Klaipėdos universitetas

Some of the Russian-speaking teachers in minority schools in Latvia have to teach bilingually. That is, they are required to use both Latvian and Russian within the scope of one lesson. However, due to insufficient knowledge of Latvian they often cannot do that properly. In this study I describe the strategies they use to solve this problem. Problem-oriented interviews with teachers, participant observation and personal experience were used to collect information. I have discovered five strategies for the teaching. Each strategy involves different ratio of Russian and Latvian within a lesson. Three of them also imply a significant amount of cheating and pretence. Four strategies used for document handling in Latvian were discovered as well.

In the course of archaeological excavation in 2004, 2006 and 2007 at the 13th–17th century cemetery of Veselava, in Cēsis District, Latvia, 941 burials were excavated. The osteological material permitted an insight into the palaeodemography and palaeodiet of the medieval inhabitants of Veselava. Demographic research shows that the population was characterised by high mortality among juveniles, aged 15–20, and among women aged 15–35. Among males, the highest mortality was observed at age 30–40, mortality remaining high in the age range of 40–50. As a result, adult life expectancy, e020, is 5.1 years shorter for females than for males. Palaeodietary analysis, utilising inductively coupled plasma atomic mass spectrometry (IC P-MS ), was undertaken on 40 individuals, determining the concentration of seven elements in the bone. In order to assess the natural background level of these elements, 20 soil analyses were also undertaken. The elemental content of male and female bone is similar, although the mean level of Zn and Cu in bone is slightly higher for males, which might indicate higher meat consumption. On the other hand, Sr and Mn values are higher for females, indicating a high proportion of plant foods in the diet. It is thought that the 13th–17th century inhabitants of Veselava often had a meagre diet, and that plant food consumption was higher among women.

In the fifth to the eighth centuries, graves of well-armed men and their riding horses –or the ritual parts of horses– were spread throughout almost the entire mainland part of Lithuania and Latvia, or in the territory between the Nemunas and Daugava / Western Dvina Rivers. This was the northernmost part of Europe in which the custom had spread in the fifth to the eighth centuries. While the horsemen’s and horses’ burial customs varied in separate regions of the defined area, still everywhere the horseman and horse were interred in one grave pit, with the horse almost always to the person’s left. In their journey to the Afterlife, however, the bond between horseman and horse began to vary in the communities that lived in the more peripheral regions. The variety of burial customs was associated with differences in the communities’ social structure; these differences affected interment traditions and formed different burial rites. The custom that existed in the Roman Period on the littorals of Lithuania and Latvia to bury ritual horse parts (the head or head and legs) and spurs with armed men disappeared; here only bridle bits symbolized the horse in armed men’s graves in the fifth to the eighth centuries. Warriors’ graves with equestrian equipment spread throughout the entire region between the Nemunas and Daugava in the fifth to eighth centuries. With the change in burial customs (with the spread of cremation), and, apparently, in worldview, riding horse burials appeared that no longer could be associated with the concrete burials of people.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the incidence of traumatic bone lesions among the population of the River Daugava area in Latvia. A total of 804 skeletons from four cemeteries were analysed. The data obtained indicates that the frequencies of cranial trauma in all the series are similar. Within each population there was a significant difference between males and females with regard to the frequency of traumas. Skeletal traumas of the inhabitants of the Daugava area are not connected exclusively with military conflict.

The article is devoted to the role of military activities in socio-political developments in Latvia during the Late Iron Age (tenth to 12th centuries). The topics of weapons as prestige items, warrior burials and their relation to the retinue, as well as military symbolism and warfare as the source of power, are discussed on the basis of archaeological material of the Livs, Curonians*, Semigallians and Latgallians.