Klaipėdos universitetas

The article discusses the data provided by visitation of 1569 of the parish of Kuncai in the Curonian Spit in the context of all the visited parishes in Semba diocese. An attempt is made to review the scale of the rooting of confessional norms in daily life, the quality of clergymen‘s education, the level of parishioner indoctrination, the material situation of the parish, etc. The visitation acts are examined through the prism of the aspect of confessionalization, and the characteristics of the process are identified: the priests’ personalities and performance are studied, as well as their control of the subordinates on the basis of the confession, the collaboration of the secular and church authorities, etc.

Modern information technologies (IT) provide progressive tools and methods for data collection, storage, processing, and publication. The essence of historical research is to synthesize new information from different types of historical sources. The analysis of scientific publications proved that IT are still rarely applied to historical research. Several reasons may account for the state of things. One of them is related to rather conservative attitudes of researchers in the field of IT towards collaboration, which also accounts for the absence of specialized software for historical research. The article introduces IT tools and methods which can be used in historical research in a popular way, and the authors expect to promote interdisciplinarity in the field of history.

The article focuses on ethical dilemmas caused by accidentally found artefacts from the necropolises of Klaipėda Region that no longer have clear attribute references (tombstones or details of their decoration, epitaph tables, fragments of crosses, etc). The problems are related to the identification of such findings, the establishment of their environmental protection and museum value (whether they are to be protected, exhibited, or valueless), their potential use (as objects of research or of technological interest, memorial objects, raw materials for restoration, etc.), and their fate. As proved by experience, part of the artefacts are a valuable source of information about the materials used by the craftsmen of the 19th to mid-20th c., details of decoration, the skills, and technological and colourist resolutions. The artefacts with no clear attribute references can be used for instrumental analysis: for the identification of the composition and structure of ceramics, metal, paints, and glaze; however, the fate of an artefact primarily depends on the moral decision of a person who found (appropriated, or dismantled) it.

The article deals with the diversity of herbaceous and ligneous ornamental plant species and their distribution in the old cemeteries of Klaipėda Region. Studies were carried out in 40 cemeteries of Šilutė district, during the vegetation period in 2012. The cemeteries differed in their area, the intensity of their use, and care. In the majority of cases, one to ten species of ornamental plants were found. The largest diversity of ornamental plant species (over 20) were found in the currently used and cared for cemeteries in Mantvydai I and Kukorai. The total number of ornamental plants species established in the cemeteries was under 60. Among the ligneous plants, the common lilacs (Syringa vulgaris L.) and thuja (Thuja occidentalis L.) prevailed. Among the herbaceous ornamental plants, several species and varieties of plantain lily (Hosta L.), common columbine (Aquilegia vulgaris L.), and lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis L.) prevailed.