Archaeologia Baltica

The Rėkučiai defence installation is in the eastern part of Lithuania between two lakes in wooded country. The installation was comprised of a rampart and a ditch in front of it. This defence installation from the 12th and 13th centuries belongs to the most important fortified area of the newly developing Lithuanian state. It extended about 50 kilometres from east to west, and was built as a defence against the Polotsk-Pskov duchies and the Livonian Order. Analogous defence installations include Kovirke (“Cow Wall”), a lesser fortification within the well-known Dannevirke earthwork fortification complex, as well as the ramparts left by Prussian tribes.