Klaipėdos universitetas

The article explores the changes in the gathering, processing and use of amber on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea at the end of the Viking Age and in the 12th to 16th century. In the pagan sacral space, works in amber reflected mythological elements, and later they were transformed and adapted to Christian practice, at the same time as maintaining the commercial value of amber as a material. Archaeological material from the above-mentioned period illustrates the gradual diffusion of Christian elements in the pagan territories. Their expression is visible in new forms of amber works.

This paper discusses the most important ancient amber tubular beads from the Zvidze settlement in the Lake Lubāns wetlands, and their analogies in the forest zone of Eastern Europe. Special attention is paid to specific forms of amber bead: cylindrical, beads with a thickening in the middle part, rounded, arched diamond-shaped and other archaic beads, long and short barreltype, spool-type, beads with oval pinched cross-cuts, and spherical beads. Analogies of amplified amber beads (with a thickening in the middle) have been found in the very wide area of the forest zone of Eastern Europe (Konchanskoe, Repistche, Tudozero, and so on). A review of the Zvidze tubular amber beads allows us to consider that some bead types (barrel-shaped, spherical, diamond-shaped) are more widespread in the ancient world.