Klaipėdos universitetas

In Oberhof (Aukštkiemiai, western Lithuania) all forms of horse burials or offerings can be found: complete horses, horse skulls or the skull and the limbs. In every case where a description is preserved the horse parts were placed to the left of all other items or to the left of the human body, which might be a sign that the horse was used for riding. Horse remains, bridle bits or spurs usually occur in men’s burials that contain weapons. In the community of Oberhof it was not necessary to be on top of the military hierarchy to be a rider or to receive riding gear as grave goods. On the other hand bridles, spurs or horse parts are found quite often in very well furnished graves. So even if theses offerings are often connected with warriors, it has to be considered that they might be not only an indicator for the doubtlessly existing cavalry but also for different social phenomena.

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.

Three vast areas in northern Europe during the Roman Period are known for their people’s development of a distinctive viewpoint regarding the riding horse that was reflected in sacrificial rites (north Germany; the Jutland Peninsula; Zealand, Funen, other Baltic Sea islands, as well as southern Scandinavia) and burial rites (Dollkeim-Kovrovo, Sudovian, West Lithuanian Stone Circle Grave cultures, and, in part, the Lower Nemunas and Bogaczewo cultures). The custom at the end of the second century and in the third century to bury a riding horse (usually only the horse’s head, head and legs, or individual teeth) with armed men was especially distinct in the West Lithuanian Stone Circle Grave Culture area. This burial rite feature distinguishes the mentioned cultural unit (Aistians) area from the communities of other Balts who lived in current Lithuanian territory. The burial rite features that had developed in the West Lithuanian Stone Circle Grave Culture area illustrate the warriors’ hierarchy and the military’s dependency on the society’s nobility that already existed in the Roman Period. These social structure features link the West Balt communities with the northern Germanic peoples. West Lithuanian Stone Circle Grave Culture was the northernmost barbaricum territory in which riding horses were so often buried with people.