Archeology of Baltic Region

M.J. Hoffmann, A. Rzeszotarska-Nowakiewicz 2016. "The societies of West Balt Barrow culture, 500 BC - 1 AD", in P. Urbańczyk, A. Rzeszotarska-Nowakiewicz (eds), "The Past Societies. Polish lands from the first evidence of human presence to the early middle ages", vol. 4: 500 BC - 500 AD, 49-70. Warsaw, The Institute of Archaeology and Ethnology, Polish Academy of Sciences.

It seems that Northern Lithuania was one of the regions via which cultural interactions in different directions were kept and locally melted. The Gibaičiai brooch with a double spiral which is similar to Almgren type 211 represents the style which was typical of the Dollkeim-Kovrovo, Bogaczewo, Sudovian and West Lithuanian cultures of the Balts. The latter brooch indicates the connections of inhabitants of Northern Lithuania towards the S-SW. The brooch with a wheel motif from Gibaičiai represents the trends which were common for Central and Northern Lithuania, Southern Latvia, and an area of Tarand cemeteries in Northern Latvia and Estonia. It indicates that the inhabitants of Northern Lithuania constituted a unique cultural unit with the areas of Southern Latvia and it was somehow at least slightly different from the neighbouring region of Žemaitijan Barrows. Northern Lithuania was a place of crossing of continental routes towards lands of Baltic Finns.

As regards the identification of the early forms of Europe's long-distance routes, the area lying between the Baltic and Black seas can be said to be one of relative neglect. Specifically, little research has been devoted to the development stages of the area's socio-cultural map, i.e. to neighbourly forays, itineraries, routes (of varied continuity, range and transport technique), stable segments of roads leading to water crossings, networks of fords and the communication channels running along watersheds. The foremost issue, at present one of great difficulty with respect to a study embracing the whole region in question, is the cultural context of these innovations and the related mechanisms that saw their creation in regard to the socio-economic basis and ritual-epistemological nature of ancient peoples in these regions. The study by Marija Gimbutas [Gimbutas 1965] of 'amber routes', joining the west and east of Europe, may be considered the first attempt to tackle the issue of the region's early communication channels and was accordingly referred to in the analyses of the distribution of stone 'fluted maces', regarded as hypothetical markers of Baltic-Pontic routes [Kośko 2001; 2002]. Generally, this conceptual leaven can be said to have provided broader intellectual stimuli for the international academic community of 'Archaeology Bimaris'. The turning point in the nascent study of ancient routes has been thus given a clear framework: an inter-university and interdisciplinary discussion (see the Poznań-Obrzycko symposium Routes Between the Seas: Baltic-Bug-Boh (Southern Bug)-Pont held in October 2008). The papers included in this volume are a partial record of the discussion. The intentional selectiveness here is seen therefore in the conscious limitation of the scope of papers ('piecemeal' treatment of linguistic or ethnological and anthropological analyses). Moreover, there is a special focus on one of the inter-regional routes, namely the Baltic-Bug-Boh (Southern Bug)-Pont, or more specifically, its early evidence (generally speaking, prior to - widely known to the academia - its use in the times of Goth migrations).

Key words: Prussians, Curonians, burial customs, ethnical history
Article is dedicated to the relationship between Prussians and Curonians in the 10th-13th centuries. General subjects of this work are the next:
1) Typology of ornaments and weapons both widespread between Prussians and Curonians; 2) Prussian and Curonian grave goods analysis, according to similarities and differences of their burial customs; 3) Review of the Late Iron age archaeological sites situated in Curonian spit; 4) Analysis of estimated roads and centers of innovations and cultural contacts and impacts of Prussians and Curonians.
  Prussian and Curonian material cultures were morphologically similar and toke a part in all main historical processes of the Late Iron age East part of the Baltic Region.

Snake sculptures are dated approximately 4000-2500 BC cal (except those of Yuzhny Oleniy Ostrov) and definitely were used as pendants in everydays life. Sometimes they occur in burials. Their territorial distribution points at the certain groups of sites in a number of regions (Latvia, Estonia, Upper Volga basin, Low Oka River basin, City of Vologda region), where those finds are not unique. This means that snakes, as also some other animal species (large waterfowl, capercaillie, fish, beaver, otter) could be worshipped in certain regions as totemic ancestors.