Archaeologia Baltica

This article presents data on Kongemose culture material which has been found in Lithuania but not yet studied. Based on material from west, east and south Lithuania Stone Age settlements, the aim is to acknowledge the existence of this culture’s technology during the Atlantic period in the east Baltic region. The use-wear method was also used for a more detailed analysis. The results of the article contain versions of the emergence and development of rhombus-shaped arrowhead technology in the east Baltic during the Stone Age period.

Orphaned osseous tools are very often perceived as having a high aesthetic value, but are usually under-examined. This article illustrates the research potential of these artefacts, with a case study of Mesolithic stray finds from Lithuania. Four bone points from the River Šventoji, Vaikantonys, Obšrūtai and Kamšai were subjected to AMS dating, tandem mass spectrometry for animal species identification, and technological and use-wear analysis. The results revealed that all four bone points could be dated to the Boreal period, and imply an Early to Middle Mesolithic date. Harpoons from the River Šventoji and Kamšai were most likely made of aurochs bones. All of the bone points were produced from long sections of tubular long bones, and three of the points show signs of reuse. Overall, the analysis revealed similarities with contemporaneous material in northern Europe. Within the context of the present research, the paper briefly describes other scientific methods which could be applied to orphaned bone and antler tools, including biomolecular and stable isotope analysis. Digital recording methods can be useful for bone artefact recording. This is relevant today, as the demand for good-quality digital representations is increasing, in order to apply software for further analysis, such as geometric morphometrics. As a result, more widespread and systematic applications of these new methods to orphaned osseous finds would lead to a significant activation of these finds in a scientific and outreach context.

Selected find spots along the Swedish coast of the Baltic Sea are presented, in order to illustrate different ways in which hunter-gatherer societies related to the coast during the Mesolithic. Transformations of the landscape were mainly due to isostatic and eustatic changes. In the northern part, the land rose, forming new coasts and archipelagos at a speed that was noticeable even within one generation. Similar rapid changes occurred in the southern area, but in the opposite direction, with large areas of coast being submerged. Both physical and mental reactions to this are explored.

The article deals with the main range of problems of Grensk culture in the Final Palaeolithic and Mesolithic in the Upper Dnieper region. At present, the understanding of the ways and mechanisms of the formation and the time of habitation of members of this ancient culture are rather debatable. Interpretations of the sources have resulted in two completely different research approaches in terms of methodology, bringing together supporters of the indigenous (U. Budzko, V. Kapytsin, A. Kalechyts, G. Sinitsyna, etc) or migration (L. Zaliznyak, U. Ksiandzou, A. Sorokin, etc) ways of the emergence and the development of Grensk culture. It is impossible to understand the essence of the ‘Grensk question’ without considering the nature of its origin, the problem looked at in this article.

The process of the recolonisation of northern Europe after deglaciation is related to groups of hunter-gatherer societies called

Old Rus’ culture has long been perceived as a given fact, beyond dispute. Its successive connection with authentically Slavic cultures dating back to 700-1000 AD could be clearly traced retrospectively. But archaeological data accumulated over recent decades shows that material from Initial Rus’ (ninth to eleventh centuries) looks more like a heterogeneous conglomerate of different traditions and cultural elements than a stable structure. The key to understanding the process of innovations observed over this period, as well as their cultural and anthropological mechanisms, should be the study of the ‘elite’, a socially superior group of the population. Such a project is now being developed in the Department of Slavic-Finnish Archaeology at IHMC RAS. This review gives the most important results obtained to date, including a modern formulation of the problem in its various aspects, and the latest important publications.

The vallum in lacu (rampart by the lake) mentioned in 15th-century written sources as part of the Medieval landscape of Ostrowite (East Pomerania) has been researched by archaeologists and antiquaries since the 19th century. A wide range of noninvasive archaeological prospection methods were applied at Ostrowite in 2010-2015, including magnetic gradiometry, earth resistance, aerial photography, intensive field-walking, geochemical (phosphate) prospection, and the analysis of Airborne Laser Scanning. They were supplemented and verified by small-scale excavation work. This vast set of prospection methods was integrated into a Geographical Information System (GIS), and combined with an analysis of written sources, and allowed for the identification of a previously unknown ring-fort, which for the last 15 years has gone unnoticed by researchers conducting annual excavations in its vicinity. Its discovery and identification were only possible due to the integration of results from various methods, particularly non-invasive ones.

The Virumaa province in northeast Estonia is the area with the biggest concentration of ‘Hanseatic bowl’ finds in Europe. The finds originate mostly from deposits, often consisting of sets of numerous items. This article suggests a connection between these finds and the Danish crusade to Estonia in 1219, interpreting the bowls as the king’s gift to new subjects for their loyalty, also looking at a possible broader context, and drawing hypothetical parallels with the Danish crusade to Samland and Prussia in 1210.

Finds of decorated hammers or axes made of elk antler are rather rare in Estonia. One axe comes from the River Pärnu, and another from the Otepää hill-fort and later episcopal castle site. In addition, there are two almost identical hammers: one was a stray find from Harju county, and another was found in the Medieval town of Tartu. The two stray finds have no connected items that would enable their dating. The other two examples originate from contexts that cannot be dated exactly. The aim of this research is to find parallels to help us date the Estonian items, to ascertain the material and tools used for producing these items, and to discuss on the basis of the former, and an analysis of the find contexts, the probable areas of usage and meanings of these items. Although it is not possible to date these antler objects precisely, they probably come from the end of the Estonian Prehistoric period or the Middle Ages: the 11th to the 15th centuries. The function of the items is also not definite. Tools in the shape of a hammer were probably used as hammers. It was not possible to use any axe-shaped object as an axe, so assumptions about their function are still just speculative.