Klaipėdos universitetas

The search for sites inhabited by humans of the Late Palaeolithic to Mesolithic period on the coasts of Lithuania is closely related to the coastal and underwater relicts of the Early Holocene and palaeo-watercourses. This article presents the results of coastal, underwater and seismic seabed surveys. The estuaries of the rivers of the Late Mesolithic period could have been at the present seabed level at a depth of 30 m or even deeper. The watercourse sites of the Littorina Sea stage are in shallow coastal waters. At the latitude of Šventoji, Palanga, Klaipėda, Juodkrantė and the area of the Nemunas palaeo-estuary, the seabed was explored with side-scan sonar and by diving. An artefact from the Early Neolithic period has been found in the coastal area next to Klaipėda, and underwater, at a depth of 14.5 m, a relict tree stump has been detected. Two sites at a depth of 10–12 m can be associated with the relict Danė watercourse containing the preserved fragments of relict landscapes. During marine seismic survey, the probable Smeltalė River palaeo-watercourse was detected, and three sites of the former watercourses found to the south of Klaipėda could be the traces of the Dreverna palaeo-river estuary. This area has good prospects as regards the search for Early Mesolithic period settlements. The underwater survey showed no traces of human activity. A further search for the Stone Age sites would be more promising in locations where palaeo-landscapes have survived adjacent to the palaeo-watercourses.

The Baltic Sea Region (BSR) appears as a specific space in which ports, maritime transport and the entire shipping cluster are crucially important. The BSR is one of the most heavily trafficked seas in the world, and maritime transport has contributed to its prosperity. After the collapse of the USSR, the Baltic Sea recovered its role as a contact and transit area. The opening up of the eastern shore to the market economy has brought about the reactivation of its maritime system, which over the years never stopped being a major element in the production of regional integration. Discourses on Baltic unity are often based on the importance of maritimity and maritime trade, but there is also a significant regional diversity in the shipping industry. Nowadays, the emergence of new directions in specialisation, and of new decision makers in ports, allows for new expectations and issues for Baltic ports. The author shows how, in this special Baltic context, ports and maritime stakeholders interact, participating in regional development and integration, but also by pursuing differentiated trajectories.

The research analyses the beach litter monitoring programme in Latvia and provides suggestions for its improvement seeking to provide necessary information for effective marine litter management on the Latvian coastline of the Baltic Sea. The beach litter monitoring programme has been enacted since 2012 by NGO “FEE Latvia” and current research has been focused on the situation assessment and particularly provides analyses on a number and distribution of the surveyed beaches, the frequency and timing of the monitoring, litter classification and counting methodology, as well as the possible programme development using the NGO work based on the citizen science approach. The results allow to elaborate several suggestions on how to improve the programme in order to provide lacking information in Latvia on the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework directive of European Union, and to advise local municipalities in their coastal waste management practices. The suggestions include the increasing number of monitoring sites, a prioritization of the EU Master list classification protocol and an increase of sites with higher frequency of monitoring (3 times per year). Moreover, in the conducted public survey, the beach visitors demonstrated good understanding of marine litter and highly prioritized the issue. The increased interest can add public participation to further development of this applied here citizen science approach.

Physical and chemical parameters were measured in a mostly freshwater estuarine lagoon in the SE Baltic. Present paper demonstrates an attempt to trace the sources and analyse the seasonal and spatial patterns of distribution of POC, DIC and DOC in the Curonian lagoon mostly by the isotopic content in different forms of carbon. Samples were collected in 2012-2014 in 9 stations in the Curonian lagoon including riverine and marine input/output stations. Riverine inputs and summarizing outflow to the Baltic sea locations (Nemunas river delta and Klaipeda channel stations were sampled monthly, while POC, DIC and DOC samples in other stations were collected on a seasonal basis. The observed results allow easily differentiate between estuarine and riverine POM samples, while the differences in DOC δ13C content between sampling stations were found to be not statistically reliable. The high biological productivity of the Nemunas river along with the minor contribution of the Baltic Sea inflows to the overall hydrodynamics of the lagoon explain similarity of content between riverine and estuarine material in the spring and autumn. However, the δ13C content of DIC and DOC could serve as indicator of external inputs only in connection with seasonal water residence variations.

The article presents aspects of the cultural function of Nordic Bronze Age hanging vessels, on the basis of their distribution and production in the Baltic Sea region. Depositions with hanging vessels and related objects show for some regions a similar understanding of the right use and ritual knowledge.

Important but up to now more or less unsolved questions of early Medieval archaeology focus on the date and the process of Slavonisation in the southwest Baltic area. The state of knowledge in various regions of northeast Germany and Poland lead to partly different research reviews, which in some cases even expressed opposing opinions. There are only a few absolute dates available indicating that the beginning of the Slavonic settlement can be dated to the late seventh and early eighth centuries, but how this process of slavonisation can be explained is still unknown. Did a new Slavonic community migrate into a devastated landscape, or was there a change of identity into a Slavonic way of life connected with continuous Germanic settlement? New interdisciplinary investigations of late Germanic and the earliest Slavonic settlements in northwest Poland focus on these questions. The aim of the research project is to obtain new references for continuities or discontinuities in the history of the settlement and the use of the landscape in the area of Pyrzyce, Western Pomerania, to explain processes of change from the sixth to the eighth century

It has always been technically and economically challenging to build constructions on a shoreline. For that reason, those constructions can be used and maintained for a long time, and today contain interesting archaeological information. Despite this, at the time of carrying out repairs, archaeologists are not usually consulted, and the history of a construction is seen as unimportant. However, with this case study of a log-barrier embankment from the early 20th-century Suomenlinna fortress, a new approach is available, challenging the way archaeologists collect data. The data collected from the site can be used together with the archaeological interpretation to aid in the plan for the reuse of the site.

Half-carvels are vessels on which the lowest part of the hull is built with overlapping strakes of planking, referred to as clinker construction, and the uppermost parts of the hull are constructed with the planks laid side by side, in the carvel fashion. These mixed planking constructions first occurred in the 16th century (as far as we know), but became very common in later centuries. The aim of this article is to highlight the existence of different versions of clinker construction, and to discuss some reasons behind the selection of the technique.

The article presents the latest data on ships sunk in Lithuanian territorial waters of the Baltic Sea obtained during archaeological research conducted by the Underwater Archaeology Group of Klaipėda University. The article contains detailed descriptions of the ways these ships were wrecked as found in historical sources from the 14th to the early 20th century, the localisation of newly found remains of wooden ships, data of their study and possibilities for dating them.