A Double Grave with Amber and Bone Adornments at Zvejnieki in Northern Latvia
Volume 13 (2010): At the Origins of the Culture of the Balts, pp. 80–90
Pub. online: 20 June 2010
Type: Article
Open Access
Received
4 April 2010
4 April 2010
Revised
3 May 2010
3 May 2010
Accepted
20 June 2010
20 June 2010
Published
20 June 2010
20 June 2010
Abstract
During excavations at the cemetery at Zvejnieki in northern Latvia in the 1960s and 1970s, more than 300 graves were excavated. At new excavations from 2005 to 2009, a double grave was found. Burial 316, a female, had an arrangement of amber pendants from the waist to the knee, while Burial 317, a male, had some beads around the head and around the lower legs. The double grave 316–317 proved to be the most richly furnished grave in the cemetery in terms of amber pendants. It has been dated to about 4000 calibrated BC. The double grave is located in the eastern part of the cemetery, where other graves of the same age with amber objects were situated.