ECHOES OF THE DAGGER PERIOD IN LITHUANIA, 2350–1500 CAL BC; pp. 3–21

Abstract

Introduction The term is most common when dealing with the archaeology of south Scandinavia. In Denmark it synchronizes Late Neolithic and Period I of the Bronze Age, i.e. 2350-1500 cal BC (Lomborg 1973; Apel 2001). In the main, the Dagger Period in south Scandinavia coincides with the Early Bronze Age in western and central Europe. Flint daggers, the first metal artefacts and bell beakers are significant archaeological markers of this period. This paper analyses one of them--the production and distribution of large bifacial points, i.e. flint daggers and spearheads. The inspiration for this article came from the book by the Polish archaeologist Jerzy Libera in which he describes bifacial artefacts found in Poland and west Ukraine (Libera 2001). This monograph contains the map of distribution of bifacial forms in Europe, in which the Upper Nemunas has been left not hatched--like the area with no distribution of the bifacial artefacts (Fig. 1). In a sense Libera was right--large flint daggers and spearheads are seldom found in the Upper Nemunas if compared to south Scandinavia, Volhynia or the Upper Volga. However, the experience in excavations of Stone Age sites in south Lithuania and the finds observed in museum collections suggest that large bifaces were produced in the Upper Nemunas basin and imported daggers were used in the rest of Lithuania (Fig. 2). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] The aim of this article is to analyse large bifacial points, both tools and find places, as well as to answer the question why the large-scale production of flint daggers never began in the flint-bearing Upper Nemunas basin. A short survey of find places of large bifacial points and discussion on their probable origins should be done first. [FIGURE 2 OMITTED] Daggers and spearheads in Lithuania. Find places and origins Flint points longer than 10 cm, processed bifacially by the soft hammer technique and having at least one sharp point, are discussed in this paper. Large bifacial artefacts have been used as daggers, spearheads or knives. Sometimes the function of weapons is confirmed by archaeological research. For example, flint dagger (spearhead?) from the male grave in Stare Gorozheno burial-mounds (Yamnaya culture, Ukraine) had its sharp point broken and left in the abdominal region of the dead man (Klochko 2001, fig. 29: 6, 8). The majority of daggers found in Scandinavian graves had been placed in the waist area of the dead, evidently the way the daggers used to be worn (Wojciechowski 1976, 38). Applying the above description of large bifacial points, about 13 artefacts from Lithuania could be related to this category of prehistoric finds. During archaeological excavations in the Barzdis 1 (Varena district) Stone Age site, a dagger was found. It was 10 cm long and 3 cm wide. The tool was made of a thick blade (Rimantiene 1999, fig. 17: 2). The raw material is of local origin, i.e. grey erratic flint demonstrating black transparent and lighter opaque zones. It is very common to Upper Nemunas basin. No ceramics typical of the Corded Ware Culture (henceforth--the CWC) were found in this sandy site and the dagger should be related to the post-CWC pottery which used to be decorated with imprints, incisions and lines (e.g. Rimantiene 1999, fig. 10). In 1998-1999 excavations of a flint knapping site took place in Karaviskes 6 Stone Age settlement (Varena district, Piliciauskas 2004). Bifaces used to be knapped in this flint knapping place, approx. 6 m in diameter, and the produced flakes were mostly used in making knives and arrowheads. A fragment of a large biface broken during the production process was found alongside plenty of biface thinning and pressure flakes (Fig. 3). Most likely it was supposed to become a dagger, but an unsuccessful stroke damaged the preform. Length: 7.7 cm, width: 5 cm, thickness: 1.2 cm. The thickness/width ratio of the artefact is 1/4-1/5. …