Plants in the artefacts not used for their original purpose. A remarkable case from the Lazdininkai (Kalnalaukis) cemetery in western Lithuania
Volume 30 (2023), pp. 116–132
Pub. online: 28 December 2023
Type: Article
Open Access
Open Access
Received
12 May 2023
12 May 2023
Revised
11 June 2023
11 June 2023
Accepted
27 August 2023
27 August 2023
Published
28 December 2023
28 December 2023
Abstract
This article investigates tinned bronze ornaments found in two graves of the Lazdininkai-Kalnalaukis
cemetery dated to the end of the 2nd century to the first quarter of the 3rd century AD
from the perspective of archaeological materials, intercultural contacts, 14C AMS dating, and
chemical-physical and biological research. These ornaments — a wheel-shaped pendant and a
bead — were originally parts of fashionable necklaces. However, these ornaments went into the
graves as spinning tools. The wheel-shaped pendant from grave 8(1992) contains the first ever
found, or at least officially recorded, use in Lithuania of an aquatic plant for a spinning tool bobbin.
The piece of possible linden tree wood was used to compose the spinning tool bobbin found
in grave 68(2001). These spinning tools are the first to have appeared in Lithuanian archaeological
material from as early as the end of the 2nd century to the first quarter of the 3rd century. In
addition, both spinning tools are unique in the Lithuanian archaeological record so far in that
the copper alloy spindle whorls were used to compose both working tools. The closest analogues
for the wheel-shaped pendant are known from the Wielbark culture and this example should be
considered as an import from that cultural area. Copper alloy beads and various local derivatives,
however, are numerous in the range of the Baltic cultures area. The copper alloy wheel-shaped
spindle whorls from the Migration period cemeteries are the spinning tools created for the specific
purpose of spinning which were produced locally, even possibly in the same workshops.