Klaipėdos universitetas

The Early Bronze Age in Lithuania, and especially the final part, saw the most important changes in the structure of the

The aim of this article is to update the data on the research into Palanga settlement carried out in 1958, the objectives being to publish the discovered material to its full extent, to determine the lithological and cultural layers of the settlement, and to determine the cultural dependence of the communities that lived there. The following are used in the article: archaeological, osteological and macrobotanical material, which is kept at Kretinga Museum and which has not been published till now; stratigraphy of geological strata obtained during the drilling of geological boreholes; and radiocarbon dating of peat from the cultural layer level. The natural and cultural landscape of the habitation period of Palanga Stone Age settlement is also presented.

In the 13th century, the territory of Samogitians, Curonians, Prussians, and Semigallians was in a constant state of war. The offensive and protective wars prevented natural economic and cultural development. Saulė, Semba, Durbė, Karuse, Aizkraukle, Turaida, Klaipeda, and other battles; the Order marauding campaigns into the territories of Samogitians, Curonians, Prussians, and Semigallians; the campaigns and raids of Samogitians, Curonians, and Sambians into the lands already occupied by the Order; and the revolts in the Order-occupied lands occurred almost every year. All that devastated the lands of Curonians, Samogitians, Prussians, and Semigallians, undermined demography, and weakened the economic capacity of Western and Northern Baltic tribes. The advanced armament and war tactics used in the offensive campaigns by the Order forced Curonians and Samogitians to take arms and resist. The structure of the army and the fighting methods were in the process of change, because in the mid-13th century Lithuania emerged as a state which already used conscription, and the nature of the army action was often offensive. Sometimes the Lithuanian historical literature mocks at the armament of Curonians and Samogitians, and their chargers Zemaitukai are considered as horses. That is why the historians who choose never to question a single word in the chronicles by the authors who eulogize the Order sometimes face the following questions: what kinds of armament were used by Curonians and Samogitians and what their battle methods were in the 13th century, when the attacked ones bravely went to fight their conqueror the Order. We will explore those questions in the article by employing the archaeological, historical, and cultural landscape research data.

This article discusses issues related to pile-dwelling settlements in Lithuania. It offers a detailed study of the archaeological and osteological material found at the Žemaitiškė 2 pile-dwelling settlement, as well as palynological and radiocarbon research into the settlement’s cultural layer. The article discusses the wood anatomy of pile-dwellings, their dendrochronological dating, and the types of construction material. The studies show that the construction of pile-dwellings in Lithuania began in the Late Neolithic Age, whereas the tradition of living on pile platforms existed throughout the Bronze Age.

Analysis of the osteological and archaeological material discovered at the Early Bronze Age settlement of Kretuonas 1C suggests that the settlement’s hunted game and reared animals were slaughtered within the settlement, not far from the dwellings. We analyse the butchering technology of the Early Bronze Age based on Kretuonas 1C’s osteological material. The tools used for butchering and the macroscopic analysis of the slaughtered artiodactyls’ axial skeleton and long bones enabled an assessment of split bone in the butchering area, as well as of chop and cut marks acquired during the butchering process.