New evidence of contacts across the Baltic Sea : Analysis of Kukuliškiai Late Bronze Age pottery
Volume 31 (2024), pp. 29–43
Pub. online: 27 December 2024
Type: Article
Open Access
Open Access
Received
23 August 2024
23 August 2024
Revised
1 October 2024
1 October 2024
Accepted
30 October 2024
30 October 2024
Published
27 December 2024
27 December 2024
Abstract
The Late Bronze Age (1100–500 cal BC) has been the focus of many recent studies in the Baltic
region. The contacts between societies in the Baltic Sea area are identified by bronze, amber, pottery
and other artefacts, but there is still little evidence of contact between the western and eastern
coasts. This article presents analysis of a pottery assemblage from the Kukuliškiai site (880–400
cal BC) (Lithuania) and its macroscopy and inductively coupled plasma mass atomic emission
spectrometry (ICP-MA/ES) results. Macroscopic examination of the pottery revealed that the
assemblage consists of various vessel surface types: smooth (41%), rusticated (11%), Kukuliškiai-
Otterböte type (4.5%), striated (13%) and burnished (8%). The assemblage has more similarities
with pottery in Scandinavia and northern Poland than with the eastern Baltic Late Bronze
Age pottery.
The ICP-MA/ES analysis of a sample of sherds from Kukuliškiai has shown that the vessels were
most likely made from partly different clays collected in the vicinity of the settlement. This pottery
was locally made but the assemblage’s composition and the presence of the Kukuliškiai-Otterböte
pottery type (KOP) suggests intensive cultural exchange between the two sides of the Baltic Sea.