Acta Historica Universitatis Klaipedensis

One peculiarity of the Suwalska Group of Sudovian culture is the very large number of barrows with destroyed inhumation graves. Since the 1950s, this fact has been interpreted as the result of the robbery of grave goods, which took place in late Antiquity. Common features in the ‘robbed graves’ observed in cemeteries at Osowa site I, and the villages of Szwajcaria and Żywa Woda, were: 1) the concavity of the top of the barrow and the lack of stones in the stone lining on the barrow surface; 2) traces of the ‘robbery trench’; 3) the multilayer stone pavement (concentration) over the skeleton grave; 4) the complete or partial lack of human bones in the grave, especially the lack of a skull and bones of the post-cranial skeleton, with the exception of the legs; and 5) traces of fire in the grave pits and on the stone pavements. These features and the almost complete lack of human bones in the stratified layers of the barrows, formed as a result of ‘robbery’, lead us to the conclusion that they were material traces of ritual practices connected with opening the barrows and relocating human bones and grave goods from inhumations. The basis of these activities was probably the principle of the proper burial of the dead. The real moment of death was not the end of the vital functions, but the complete decomposition of the body. After that, the re-deposition and secondary burial of bones took place.

The battle-knife is quite a familiar weapon in Lithuanian archaeological material. The functional characteristics are more important than the length of knife for making decisions about the battle-knife. By appreciating the archaeological material from Marvelė cemetery (central Lithuania), we can observe the process of change in the form of the battle-knife during the Late Roman Period.

The article concerns the fork-like artefact found in grave 22 at Gurjevsk (formerly Trausitten). Based on Herbert Jankuhn’s files, it had seemed to be a part of a Roman helmet, but after finding it in the Prussia Collection (nowadays in Berlin) it seems to be of quite modern origin (a musket rest?).

The authors recall their reconstruction of the Wielbark Culture cemetery at Krosno grave 27 furnishing. One of the most interesting elements in the grave is a boat-shaped fitting, probably the pommel of a sword typical of Scandinavia. The chronology of the grave corresponds to the dating of such boat-shaped pommels.

The author shows traces of the influence on the Baltic shafted weapon from the territory of Poland (Bogaczewo Culture, Sudovian Culture). These cultures present completely different views of the shafted weapon. In the former, the “Przeworsk” cultural impact prevailed, in the latter the Lithuanian influence is noticeable.