Klaipėdos universitetas

A spatial and comparative analysis is made of three male weapon graves from Bohemia, northern Italy and southern England. Consideration is given to the grave goods, their function and symbolic significance, commencing with a discussion of male and warrior identity from 2800 to 2300 BC.

According the excavation data in the lake basin Neumark-Nord 2 it was possible to record three different archaeological find horizons in the superposition. The older find horizon contains numerous smashed bones and flint artefacts, characterised by the Levallois technology of the developed Middle Palaeolithic and is dated, so far, to “Intrasaalian” Interglacial. The second find horizon (NN 2/1) is situated above the NN 2/2 and is characterised by the slight dispersal of bone fragments and flint artefacts. It probably belongs to the beginning of the Eemian Interglacial. The youngest find horizon (NN 2/0) lies over the Eemian optimum and belongs to an Interstadial within the Weichselian Glacial.

A detailed description of the Late Glacial environment was attempted through an interpretation of pollen data and lithological records in the sequences with 14C chronologies. Pollen data suggests that during the pre-Alleröd time (>11.914C kyr. BP) tree-less vegetation flourished in the area where sedimentation in freshwater bodies with a high water level was dominant. The formation of Betula and Pinus predominating forest (11.9−11.814C kyr. BP) coincides with the increasing representation of the organic constituent in investigated sequences. Palaeobotanical records show some improvement of the climatic conditions since the middle of the Younger Dryas cold event (10.5−10.414C kyr. BP). Sedimentation in oligo-mesotrophic nutrient-rich lakes with a rather high water level was typical for the end of the Late Glacial.

The cult of the deer was widespread in traditional societies of deer hunters. This cult was connected with the worship of the deer or man-deer, the ancestor of people and deer, and a cultural hero, the teacher of deer hunting. The most important evidence supporting a deer cult in traditional societies are the totemistic mysteries connected with the reproduction of the deer, and magic hunting rituals. The most important participant in these rituals is the shaman.

The East Baltic Stone Age is well known for its rich array of bone and antler artefacts. The collections consist of stray finds as well as inventory from stratified settlement sites. Seven hunting and fishing tool complexes, made from bone and antler, were singled out in Latvia, characterising each stage of the Baltic Stone Age. The oldest of these complexes was formed at the very end of the Late Glacial period when the ice sheet retreated and the conditions for human habitation were created. This complex consists of 18 bone and antler artefacts, harpoons of archaic forms and spearheads, found in Latvia and Lithuania. Unfortunately, they are all stray finds and determined as Late Palaeolithic only typologically. Harpoons in similar morphological forms are known from all of northwest and Central Europe, associated with Late Palaeolithic reindeer hunter cultures. Some of the finds were made from reindeer antler. The new carbon 14 data of reindeer bones, obtained in Helsinki University by H. Jungner, testified to the presence of reindeer in the Eastern Baltic from Alleröd times till the beginning of the Preboreal climatic period.