Klaipėdos universitetas

Penannular brooches with rolled terminals are known in Latgallian areas from the eighth century, and brooches with polygonal (faceted and funnel-shaped) terminals from the middle of the ninth century. At the same time, they were widespread in a large area, including Scandinavia. Penannular brooches on Gotland have been analysed, and these are very similar to those of the Latgallians. Although the origin of the polygonal terminals of brooches is unclear, the same ornamentation can be found on Gotland, and in a broader context in the Scandinavian Vendel Period patterns of ornamentation. The new ideas appeared in the form of Latgallian penannular brooches at the same time or a little later than on Gotland. The new pattern of ornamentation also influenced the ornamentation of bracelets, or vice versa. The contacts between Latgallians and gotland or scandinavia were possibly long-standing, lasting about three centuries. If Latgallian artisans were themselves producing this kind of penannular brooch, then they were not creating new forms, but imitating existing ones.

In recent years, the area to the southeast of the Gulf of Finland (on the Izhora plateau and in the lower reaches of the River Luga) has opened up a number of archaeological sites dating from the first to the tenth century AD. There are stone graves from the Pre-Roman and Roman Iron Age, settlements with scratched ceramics, cremation burials from the Migration Period, hill-forts and cemeteries from the Viking Age. These sites can be built into a cultural and chronological sequence. Finds from these sites are very similar to objects from Estonia and southwest Finland. At the beginning of the second millennium, Medieval Russian culture, which levelled local cultural characteristics, spread on the Izhora plateau.

A silver hoard found in what is currently called Skomętno, and bought by the Museum of Prehistory in Berlin, is the basis for a discussion about Medieval hoards in the Baltic region concerning typology and chronology. The hoard, which can be dated to the second half of the 11th century, also shows interesting similarities with a hoard which was found in Skomenten in 1927. It was brought to the Prussia Museum in Königsberg, and has been lost since the end of the Second World War.

The grave goods from Linkuhnen (Rževskoje/Linkūnai) indicate continuous usage of the cemetery from the Roman Iron Age and the Migration Period to the Viking Age (second to 11th century AD). A closer look at the fibulae from Linkuhnen offers an overview of the changing cultural relationships with the neighbouring areas during the 1,000 years of occupancy of the site. The interpretation of Linkuhnen is closely linked to its topographical position close to the River Nemunas (Neman/Memel). The hypothetical alteration of the course of the River Nemunas, suggested by V. Žulkus, has to be discussed for its potential impact on the site of Linkuhnen and its relations with neighbouring areas at the end of the first millennium.

The authors discuss archaeological data regarding cultural interactions between west Lithuanian areas and the regions of Masuria and Suwałki during the Roman and Migration Periods. Several categories of finds in west Lithuania can be seen as direct imports or the import of ideas from the West Balt area in Masuria. This communication worked in both directions. influences from coastal Lithuania may also be detected in the style of jewellery or riding gear. undoubtedly, the warrior elite played an important role in keeping these connections alive. The west Lithuanian area, like Samland, was a trading centre, working as an intermediary in the dissemination of interregional novelties.

Items with the ox-head are a very interesting archaeological phenomenon in the Baltic Sea area in the Roman Period. The earliest category of these finds is drinking horn fittings, which appeared in the Early Roman Period on Jutland and the Danish islands. At the beginning of the Late Roman Period, in the territory of the West Balts in Masuria, brooches with the ox-head occurred. According to the scientific tradition, they are interpreted as the effect of influences from the western zone of the shore of the Baltic Sea. Nowadays, when new finds of items with the ox-head (drinking horn fittings, brooches) are found in Przeworsk culture, it is necessary to analyse this thesis again.

One peculiarity of the Suwalska Group of Sudovian culture is the very large number of barrows with destroyed inhumation graves. Since the 1950s, this fact has been interpreted as the result of the robbery of grave goods, which took place in late Antiquity. Common features in the ‘robbed graves’ observed in cemeteries at Osowa site I, and the villages of Szwajcaria and Żywa Woda, were: 1) the concavity of the top of the barrow and the lack of stones in the stone lining on the barrow surface; 2) traces of the ‘robbery trench’; 3) the multilayer stone pavement (concentration) over the skeleton grave; 4) the complete or partial lack of human bones in the grave, especially the lack of a skull and bones of the post-cranial skeleton, with the exception of the legs; and 5) traces of fire in the grave pits and on the stone pavements. These features and the almost complete lack of human bones in the stratified layers of the barrows, formed as a result of ‘robbery’, lead us to the conclusion that they were material traces of ritual practices connected with opening the barrows and relocating human bones and grave goods from inhumations. The basis of these activities was probably the principle of the proper burial of the dead. The real moment of death was not the end of the vital functions, but the complete decomposition of the body. After that, the re-deposition and secondary burial of bones took place.

The article discusses the question of palaeolandscapes of cemeteries from the Roman Period and the Migration Period in the area of the Masurian Lakeland. The primary purpose of the multidisciplinary study was to answer the questions: 1) whether the natural features of the palaeolandscape were important for the choice of location for a cemetery; and 2) whether the inside landscapes of cemeteries were consciously shaped and lasted long. An analysis of the locations of several cemeteries from the Roman Period and the Migration Period uncovered in the study area showed clearly that there was a close relationship between the location of the cemetery and palaeo environmental conditions, especially the relief, bodies of water (lakes, rivers and streams), and the plant cover. Of particular importance were elevated isthmuses between two lakes. The specific habitat conditions of these areas conditioned the specific and diverse plant cover. All of these elements of the natural palaeolandscape made the sacred place clearly visible in the settlement area. Case studies of the cemetery in the village of Paprotki kolonia (northeast Poland) showed that the layout of the cemetery lasted long, and was clearly visible to the local community in the first centuries AD. It enabled the precise location of the next cremations, horse sacrifices and other ritual activities in the area of the cemetery.

The Grebieten burial ground, situated in the former Kreis Fischhausen of the German Empire’s province of East Prussia, (currently in the Zelenogradskii district of the Kaliningrad oblast’, Russian Federation), represents a reference monument of Sambian-Natangian culture, and at the same time is one of its best investigated archaeological sites. However, a recent comparative analysis of the available sources of information showed that the modern state of knowledge is incomplete, while the research potential of the monument is far from being exhausted. This article gives an overview of the state of research, as well as of the open questions and gaps in our knowledge. Along with a description of the currently available sources of information and their limitations, the publication informs readers about recently conducted archaeological studies, performed both on the partially preserved prewar archaeological material and on the monument. Besides the actual reintroduction of Grebieten into scientific research, the authors point out its role and its significance in the much more complex archaeological context. The results of recent research suggest strongly that the Grebieten burial ground is part of a much larger complex of archaeological monuments situated along the western coast of the Sambian Peninsula, in the close vicinity of amber collecting areas. This settlement complex played an important role in the collection and trade in amber, which defined the nature of Sambian-Natangian culture in the Roman Iron Age and Migration Period. Further multilateral investigations of the Grebieten burial ground should lead to a clearer view of the settlement system, the social structure, everyday life and contacts of the population of Sambia in the Roman Iron Age.

The article deals with characteristics of the cultural landscape of archaeological sites of Dollkeim-Kovrovo (Sambian-Natangian) culture dating from the Roman Period. The study is based on a spatial analysis, and is built on the currently known information, drawn from prewar archives, publications, research from the second half of the 20th century, and on the results of field surveys conducted by the author. GIS-based techniques were applied. The archaeological sites from the Roman Period located on the eastern border of Dollkeim-Kovrovo Culture in the valleys of the River Pregolja and the River Dejma are the focus of attention. In order to carry out a comparative analysis, information on the burial grounds of the ‘cultural core’ on the Samland Peninsula is used. The spatial layout of the burial grounds and settlements is analysed. As a result, a pattern for the spatial evolution of Dollkeim-Kovrovo culture in the Roman Period and the testing of the hypothesis of the existence of ‘contact zones’ in the West Balt cultural circle are proposed for consideration.