Klaipėdos universitetas

Nine years have passed since the article dedicated to the preliminary results of the research at Pribrezhnoye in the Kaliningrad region was published (Saltsman 2004). During these years, two monographs were published which dealt with characterising the material obtained before 2003. These materials, just like the following ones, have still not provided us with a reason to share the old theories and traditional ideas. This article aims at clarifying some questions concerning the finds from dwellings with a sunken floor, which were collected during the work process.

Hill-forts are visually distinct archaeological monuments of the Lithuanian landscape; despite excavations that have recently become more intensive, more often than not we still make judgments of hill-forts on the basis of their surviving image, which is assumed to reflect the final stage of their existence. Usually our knowledge about the size of the settlement at its foot, its planigraphy, and of course chronology, is too slender to make any conclusions. By employing complex non-destructive research methods (palynological, geochemical, lithological and geomagnetic analysis, as well as 14C and thermoluminescence dating), the article discusses the time of the rise and the abandonment of Skomantai hill-fort and settlements, the hierarchical relations with the hill-fort as an object forming the settlement structure of the neighbouring area, both settlements at the foot of the hill, and the surrounding burial grounds and monuments, all of which make up a micro-region. As the economic model of the community and the social structure of society changed, the relations between the hill-fort and the settlements changed, as did the purpose of the hill-fort.