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Įtvirtintos gyvenvietės Rytų Baltijos regione 1100–400 cal BC. Doctoral dissertation
Abstract
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 thesis examines data from 75 fortified settlements, analyses the inner structure of fortified settlements, and reviews the archaeological collections in the Baltic States. Based on the 14C dates, the first fortified settlements in the region were established as early as 1100-800 cal BC, and their network spread between 800-530/520 cal BC. This type of settlements were concentrated in the western part of the region, in the Daugava River basin, and in a wide stretch of the Baltic Uplands in north-eastern Lithuania and south-eastern Latvia. This distribution was the result of the increased need of the population to defend their accumulated wealth in the areas of the region where trade intensified. During the period under review, communities developed at least 6 different types of fortification systems: enclosures of irregularly placed wooden stakes, fences intertwined with branches, palisades, wooden walls, timber structures raised on ramparts and incorporated with stone walls. The economic differentiation of the communities that established fortified settlements in the Eastern Baltic region is most clearly seen in the zooarchaeological data. The species composition of livestock reared, and the importance of fishing and hunting varied in different areas of the region. Isotopic studies of food residues in pottery have shown that mostly food of terrestrial origin was cooked, which is related with developing agriculture in the region.
... The assemblage consists of 99 artefact fragments made of antler, bone, ceramics, bronze, flint, and stone, supplemented by 5889 pottery fragments and 7948 specimens of animal skeletal remains (2711 pieces in 2017 and 5237 in 2020). Bones of horse and large bovid, charred organic residues in pottery, grains of Hordeum vulgare and Cerealia, and wood charcoal (altogether 19 finds) were AMS-dated to the period from 983 to 388 cal BC [22][23][24][25][26]. ...
... The locations of Garniai 1 and Mineikiškės fortified settlements. Grey dots indicate locations of other LBA fortified settlements in the region[23]. ...
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 subsistence patterns arose after zooarcheological assemblages of Garniai 1 and Mineikiškės fortified settlements, dating only to the Late Bronze Age, were collected in 2016–2017 and 2020–2021. The new analysis revealed that the communities in these sites were mainly engaged in animal husbandry of small ungulates such as pigs, sheep/goats, which differed from western Lithuania and the rest of the Eastern Baltic. Moreover, it has been observed that hunting and fishing significantly declined after the Early Bronze Age (1700–1100 cal BC). Lastly, unusual traits for the Baltic region were identified including exceptionally highly fragmented bones and the consumption of molluscs, which could be attributed to the exploration of additional food sources in times of deprivation.
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. Key words: Late Bronze Age economy, fortified settlements, paleobotany, archaeozoology, diet, specialized craftwork, communication.
In the context of archaeometallurgical studies of copper alloys, it is relevant to record the essential changes in the elemental composition of copper alloys that occur during changes in technology and transitions in human history. This article presents the shift in the elemental composition of copper alloy from bronze-based alloys to brass ones during essential changes in archaeological material which happened at the turn of the Earliest Iron Age (500–1 BC) and the Early Roman period, from the 1st century BC to the middle of the 1st century AD. As early as the 2nd and 1st centuries BC, in the Antique world and the Roman Empire and its provinces, brass was already starting to partly replace bronze. Even if the Earliest Iron Age is the least knowable period in Lithuanian prehistory, the few pieces of jewellery attributed to this period show the changes in the composition of the copper alloy. The territorial growth of the Late Antique world and internal contacts within the Barbaricum led to the expanding strength of commodities, including raw materials, technologies, cultural ideas and ideological attitudes. Goods and ideas spread throughout the vast barbarian lands, and eventually reached the forest zone of northeast Europe. Sudden changes during the Early Roman period were first of all connected with the development of settlement structure, and this has therefore made it possible to identify some major places of the production of artefacts and partly changed directions of exchange. All this was accompanied by the emergence of new jewellery types produced by skilled jewellers according to sophisticated techniques. These changes are clearly visible in Early Roman period Lithuanian archaeological material, including the elemental composition of copper alloys. The present article uses X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry to investigate the composition of copper alloys. Radiography was used to understand the construction of artefacts, and to assess the degree of their inner corrosion and sophisticated manufacturing techniques. Solder samples were taken from the surfaces of several finds, and were analysed by qualitative microchemical analysis.
In recent years Lithuanian archaeologists have become greatly more aware of and interested in the information provided by faunal remains. Its potential has begun to draw the attention of researchers from nature sciences, while the archaeologists working in the field collect faunal remains uncovered during excavations and hand them over for storage increasingly more often. These faunal remains continue to be stored in the repository at Vilnius University. The project carried out in 2018–2020 with the funds provided by the Research Council of Lithuania gave an opportunity to record and make public the information about the zooarchaeological finds stored in the repository of Vilnius University, which are accessible for researchers and students from various scientific fields. The aims of this article are to present the Lithuanian collection of faunal remains kept at Vilnius University, to review the history of zooarchaeological research as well as the studies carried out in the last few years and to discuss the associated problems that continue to emerge.
Hillfort fortifications served not only a defensive function but were also an expression of social status. Therefore their scale and the work involved in their creation could be an important feature in attempting to distinguish the centres of power in a settlement system. Pursuant to this point-of-view, the article analyses the fortifications and the relief modification work carried out in creating of 13th–14th-century Kernavė Castle, which consists of four separate hillforts. This analysis made use of a 2018–2019 survey, which was conducted especially for this purpose and included boreholes, GPR profiles, and test pits, and also made use of previous excavations. Stratigraphical data collected in a wide territory allowed to reconstruct the palaeorelief, which existed prior to the creation of the hillforts, and the modifications made to it. Moreover, it also revealed the connection between the relief transformation works and the natural geodynamic processes. The investigation showed that the creation of the hillforts caused large-scale erosional processes, which critically influenced the development of both the castle and the town founded around it. The article raises the hypothesis that the loss of the administrative significance of Kernavė Castle and Town in the late 14th century could have been caused by precisely these erosional processes brought about by human activities.
The Early Bronze Age (1800–1100 cal BC) is among one of the most poorly understood prehistoric periods in the southeastern Baltic region. Here, we present the multidisciplinary results obtained from the recent excavations undertaken at the site of Kvietiniai in western Lithuania, including radiocarbon (14C) measurements and the stable isotope analysis of charred barley (Hordeum vulgare) grains. Our results provide the earliest direct evidence
for crop cultivation in the southeastern Baltic region (ca. 1300–1250 cal BC), and link it to an as yet poorly known cord-impressed coarse pottery tradition. Moreover, the Freshwater Reservoir Effect (FRE) of the nearby Minija River was calculated, ca. 2000 years today with a terminus ad quem of 780 ± 57 years during prehistory. Consequently, our findings have implications for understanding the cultural and economic development of the Bronze Age in the region, and demonstrate that crop cultivation was adopted ca. 1500 years after the initial integration of animal husbandry in the Early Neolithic.
In this study we present new carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) stable isotope data of human (n=13) and animal (n=40) bone and/or dentine collagen samples, alongside accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon (AMS 14C) dates of human remains (n=16). The studied material was sampled from Lithuanian sites dating from the Late Mesolithic to the pre-Roman Iron Age. For the first time, we present δ13C and δ15N data from Lithuanian freshwater fish as well as AMS 14C, δ13C, and δ15N measurements of human remains from six disturbed graves at the Donkalnis cemetery and from two pre-Roman Iron Age graves. According to the new results, human diet derived protein from the Late Mesolithic to Subneolithic (ca. 7000–2900 cal BC) was primarily based on freshwater fish. While previous macrobotanical and stable isotope studies has suggested that C4 plants, i.e., millet, became more widely used from the Late Bronze Age (1100–500 cal BC), our data suggests that millet consumption may have decreased during the pre-Roman Iron Age (500–1 cal BC) in the southeastern Baltic.
The most ubiquitous category of Scythian material culture – the bronze arrowheads – is paradoxically the least studied to date. First and foremost, this concerns one question: how were they cast? No definitive conclusions regarding the technology of arrowhead casting have been reached. Some sources suggest the use of a metal mould for this purpose, while others propose the use of lost-wax casting technique. Our understanding of the casting technology is fundamental since it affected the organisation of the manufacturing process of this important category of material and, as a consequence, the supply of Scythian warriors with necessary weapons. In order to solve this problem, several experiments were carried out casting the arrowheads in a metal mould, using metal moulds to obtain wax models, and lost-wax casting. Comparative metallographic analyses were carried out on the original Scythian arrowheads and their experimental analogues, cast in different ways. The results of the experiments indicate that lost-wax technique was the most likely method used for the casting of Scythian arrowheads. These data were confirmed by the results of metallographic analyses: the difference in the cooling rate of the crystallisation of arrowheads obtained by different casting methods affected the parameters of the crystal structure of their alloy.