The article discusses artefacts made of osseous materials found in the Late Bronze Age fortified settlement sites in north-eastern Lithuania. Earlier, Bronze Age bone items from three Lithuanian ...sites – Narkūnai, Nevieriškė and Kereliai – have been analysed more thoroughly. Of sites discussed here, Sokiškiai has been archaeologically investigated in the beginning of the 1980-ies. In recent years, research has been carried out on the fortified settlements of Mineikiškės and Garniai I. 14C AMS dates have been used to date new sites as well as to specify the dates of previously studied settlements. During this research, approximately half a hundred bone, antler and tooth objects were examined, and the material used to make them was determined, if possible up to the species and skeletal part. Among the materials used, bone predominated, antler was used less, and teeth were used in only a few cases. An overview is given of the common types of bone objects, the processing techniques used to make them and the uses of the objects. The majority of tools are chisels and scrapers, and awls and points, many of which could have been used as leather working tools. The third major group of finds is bone pins, which testify to the clothing fashion that needed pins for attachment. Comparing the finds of Late Bronze Age fortified settlements in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Byelorussia, greater similarity can be observed in certain types of bone artefacts in south-eastern Latvia, north-western Byelorussia, and north-eastern Lithuania.
This article deals with a new discovered Late Bronze Age hoard find from former Kobbelbude (district Fischhausen, Eastern Prussia, now district Kaliningrad, Russian Federation). The hoard find is of ...special importance because it is the first time that metallurgical investigations were carried out on its artefacts. Archaeometallurgical analysis is, apart from few exceptions, still a desideratum of research in the eastern Baltic region. Also, for the first time, lead isotope ratios were determined. The results of the isotopic composition of the lead show a first hint towards a possible Eastern Alpine origin of the used ores. Former archaeometallurgical research of Bronze Age metal finds from the eastern Baltic region suggested a more abstract assumption about the origin of the ores from Middle Europe. Moreover, with the analysis of the chemical composition of the artefacts from Kobbelbude, a material classification to the type “dilute” fahlore copper with nickel, which we know from Late Bronze Age Middle Europe, was drawn. The results presented in this paper are a first step in the field of archaeometallurgical research in the eastern Baltic region and open a new perspective on Bronze Age metallurgy in relation to cultural history.
This article is dedicated to Gimbutas’ approach to prehistoric amber and the results of her hypothesis for 21st-century archaeology. Amber is one of the constant threads in her research but ...hypotheses about amber have yet to be summarized. It is our aim to discuss the assessment of Gimbutas’ studies of amber in a non-exhaustive format, which can help to understand the focal points of her research, especially the chronological changes of amber utilisation from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age. We w will discuss Gimbutas’ proposals in respect to the amber routes and interpret her ideas from the perspective of recent research. We will also discuss the question of the possible utilisation of amber from western Ukraine’s Klesov deposit, which is very similar to succinite. This article focuses especially on the question of how we can understand the meaning of amber in the Bronze Age and suggests the idea that amber had a symbolic rather than economic value in the local Eastern Baltic societies.
The article aims to discuss the reuse of objects, something that has so far not been investigated in greater detail in Lithuania. Iron Age single-bladed axes and hoes, which were deformed and remade, ...thereby changing their function, were selected as an example. Despite the corrosion, it appears that both the axes and the hoes were used prior to the blade being rotated 90°. Axe and hoe production technologies are similar and it is not difficult to rotate their blades. But it is hardly possible to explain the occurrence of this action for only practical reasons. The article attempts to ascertain possible reasons for this transformation. It examines axes and hoes with rotated blades as examples of human behaviour, revealing not only functional, but also social, communicative, and psychological aspects of the object’s reuse.
The SE Baltic Bronze Age is characterized by a lack of indigenous metalwork traditions as it had been a time when metal finds were predominantly imported or were cast locally, but in foreign styles. ...This paper analyses the bronze casting remains found in the SE Baltic and discusses the role of these production sites within a wider European network. Through typological identification of the negatives in casting moulds, we assess predominantly Nordic artefact casts, in which the production of KAM (Kel’ty Akozinsko-Melarskie) axes was distinguished at a higher frequency. We hypothesize that several coastal regions were temporarily settled by people of Nordic origin who participated in an exchange with local SE Baltic communities via itinerant bronze production. Foreign settlement areas as indicated by stone ship burials are known in Courland and S Saaremaa as well as in N Estonia and the Sambian Peninsula. From these territories, further communication was developed with local communities settled mostly in enclosed sites in coastal areas and inland, in the vicinity of the River Daugava, the SE Latvian and NE Lithuanian uplands, and the Masurian Lakeland.
In this paper, we present the main results of interdisciplinary project that allowed us to formulate a new perspective on the economy of the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Baltic region. New ...excavations at the Late Bronze Age fortified settlements of Garniai 1 (Utena district municipality) and Mineikiškės (Zarasai district municipality) lead us to analyse the economy of the communities in much greater detail and to formulate a more reliable economical model than before. This paper reviews the new results of archaeobotanical investigations of these fortified settlements, as well as δ13C and δ15N data of food remains in Late Bronze Age pottery, grains and animal bone collagen samples. These analyses allowed us to refine and clarify the likely dietary practices of consumers of certain products in the Eastern Baltic region. The paper also publishes new data on the elemental composition and lead isotopes of metalware, thereby adding to our earlier findings These studies show that metallurgy as a specialized activity did not play a significant role in the Late Bronze Age economy, but its emergence was driven by the economic changes of the period. In contrast, the production of high-level bone-antler artifacts reflects the activity of specialized craftsmen in Late Bronze Age settlements. The collection of a new large and varied dataset allows us to determine the lifestyle and dietary habits of the people living in these settlements. By developing a new model of the Late Bronze Age, we present a picture of the interwoven economies of agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting, fishing, gathering, metallurgy and bone craftsmanship as a whole, asking what might have influenced the distinctive development of the economy of the eastern Baltic Sea region during the Late Bronze Age.
PDF
