Klaipėdos universitetas

Long shafts, known by various sources in Sambia, were not attracting the attention of archaeologists. According to their location, the shafts are divided into: shafts near the extremities of the peninsula, known from archaeological exploration, and shafts in the depth of the land, known only from written sources. It is possible that the shafts were performed not so much by the military as by cult and administrative functions, limiting the extraterritorial nature of the canals and protecting the foreign boats roaming through them from the Prussian tribal territory, the laws of which the merchant-mariners did not obey.

The movement of Vikings not for all regions of our continent was concussion of bases of public life. In Grobiņa and on Kaup Scandinavians didn’t manage to take decisive places in these settlements and their activity proceeded under strict control of local power structures. Westbaltic sacral phenomenon became the absence reason in Grobiņa and Kaup of settlements with the lines typical for the trade and craft settlement of an era of Vikings.

The open ritual area is one type of pagan cult site. In this article are presented the results of an analysis of wooden pole frames and constructions from six open ritual areas in the northern Sambian peninsula. Their chronogical time covers the third to the 13th centuries AD. Open ritual areas coexisted with fireplaces and pits. In the early phase pole constructions are characterised by a rectangular shape, and subsequently a roundish shape. Analogies with open ritual areas are known in Poland, Denmark and Germany.