Klaipėdos universitetas

This article presents an analysis of the spatial structure and the chronological development of Opstainis, Vilkyškiai Iron-Age hill-fort settlement, on the basis of archaeological and geomagnetic survey data. It has been ascertained that the hill-fort and the settlement were inhabited throughout the first millennium AD. The currently available scientific research data from Opstainis, Vilkyškiai Iron-Age hill-fort and settlement (half-sunken building or pit houses, oval-shaped and pear-shaped flatbottom household pits, and shards of handmade pottery decorated with cross-shaped imprint ornaments) serve as indications of contacts between the inhabitants of the lower reaches of the River Nemunas and the southwest Baltic Sea region in the second half of the first millennium AD.

Current advances in science allow us to survey and investigate archaeological sites without destroying them. This article presents the results of integrated archaeological research in the Eketė locality. The object of study is the Iron Age/Early Medieval hill-fort and ancient settlement complex. The aim of the research is to recreate the development of the formation of the hill-fort and settlement using widely applied non-destructive remote sensing methods of landscape archaeology: the analysis of aerial photographic images and geophysical prospecting research data.