Archaeologia Baltica

A bronze fibula from Dailidės near Joniškis in eastern Lithuania is compared with its analogies found in Mazuria (the Olsztyn group), the Carpathian Basin, the Middle Dnieper region and southeastern Romania. The chronology of the group is established to the late sixth and early seventh century. The series may have originated in Mazuria and spread to other regions in the context of gift-giving exchange between regional elites.

Several different cultural traditions stand out in Long Barrow Culture. Some of them are characteristic of the Baltic Finno-Ugrians, others of the Balts and Slavs. The aim of this work is to distinguish all these mentioned traditions that are manifested in warrior horseman’s accoutrements and riding gear of the fifth to seventh centuries. From the armament point of view, both Slavic tribes and the inhabitants of the Byelorussian and west Russian forest belt, whose ethnocultural affiliation remains disputed (Balts, Slavs, Balto-Slavs, Finno-Balts, Finno-Ugrians?), comprise an integral continuum from the River Danube to Lake Ladoga. The work also discusses the migrational processes that affected the people in the forest belt in the fifth and sixth centuries.