Archaeologia Baltica

We have little information about the priest and collector Konstantinas Kuprys-Kuprevičius (1874–1947) and his mysterious collection. He became known in cultural circles only when the State Archaeological Commission and the media mentioned him in 1935, because he acquired the archaeological collection of Fr Juozapas Žiogas (1868–1935) under unclear circumstances.* Before his death, Fr Žiogas left his collection in his will to Kaunas’ Vytautas the Great Museum of Culture. On 27 December 1935, Fr Kuprys-Kuprevičius showed his acquired collection of antiquities, along with his own pieces, in an exhibition at St Anthony’s Missionary College. After that, and until the death of Fr Kuprys-Kuprevičius, Lithuanian archaeologists and museum staff unsuccessfully attempted to take over or to repurchase the Žiogas collection. It is therefore not surprising that there was a negative opinion about Fr Kuprys-Kuprevičius in Lithuanian archaeological historiography. This article will try to illuminate the story of his life, his philanthropic activities, his passionate love of antiquities and archaeological artefacts, and his collection, which is sometimes referred to as his ‘museum’. However, due to a lack of archive data, and the mysterious disappearance of the Žiogas collection, some questions still remain.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during the Lithuanian national liberation movement, interest in the history of old Lithuania and its monuments peaked. Amateurs investigated hill-forts and cemeteries. These amateurs rarely saved artefacts or data from their excavations. One exception was the priest Juozapas Žiogas, who investigated over ten archaeological sites. Fr Žiogas formed an extensive archaeological collection, which is now held in the Aušra Museum in Šiauliai.

Michał Eustachy Brensztejn compiled the ‘Archaeological Inventory of the Kovno Gubernia’ in 1907. The manuscript was not published, and only in 2010 was it discovered in the archives of the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw. The Lithuanian Institute of History and the State Archaeological Museum in Warsaw initiated a project to publish the ‘Inventory’ as the third part of the Ostbalticum project. This paper gives some preliminary insights and a short description of the manuscript as a source for Lithuanian archaeology. It analyses the sources used by Brensztejn, describes the process of identification of place-names, discusses the reliability of the records and the novelty of these data, and shows some characteristic mistakes that the author of the ‘Inventory’ made. A puzzle of artefact collection from Jagminai is presented as a brief case study. Thanks to the oral tradition recorded by Brensztejn, the identification of the site was possible.

Since 2010, several archaeological sites in Lithuania have been geomagnetically surveyed, as part of a German-Lithuanian cooperation project. Within the framework of this cooperation, the Ėgliškiai/Anduliai cemetery, the Taurapilis barrow site, Taurapilis and Opstainiai/Vilkyškiai (outer settlements), and Jakai/Sudmantai (the enclosure) have been investigated. In almost all the sites, features and structures were detected that enable us to make some initial statements about the structure and dimensions of the archaeological monuments. For some sites, the surveys also provided very precise and hitherto unknown information about the context of the settlement. These new results show clearly the potential of non-invasive, especially geomagnetic, methods for archaeological purposes. However, it should be admitted that only a combination of several methods and tools enables a maximum level of knowledge and information on the scientific value and potential of archaeological sites and landscapes. The task for the coming years must therefore focus on the application and combination of further noninvasive geophysical (ground penetrating radar, electrical resistivity) and remote sensing methods in archaeological surveys.

The article summarises new investigations at the famous site of Linkuhnen and its material culture, which was excavated between 1928 and 1939, but never really published. The surviving finds from the cemetery, together with information collected from diverse archival sources, show a picture of a burial ground which was probably used from the second to the 11th century. The richness and the international references of the local material culture during the Viking Age point to an important role of the site in the network of trade and communication between the Baltic Sea, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.

The micro-region of the lower reaches of the River Šventoji in the Roman Iron Age falls into the range of flat cemeteries surrounded by stone circles. The territory to the north of the River Šventoji is considered the periphery of this culture, which has characteristic burial rites, one of which is the absence of stone circles. This peripheral culture in the territory of Latvia is described by using the results of the Mazkatuži (Rucava parish) cemetery investigations. The surviving research material and archival data about artefacts found in the lower reaches of the River Šventoji allow us to review and revise the data about burial rites and settlement structures in Kurzeme during the Roman Iron Age.

The author discusses a few examples of artefacts that testify to the contacts between the Balts living in Samland (the Sambian Peninsula) and in the Memelkultur area during the Roman Iron Age. This data was collected from notes and drawings made by Herbert Jankuhn, Marta Schmiedehelm and Kurt Voigtmann. Archival data gives us a chance to interpret similarities in the fashion of wearing of necklaces of similar composition, or rings with similar nodular decoration during the Early Roman Period. The Memelkultur-style brooches found in Samland, and similar status symbols, such as snake-head rings, testify to the strong relations between the two Balt coastal areas during the Late Roman Period.

Disc brooches of Dollkeim-Kovrovo culture attributed to the Early Roman Period are characterised by the complicated archaeological context. Distant analogies in Roman disc brooches, the different morphology and technique leave open the question of their origin. This article proposes an analysis based on the verification of archival data, publications and surviving archaeological items from the collection of the former Prussia-Museum.