Archaeologia Baltica

The article is devoted to the archaeological discoveries in the former village of Perdollen. A flat

The article is devoted to Schönwarling/Skowarcz and Dollkeim/Kovrovo-type crossbow fibulae with a long narrow foot and a full catch-plate, one of the most characteristic chronotypes of the Migration Period. The authors describe a number of specific construction features of the fibulae in the Sambian-Natangian culture area, which define their typological placement. Based on the results of a comparative analysis of prewar and modern archaeological sources, the authors propose an up-to-date specified chronology of these types. Contrary to the currently popular hypothesis, the analysed archaeological material in the Sambian-Natangian area does not demonstrate co-existence, but instead the smooth replacement of Schönwarling/Skowarcz fibulae by those of the Dollkeim/Kovrovo type in the transition phase D2/D3, i.e. about 430 AD.

The emergence of Iron Age elites in the Baltic lands is discussed here in the context of western Lithuania, a region with local amber deposits and distant interregional connections, with reference to what is called the West Lithuanian Group, with cemeteries with stone circles. No interregional status symbols have been recorded in the area, but it is possible to identify local prestige goods, such as equestrian equipment, horse offerings, drinking horns and decorative belt sets (male indicators), and elaborate headdresses and necklaces, and splendid pectoral ornaments (female indicators). Precious imports and silver or silver-plated* ornaments are to be found in both male and female graves. The inhabitants of western Lithuania in the Roman and Early Migration periods differed according to their social status. It is possible to distinguish quite a large number of well-equipped graves, but no exceptionally rich ones. Local elites existed in certain small territorial communities, but there were no regional elites. The destroyed grave 31 at Baitai may be an exception to this rule: it presents a sign of the appearance of people of very high rank, a process which developed further in later periods.

The article presents certain features of Sambian-Natangian culture in the Roman Period. The author directly links characteristics of the social structure of Aestian society, which formed at the turn of the B2/C1–C2 periods, to the nature of the amber trade, in which members of Sambian-Natangian culture participated widely. It is possible to draw some conclusions on the basis of the interrelations revealed, and to attempt to give a very general and subjective reconstruction of the Aestian social structure which had developed by the end of the Roman Period.

Presently the greatest number of riders with horse burials on the territory of Sambian-Natangian Culture was discovered in the Aleika-3 cemetery. The appearance of this burial custom falls on the beginning – the middle of the second century. The rite appears in Sambia in the completed manner. Horse equipment of Aleika-3 cemetery has numerous analogies in the Danube region, this fact enables to suggest that its appearance in the region follows German-Sarmatian contacts during the Marcomannic Wars. The custom to bury horse to a rider reaches Western Balts with the Germans who took part in these wars. The grave furnishings of Aleika-3 riders in practice do not differ in contents from the tackle of Germania Liberia riders. The abundance of the Roman imports found in Aleika-3 cemetery including the luxury items and clearly expressed relationship with Welbark Culture are the result of the fact that the multiethnic society oversaw the beginning of the amber trade in this region and probably controlled it. Archaeological evidence of Aleika-3 cemetery enables to conclude that the beginning of the process of clan system degrading is fixed in the second century. This process was conditioned by penetrating of the German ethnic component involved into amber trade.