Towards a better understanding of the economy and culture of the Late Bronze Age in the southeastern Baltic: Tarbiškės settlements
Volume 29 (2022), pp. 149–168
Pub. online: 27 December 2022
Type: Article
Open Access
Received
10 March 2022
10 March 2022
Revised
4 May 2022
4 May 2022
Accepted
1 July 2022
1 July 2022
Published
27 December 2022
27 December 2022
Abstract
In 2020, rescue excavations due to construction of a pipeline connecting Poland and Lithuania took place at the Bronze Age sites Tarbiškės 1 and Tarbiškės 2, eastern Lithuania, both dated to 1050–900 cal BC. They revealed a rather homogeneous archaeological assemblage which fills a gap in the development of the Bronze Age culture and economy in the southeastern Baltic. Tarbiškės Ware, from a typological as well as chronological point of view, stands in an intermediate position linking Trzciniec culture pottery with Žalioji and Early Striated Wares. Macrobotanical analysis of charred plant remains revealed that Bronze Age people at Tarbiškės cultivated Panicum miliaceum, Hordeum vulgare and Triticum sp. The Tarbiškės sites demonstrate that early farmers used to settle areas at higher elevations with sandy soils, further from large bodies of water. They used flint and other stone tools widely and lacked bronze. Tarbiškės is the first and
only ancient settlement discovered in Lithuania with a workshop for on-site manufacturing of polished stone axes with drilled holes.