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The Early Medieval graves of Groß Ottenhagen (Berezovka). On the way from Sambia to the middle reaches of the Niemen

Roman Shiroukhov Konstantin Skvortsov Timo Ibsen

https://doi.org/10.15181/ab.v28i0.2287

Pub. online: 29 Dec 2021 Type: Article

Open Access

Journal: Archaeologia Baltica Volume 28 (2021), pp. 150–174

Abstract

The field research at Groß ottenhagen (Berezovka) conducted in 2003 and 2004 was the first

international scientific collaboration between German and russian archaeologists in kaliningrad

region since 1945. The Groß ottenhagen cemetery demonstrates almost continuous functioning

for about 1,000 years, from the roman iron Age up to the middle Ages. The part of the site considered

in the article belongs to the last stage of the development of sambian-natangian culture

among the old Prussians in the 11th to the 13th centuries Ad. despite a first analysis by the

excavators in 2005, this data from the cemetery has never been fully published. Groß ottenhagen

graves from the discussed period are represented by so-called double layer burial features, with

human cremations on top of horse burials. The burial rites and grave goods at the cemetery are

discussed in the context of archaeological material from the sambian peninsula and southwest

and central lithuania. The relative chronology of Groß ottenhagen is based on an analysis of

grave goods, as well as the stratigraphy and the spatial distribution of the graves. According to

the absence of imported/status goods at Groß ottenhagen, the cemetery probably belonged to a

peripheral group of the late sambian-natangian region culture of the Prussians.

The lower reaches of the Daugava in the Bronze and the Earliest Iron Age (1800-500 to the 1st century BC)

Andrejs Vasks

https://doi.org/10.15181/ab.v28i0.2286

Pub. online: 29 Dec 2021 Type: Article

Open Access

Journal: Archaeologia Baltica Volume 28 (2021), pp. 132–148

Abstract

The lower reaches of the Daugava in the Mesolithic and Neolithic were sparsely populated until

the second half of the Early Bronze Age (1800–1100 BC). The situation began to change from

the 14th century BC, when the process of Neolithisation was over, and the local communities

switched completely to animal husbandry and agriculture. In terms of social and economic relations,

the area reached its highest level of development in the Late Bronze Age (1100–500 BC),

which continued, albeit with a downward trend, in the Earliest Iron Age (500–1 BC). The article

discusses the conditions that promoted the economic prosperity and social development of societies

in the lower reaches of the Daugava in the direction of differentiation. The most important

condition for this development was the involvement of lower Daugava societies in the long-distance

exchange network between Scandinavia and the Volga-Kama region, where the main object

of exchange was bronze, and the related focus on the processing of it in downstream centres.

These metal products, weapons and jewellery, and their limited availability, were elements in the

demonstration of social prestige. With the spread of local iron metallurgy in Eastern Europe and

Scandinavia, the long-distance exchange of bronze lost its former importance. Consequently, the

main bronze processing centres in the lower reaches of the Daugava also declined, and a collapse

occurred in the existing socio-economic system.

An attempt to link a lithic complex with the Late Palaeolithic Rangifer tarandus antler axe from the Parupė site in northern Lithuania

Tomas Rimkus Algirdas Girininkas

https://doi.org/10.15181/ab.v28i0.2285

Pub. online: 29 Dec 2021 Type: Article

Open Access

Journal: Archaeologia Baltica Volume 28 (2021), pp. 118–131

Abstract

The recent intensification of AMS 14C assays of bone and antler artefacts in the east and southeast

Baltic region has revealed a number of reindeer (Rangifer tarandus) antler axes, and their prevalence

in the Late Palaeolithic osseous toolkit. One of the oldest, dating from 11 221–11 048 cal

BC, was discovered in 2014 in the village of Parupė, on the left bank of the River Nemunėlis, in

northern Lithuania. Until now, no such organic implements discovered in the region in question

have been associated with any Late Palaeolithic taxonomic group, but at the location of the antler

axe at Parupė between 2015 and 2019, three concentrations of numerous lithic findings have been

identified, whose typological and technological features allow for the consideration of their possible

association with the dated axe. In this paper, we present three concentrations of lithic finds

(sites 1–3) at Parupė village, providing their technological and typological data, and their possible

chronology and taxonomy, reflecting the Late Palaeolithic and Early and Late Mesolithic. We

conclude that the moderate lithic complex from site 1 should be associated with Late Palaeolithic

technology, and can possibly be linked with the antler axe.

The Final Palaeolithic in the coastal part of Lithuania with the technological emphasis on Aukštumala Stone Age sites

Tomas Rimkus Algirdas Girininkas

https://doi.org/10.15181/ab.v28i0.2284

Pub. online: 29 Dec 2021 Type: Article

Open Access

Journal: Archaeologia Baltica Volume 28 (2021), pp. 102–117

Abstract

The Final Palaeolithic in the Lithuanian coastal zone has so far been represented only by a few

archaeological finds from individual contexts, and a small number of archaeological excavations.

However, their analysis has not revealed much regarding the technological development of hunting

implements and work tools, or the choice and the use of necessary raw materials, and little

data has been provided on the chronological aspects, or the connection between settlement locations

and the changing level of the Baltic Sea. This paper presents the latest archaeological

material from the Final Palaeolithic in the Lithuanian coastal area, based on the three sites at

Aukštumala upland bog, and stray finds found in the area. The article focuses on technological

and typological aspects of lithics related to Swiderian culture. The results of the study show that,

with the shortage of flint raw material, Final Palaeolithic societies at Aukštumala relied on smaller

and narrower blades, and compensated for the lack of flint raw material by using other, locally

available metamorphic rocks.

Between mighty hillforts: a multi-method study of Laukskola Bronze Age settlement pottery

Vanda Visocka Alise Gunnarssone Mārcis Kalniņš All authors (4)

https://doi.org/10.15181/ab.v28i0.2283

Pub. online: 29 Dec 2021 Type: Article

Open Access

Journal: Archaeologia Baltica Volume 28 (2021), pp. 81–100

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a multi-method study of the Laukskola Late Bronze Age open

field settlement pottery assemblage. The aim of the study was to describe the technical and stylistic

aspects of Laukskola pottery, and their relationship with the nearby hillfort material. The production

tendencies and their role in the function of the pottery were also analysed. Macroscopic

analysis combined with ceramic petrography, reflective transformation imaging, and wavelength

dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy were conducted in the analysis of the pottery. Nearby

clay resources were surveyed and further analysed for provenance interpretations. The results of

the study show that Laukskola pottery was locally produced by using highly plastic sandy moraine

clay, tempered with granitic rock and quartzite. Stylistically, the pottery combined local and nonlocal

elements. The function corresponds with the visual parameters and choices for production.

Head-shield brooches of the Roman Iron Age from the Tarand cemeteries of the eastern Baltic

Maarja Lillak Marcus A. Roxburgh

https://doi.org/10.15181/ab.v28i0.2282

Pub. online: 29 Dec 2021 Type: Article

Open Access

Journal: Archaeologia Baltica Volume 28 (2021), pp. 63–80

Abstract

This study is dedicated to the head-shield brooches from the tarand cemetery area in Estonia, Latvia

and lands west of the Izhora plateau. Its aim is to better understand their development through

a combined typological, compositional and chronological analysis and explore their social role

in the identity politics of the people wearing them. The compositional evaluation was supported

with portable X-ray florescence spectrometry (XRF), to improve our understanding of the metal

choices made by their ancient craftsmen.

The typological study suggests that one of the earliest brooches found in the tarand cemetery area

belongs to the Almgren 100 brooches, most of which have a semi-circular shield on the front part

of the bow, a multiple-piece spring, and a triangular foot. The evidence suggests that they emerged

in the 2nd century. Subsequently, a local form developed in the northeast part of the tarand cemetery

area towards the end of the century. This local type has a squared-off foot, a multiple-piece

spring construction, and a short semi-circular head-shield. Many were also tinned, meaning their

colour was deliberately changed to a shiny silvery-white. During the 3rd century, a further group

of locally produced head-shield brooches also emerged. They have a hinged mechanism, a knob,

and a decorative rib at the end of the foot.

These local brooches likely represented a regional style and aesthetic. They could have played a

visual role in connecting the wearer to their affiliated group, or played a part in a differing social

role within the society from which they came.

Essential changes in the composition of copper alloys reveal technological diversities in the transition from the Earliest Iron Age to the Early Roman period in Lithuania

Audronė Bliujienė Gediminas Petrauskas Jurga Bagdzevičienė All authors (5)

https://doi.org/10.15181/ab.v28i0.2281

Pub. online: 29 Dec 2021 Type: Article

Open Access

Journal: Archaeologia Baltica Volume 28 (2021), pp. 39–62

Abstract

In the context of archaeometallurgical studies of copper alloys, it is relevant to record the essential

changes in the elemental composition of copper alloys that occur during changes in technology

and transitions in human history. This article presents the shift in the elemental composition of

copper alloy from bronze-based alloys to brass ones during essential changes in archaeological

material which happened at the turn of the Earliest Iron Age (500–1 BC) and the Early Roman

period, from the 1st century BC to the middle of the 1st century AD. As early as the 2nd and

1st centuries BC, in the Antique world and the Roman Empire and its provinces, brass was already

starting to partly replace bronze. Even if the Earliest Iron Age is the least knowable period

in Lithuanian prehistory, the few pieces of jewellery attributed to this period show the changes

in the composition of the copper alloy. The territorial growth of the Late Antique world and

internal contacts within the Barbaricum led to the expanding strength of commodities, including

raw materials, technologies, cultural ideas and ideological attitudes. Goods and ideas spread

throughout the vast barbarian lands, and eventually reached the forest zone of northeast Europe.

Sudden changes during the Early Roman period were first of all connected with the development

of settlement structure, and this has therefore made it possible to identify some major places of

the production of artefacts and partly changed directions of exchange. All this was accompanied

by the emergence of new jewellery types produced by skilled jewellers according to sophisticated

techniques. These changes are clearly visible in Early Roman period Lithuanian archaeological

material, including the elemental composition of copper alloys. The present article uses X-ray

fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry to investigate the composition of copper alloys. Radiography

was used to understand the construction of artefacts, and to assess the degree of their inner corrosion

and sophisticated manufacturing techniques. Solder samples were taken from the surfaces

of several finds, and were analysed by qualitative microchemical analysis.

New results on horse trappings from the Hunnic-period Carpathian Basin based on non-destructive archaeometric analyses

Réka Ágnes Piros Viktória Mozgai Bernadett Bajnóczi

https://doi.org/10.15181/ab.v28i0.2280

Pub. online: 29 Dec 2021 Type: Article

Open Access

Journal: Archaeologia Baltica Volume 28 (2021), pp. 25–38

Abstract

Objects manufactured from pressed gold, gilded silver or copper alloy plates are characteristic assemblages

from the Late Hunnic period (5th century AD, 420/430). In this study, horse trappings

that belong to the ‘pressed gold plate horizon’ from three archaeological sites in the Carpathian

Basin (Léva, Nyíregyháza-Oros and Pécsüszög) were analysed non-destructively by using a handheld

X-ray fluorescence spectrometer. The main aims were to determine the chemical composition

and the gilding technique used, and to attempt to prove whether the groups in an assemblage

are from the same set. The results of the chemical analyses give us the opportunity to confirm

whether damaged or presumably lost objects of an assemblage were replaced or repaired. According

to the results obtained, the objects were manufactured from gold (Pécsüszög), gilded silver

(Nyíregyháza-Oros) or gilded unalloyed copper plates (Léva). Later, replacements can be distinguished

based on their chemical composition and manufacturing quality. Two types of gilding

were observed: fire gilding with the presence of mercury (Léva), and leaf gilding (Nyíregyháza-

Oros).

Non-destructive analyses of copper alloys and silver items from Voitenki. The recycling of metal in Cherniakhov culture

Mikhail V. Liubichev Oleksandr M. Buhay Erdmute Schultze

https://doi.org/10.15181/ab.v28i0.2279

Pub. online: 29 Dec 2021 Type: Article

Open Access

Journal: Archaeologia Baltica Volume 28 (2021), pp. 8–24

Abstract

Brooches, belt buckles and other metal objects with a specific design are considered characteristic

of Cherniakhov culture. In contrast with well-known typologies, the metal composition of these

objects has rarely been investigated. Forty-four artefacts from the settlement and cemetery at

Voitenki (east Ukraine) were chosen for metal analysis. The fibulae selected, for example, consist

of crossbow tendril brooches, crossbow brooches with a closed catch-plate, brooches with a high

catch-plate, and other types. A total of 38 finds were made of non-ferrous metal; for six objects,

silver was presumed. The precise metal composition was determined by PIXE (particle-induced

X-ray emission) analysis. Based on this method, copper, bronze and brass could be determined

as material for the brooches and buckles. The bronze objects were divided into forged bronze and

cast bronze; furthermore, mixed material was detected. But these groups and subgroups of metal

do not coincide with archaeological types. Crossbow tendril brooches were first of all made of

copper, although some consist of bronze or brass. Cast bronze was used for manufacturing some

cast types of brooches. The producer probably intentionally selected this material to cast. But on

the other hand, it seems that the producer used the material that was available, for example, cast

bronze for forged brooches. For silver finds, the PIXE analysis detected a high content of this

metal. A comparison of the results with analyses of Roman silver denarii led us to the hypothesis

that such Roman coins were used as ‘raw material’ for manufacturing these silver items.

Preface

Audronė Bliujienė

Pub. online: 29 Dec 2021 Type: Introduction

Open Access

Journal: Archaeologia Baltica Volume 28 (2021), pp. 4–6

132 133 134 135 136

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