Vytenis Podėnas

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• PhD
• Researcher at Lithuanian Institute of History

The emergence of hilltop settlements presents a pattern of the first enclosed sites that reflect economic development in several regions within the Southeastern Baltic Bronze Age. This novelty reflects increasing social complexity, differentiating economic relations, as well as rising tension in the region. The phenomenon has received a great deal...

Recent data on the subsistence and diet of the Eastern Baltic population have allowed for a more detailed reconstruction of possible Late Bronze Age (1100–500 BCE) dishes. It has been observed that in some areas, fishing has become less significant, with communities focusing more on agriculture and animal husbandry, while in other regions, wild res...

The emergence of fortified settlements marks an important stage in prehistory, when communities fundamentally changed their way of life and daily practices by additionally investing significant time and labour to ensure their security. This phenomenon reflects major shifts in human behaviour, driven by different processes in various parts of the wo...

The fortified settlements in Lithuania attest to a long-term phenomenon representing the behaviour of early farmers after the adoption of crop cultivation ca. 1300–1250 cal. BC. Hitherto, the subsistence economy and diet of this population were primarily understood via zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical analyses, however, understudied are the f...

The economic model of the Lithuanian Late Bronze Age (1100–500 cal BC) has long been based on zooarchaeological collections from unstratified, multi-period settlements, which have provided an unreliable understanding of animal husbandry and the role of fishing and hunting. The opportunity to re-evaluate the previously proposed dietary and subsisten...

This paper presents the findings of a research project aimed at reconstructing the subsistence economy of the Late Bronze Age communities in eastern Lithuania. We focused on examining archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological assemblages from three hillforts alongside δ 13 C and δ 15 N stable isotope analysis of plant and animal remains. Our results s...

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...

In this article, we present archeometallurgical studies of Bronze Age metalwork in Lithuania. Situated on the Eastern Baltic region, Lithuania belongs to the geographical area, which is far away from any metal sources, that have been exploited in the Bronze Age. Yet, the local population required bronze artefacts and metal supply as much as its nei...

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...

The study of pottery production is a further step towards understanding the social significance of both stylistic and material patterns. The focus of this paper is on the latter aspect: we will analyse and discuss similarities and differences among LBA groups of eastern Baltic pottery, as well as view pottery as a communication medium. Fortified se...

Fortified settlements in the Eastern Baltic 1100–400 cal BC. Doctoral thesis in Lithuanian. The aim of this thesis is to determine the timing of the emergence of early fortified settlements, the process of their spread in the Eastern Baltic, and the reasons for the changes in the behaviour of the communities between 1100 and 400 cal BC. The thesi...

How fortifications emerged in the east Baltic is a recurring theme of discussions throughout their research history, and it has lately been studied even more due to new data from different projects. Our current knowledge allows us to propose a detailed classification of the earliest defensive systems that were established in the Late Bronze Age, wh...

Call for papers for session #354 'Hidden hillforts'. The importance of archival sources for future research on fortifications. 28th EAA Annual Meeting in Budapest, Hungary, 31 August - 3 September 2022

Rec.: Manvydas Vitkūnas, Gintautas Zabiela. Baltų piliakalniai: nežinomas paveldas. Vilnius: Lietuvos archeologijos draugija, 2017, 88 p.

This article explores the Late Bronze Age agrarian intensification in the south-east Baltic. In recent years several studies have illustrated that to date there is no solid evidence on Neolithic farming and that the agricultural history of the region was probably distinctly different in comparison to other parts of northern Europe. The recently exc...

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....

During the Roman period, a rapid economic and social development of the Eastern Baltic region included the Balts in the newly formed interregional system of contacts, thus leading to the spread of new technologies and their distinctive development. The metal industry replaced dominant bone-antler and stone artefacts in archaeological sites. Alongsi...

The Garniai I Hillfort in northeastern Lithuania was occupied from the Bronze Age during the Lithuanian Late Bronze and again disturbed during the Modern Era. The local geomorphic landscape of the site was formed by Terminal Pleistocene and Holocene glaciation and sedimentation, the majority of which predated the original occupation by millennia. T...

The finds of the colour metallurgy (crucibles, hearth, cast-shapes for ring-shaped articles, and other technical ceramics) detected in Narkūnai Great Mound have so far attracted attention of many researchers. Recently there were discussions due to the artifacts without clear signs of exposure to heat, (Čivilytė 2014, Podėnas, etc., 2016) and, for t...

What was the role of the East Baltic region in Bronze Age processes of moving metal, trade and societal development? Elucidating this picture has been one of the most important objectives for scholars examining the region’s archaeological sites. A representative lower cultural horizon of the Narkūnai ‘Didysis’ hillfort and results of its archaeolog...

This article presents an investigation of the classification, chronology, production, and usage of the technical ceramics from the ‘Didysis’ Narkūnai Hillfort (Utena District, Leliūnai Eldership). An attempt to resolve the problem of classifying vessels as miniature cups or crucibles was made using XRF, microchemical qualitative, SEM/EDX, and x-rad...

The article presents a classification of the pottery dated to PIII–B2/C1 and a spatial analysis of the pottery, bone, and metal artefacts found at the Narkūnai archaeological complex (Utena District, Leliūnai Eldership). First, a re-examination of Narkūnai’s prehistoric chronology was made using typological studies. Second, on the basis of 14 879 a...