerged in Vilnius in the late 13th century and early 14th century. The development of this part of the city can be traced all through the 14th century. The cemetery that was discovered in the central part of Civitas Rutenica reflects cultural and social changes in the Orthodox community. Christian burial rites were practised in this cemetery. Several graves contained luxurious grave goods, including jewellery, some of which was common to the Slavs, and some of which had local origins. As an integrated approach to burial traditions indicates, people of the Orthodox faith were buried in this cemetery. According to written sources, the elite from Rus’ arrived in Vilnius at that time. An analysis of anthropological material reveals some features of the social structure of the Orthodox community.