Archaeologia Baltica

The article presents the data from Kakliniškės 7 settlement site, discovered and excavated in 2020 during the construction of the gas pipeline. The rich and representative collection of pottery and archaeobotanical material gathered in the site have provided valuable data on the hitherto unknown 4th century BC in Lithuania. Pottery such as that found at Kakliniškės 7 has not previously been identified, and is therefore referred to here as Kakliniškės Ware. These are pots with slightly curved walls, rounded shoulders and vertical rims, featuring a striated surface topped with an additional coarse layer. The defined attributes of this new type of pottery have allowed the identification of the same ware in other settlement and burial sites in southeastern Lithuania and the Trans-Nemunas region. All of these settlement sites share some common features; most likely they are the sites of short-lived farmsteads belonging to highly dispersed settlements. Such data allow us to hypothesise a hitherto unidentified cultural group that briefly spread in southern Lithuania in the 4th century BC. This challenges the prevailing model of a static cultural development and a homogeneous material culture in the 1st millennium BC in all of eastern Lithuania. Our data show that the cultural situation here was much more dynamic than previously thought.

This article brings together the main research findings of recent years relating to tenth to thirteenth-century trading equipment from present-day Latvia. Finds of collapsible scales and weights from all regions of Latvia have been mapped and investigated. These include finds from archaeological sites in the Zemgale and Kurzeme regions that have previously not been extensively analysed. Issues relating to the chronology of the scales and weights are discussed. The main trade routes and the dynamics of trade contacts are determined, based on the distribution of the material in different regions.

The Neolithic site of Priedaine in Jūrmala was excavated on a small scale in 2007–2008, yielding an assemblage of Comb Ceramics, along with unique wooden implements and fragments of pine-lath fishing structures. The environment and subsistence resources are indicated by plant macrofossil remains and a small faunal collection. Located by a palaeolake and also very close to the sea, the site, dated to c. 3700–3500 cal BC, would have been oriented towards aquatic resource exploitation. However, it had a wider range of functions, as indicated by the evidence of flint and amber processing.

The aim of this article is to define the wooden building types, identification issues, problems of dating structures built in the 16th – 18th century, and to determine the beginnings of masonry construction in Klaipėda. The identified development of Klaipėda construction from wooden towards masonry buildings as well as chronological definitions of the building types and construction materials used, enables review of previously conducted archaeological and the dating of findings.

The cult of the deer was widespread in traditional societies of deer hunters. This cult was connected with the worship of the deer or man-deer, the ancestor of people and deer, and a cultural hero, the teacher of deer hunting. The most important evidence supporting a deer cult in traditional societies are the totemistic mysteries connected with the reproduction of the deer, and magic hunting rituals. The most important participant in these rituals is the shaman.