The aim of this article is to update the data on the research into Palanga settlement carried out in 1958, the objectives being to publish the discovered material to its full extent, to determine the lithological and cultural layers of the settlement, and to determine the cultural dependence of the communities that lived there. The following are used in the article: archaeological, osteological and macrobotanical material, which is kept at Kretinga Museum and which has not been published till now; stratigraphy of geological strata obtained during the drilling of geological boreholes; and radiocarbon dating of peat from the cultural layer level. The natural and cultural landscape of the habitation period of Palanga Stone Age settlement is also presented.
Journal:Archaeologia Baltica
Volume 14 (2010): Underwater Archaeology in the Baltic Region, pp. 120–135
Abstract
This article discusses issues related to pile-dwelling settlements in Lithuania. It offers a detailed study of the archaeological and osteological material found at the Žemaitiškė 2 pile-dwelling settlement, as well as palynological and radiocarbon research into the settlement’s cultural layer. The article discusses the wood anatomy of pile-dwellings, their dendrochronological dating, and the types of construction material. The studies show that the construction of pile-dwellings in Lithuania began in the Late Neolithic Age, whereas the tradition of living on pile platforms existed throughout the Bronze Age.
Journal:Archaeologia Baltica
Volume 14 (2010): Underwater Archaeology in the Baltic Region, pp. 100–119
Abstract
Between 2000 and 2010, the Asaviec 2 and Asaviec 7 settlements of Kryvina peatbog (Vitebsk region) were excavated. At Asaviec 2 the excavations concentrated on the northern part, where pure materials of Usvyatian culture were found, and also several fragments of a Globular Amphora culture vessel. The excavations of the new Asaviec 7 settlement (up till 2007) gave us pure materials of Northern Belarusian culture, too. Among them are bone, antler and flint items, made mainly according to local Neolithic traditions. There are two 14C dates for this settlement: 3770±90 ВР and 3870±40 ВР.
Journal:Archaeologia Baltica
Volume 11 (2009): The Horse and Man in European Antiquity (Worldview, Burial Rites, and Military and Everyday Life), pp. 22–31
Abstract
The horse bones found in Lithuanian habitation sites that date to the Late Neolithic and to the Early Bronze Age still do not indicate that these horses were ridden upon or used to plough the soil. However, horse bones have been found in Lithuanian territory only in those sites where bones of other animals that were domesticated have been found. This suggests that domesticated horses in Lithuania might have spread together with other domesticated animals by way of cultural diffusion during the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age.
The paper discusses a rare archaeological and anthropological find – a Late Neolithic grave, found in the year 2000 in Gyvakarai village (Kupiškis region). The site was discovered by chance, when local inhabitants were digging gravel from the slope on the left bank of the Žvikė creek. Radiocarbon dating (two separate samples of bone analysed): 3745±70 bp (right tibia, Ki-9470) and 3710±80 bp (left ulna, Ki-9471) confirmed the initial supposition of Late Neolithic, and actually falls to the very end of this period. The following grave goods associated with the inhumation were found: boat-shaped polished stone axe with shaft-hole; hafted axe, produced from flint of a greyish colour; a blade knife, produced from flint of a greyish colour; a hammer-headed bone (antler?) pin, found among disturbed bones of the burial (to our knowledge this is the first hammer headed pin in Lithuania).
The osteological analysis of the burial revealed that the bones belonged to one fragmentary skeleton. Bone fragments are well preserved, and were from parts of the skull vault, both maxillas, the right side of the mandible, five cervical, twelve thoracic, five lumbar vertebrae, fragments of ribs, the handle of the sternum, both clavicles and scapulae, humeri, ulnae, right radius, right and left hand bones, fragments of both coxal bones, femora, tibias, fibulas and bones of the feet. The skeleton belonged to an adult male that died at the age of 35-45 years. The skull vault was too fragmentary for measurement, visually it can be evaluated as hypermorphic, dolichocranic, with an average or even a broad face. The postcranial skeleton is hypermorphic, with marked muscle insertions. The reconstructed stature is 173-176 cm. Such a massive skeleton is typical of other Lithuanian Corded Ware/Boat Axe culture people, and similar to those found in Estonia, Prussia and later the Fatyanovo people from the Central Russian plain.
This new case forces us to revive the long-lasting discussions about the origins of Indo-Europeans and the Balts. Summarising the current empirical facts and hypotheses based on archaeological, linguistic, anthropological and genetic data, we can find support for both migration and acculturation models. All known Corded Ware/Boat Axe burials in Lithuania are singular, contain individuals of adult/mature age, are associated with a particular set of grave goods and characterised by a very specific phenotype – these facts would support the hypothesis of immigration. However, some facts would also speak for the acculturation hypothesis: probably the adoption of the Indo-European language was earlier, via cultural transfer, and migrants of Kurgan people already found communities with whom they could communicate. However, they left no significant impact on the local anthropological substrate.