Klaipėdos universitetas

Four rare brooches were found during archaeological investigations in Viešvilė cemetery III (in the Jurbarkas district). Three of them are close to the ‘equal-armed’ brooches, of which the shape recalls a ribbon. The fourth brooch was found in child’s grave 35. It belongs to the group of flat openwork brooches. The brooch was decorated with two stylised animal heads and a weaving pattern. Analogies were not found in Lithuanian archaeological material. In this article, the author discusses the possible origin and chronology of the brooches found in Viešvilė cemetery III.

Viešvilė cemetery, situated in the Jurbarkas district (the lower Nemunas region in Lithuania), belongs to the Scalvian Baltic ethnocultural group and has been investigated for the last six years. The site contains archaeological material characteristic of ninth to 11th-century Scalvians. The research material gathered during the excavations would allow us to state that those who were buried in the cemetery were related to a dominant part of Scalvian society of that time.