Journal:Archaeologia Baltica
Volume 8 (2007): Weapons, Weaponry and Man (In memoriam Vytautas Kazakevičius), pp. 32–38
Abstract
A characteristic of the Bronze Age in the area of present-day Latvia was a fairly wide range of bronze, stone and bone weapons. The possibility of military clashes, too, is indicated by the building of fortified residential sites, hill-forts. A whole corpus of evidence testifies to the new way of life adopted by the elite of Bronze Age society, where the ideology of warfare also played a certain role.
Journal:Archaeologia Baltica
Volume 8 (2007): Weapons, Weaponry and Man (In memoriam Vytautas Kazakevičius), pp. 22–31
Abstract
A spatial and comparative analysis is made of three male weapon graves from Bohemia, northern Italy and southern England. Consideration is given to the grave goods, their function and symbolic significance, commencing with a discussion of male and warrior identity from 2800 to 2300 BC.
According the excavation data in the lake basin Neumark-Nord 2 it was possible to record three different archaeological find horizons in the superposition. The older find horizon contains numerous smashed bones and flint artefacts, characterised by the Levallois technology of the developed Middle Palaeolithic and is dated, so far, to “Intrasaalian” Interglacial. The second find horizon (NN 2/1) is situated above the NN 2/2 and is characterised by the slight dispersal of bone fragments and flint artefacts. It probably belongs to the beginning of the Eemian Interglacial. The youngest find horizon (NN 2/0) lies over the Eemian optimum and belongs to an Interstadial within the Weichselian Glacial.
A detailed description of the Late Glacial environment was attempted through an interpretation of pollen data and lithological records in the sequences with 14C chronologies. Pollen data suggests that during the pre-Alleröd time (>11.914C kyr. BP) tree-less vegetation flourished in the area where sedimentation in freshwater bodies with a high water level was dominant. The formation of Betula and Pinus predominating forest (11.9−11.814C kyr. BP) coincides with the increasing representation of the organic constituent in investigated sequences. Palaeobotanical records show some improvement of the climatic conditions since the middle of the Younger Dryas cold event (10.5−10.414C kyr. BP). Sedimentation in oligo-mesotrophic nutrient-rich lakes with a rather high water level was typical for the end of the Late Glacial.
The cult of the deer was widespread in traditional societies of deer hunters. This cult was connected with the worship of the deer or man-deer, the ancestor of people and deer, and a cultural hero, the teacher of deer hunting. The most important evidence supporting a deer cult in traditional societies are the totemistic mysteries connected with the reproduction of the deer, and magic hunting rituals. The most important participant in these rituals is the shaman.