Klaipėdos universitetas

The article discusses the rapidly changing geocultural situation from the fifth to the seventh century in east and southeast Lithuania. As chiefdoms with strong leaders were taking shape from the fifth to the seventh centuries, the demonstration of power by means of exceptional weapons and other cultural elements became a highly important factor.

At the beginning of the Late Pre-Roman Period, various cultural transformations occurred on Polish territory induced by La Tène culture, and, to a lesser extent, by Jastorf culture circle stimuli. As a result of these influences, new cultures appeared: oksywie culture in the north of Poland, and Przeworsk culture to south of oksywie culture. Among oksywie culture sepulchral materials, many imported items can be identified, such as metal scabbards with crossbars decorated with three or more S-figures. These sheaths were found together with items imported from La Tène culture and roman territories. The article analyses the provenance and distribution of imported items. The authors try to define the origin of the scabbards, and show the interaction between oksywie culture societies and Celtic cultures.

Several different cultural traditions stand out in Long Barrow Culture. Some of them are characteristic of the Baltic Finno-Ugrians, others of the Balts and Slavs. The aim of this work is to distinguish all these mentioned traditions that are manifested in warrior horseman’s accoutrements and riding gear of the fifth to seventh centuries. From the armament point of view, both Slavic tribes and the inhabitants of the Byelorussian and west Russian forest belt, whose ethnocultural affiliation remains disputed (Balts, Slavs, Balto-Slavs, Finno-Balts, Finno-Ugrians?), comprise an integral continuum from the River Danube to Lake Ladoga. The work also discusses the migrational processes that affected the people in the forest belt in the fifth and sixth centuries.

At the Early Roman Iron Age graveyard of Hagenow, Mecklenburg, five or six generations of an elite manifest rank and status through the burial custom, among other things using weapons and components of military equipment. The wealth and quality of the grave goods obvious based on the participation in Germanic retinues and also in Roman services.

A characteristic of the Bronze Age in the area of present-day Latvia was a fairly wide range of bronze, stone and bone weapons. The possibility of military clashes, too, is indicated by the building of fortified residential sites, hill-forts. A whole corpus of evidence testifies to the new way of life adopted by the elite of Bronze Age society, where the ideology of warfare also played a certain role.