Abstract
Several ritual complexes are known in Europe, the origins of which reach back to the Stone Age, and their chain of development includes the metal ages or even the period of official conversion to Christianity, such as Stonehenge (England), Newgrange (Ireland), and Alvastra near Lake Takern (Sweden). Such complexes stretching across a long chronological period are known also from western Lithuania, in Žemaitija (Samogitia). On the basis of archaeological, linguistic and historical research we attempt in this paper to reconstruct the development of the Donkalnis and Spiginas Mesolithic-Neolithic cemeteries, sacrificial hearths, and funerary feast sites, which date from the middle Mesolithic period to historical times. We have selected a very narrow area along the shores of Lake Biržulis in western Lithuania. During the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods this was an 800 m. east-west-oriented area, where discoveries have been made of settlements, sacrificial and burial sites, and a seer's grave. On the basis of archaeological and ethnological Indo-European studies and the earliest historical sources (namely, the land registers of the bishops of Žemaitija from 1421-1662) we study the later period from the early metal ages to the very late official conversion of the area to Christianity in 1413, during which time the area spread 1,000 m. westwards. An attempt is made to reconstruct the sacralisation and monumentalisation of this space over almost 7,500 years from 5980 B.C. to A.D. 1413-1421.
Highlights
Throughout Europe only a few stone-age ritual complexes have been studied in depth and presented finely to tourists.Stonehenge is an exceptional site of such past magnificence visited by millions of tourists from around the world
It was built over several thousand years, renewed with various building materials and its purpose changed over time
In the palaeolithic period Lake Biržulis was not located near main routes, which are very characteristic of coastal regions, or main rivers (Nemunas, Dauguva), and the new settlers still used all natural food sources from the Biržulis micro-region
Summary
Throughout Europe only a few stone-age ritual complexes have been studied in depth and presented finely to tourists. Stonehenge had various functions as temple, ritual ceremonial centre, burial site, and a place for calendar and other rituals [1] This complex comprises more than a dozen monuments dating to various periods which are connected by special tracks marked by mounds or wooden posts, known as avenues. In the palaeolithic period Lake Biržulis was not located near main routes, which are very characteristic of coastal regions, or main rivers (Nemunas, Dauguva), and the new settlers still used all natural food sources (fish, animals, plants) from the Biržulis micro-region It was they who watched over the great Neolithic sacrificial hearth at Donkalnis for hundreds of years, and later Bronze Age pottery became important in the formation of the first Baltic tribes (aestii). This process can be seen in the Žemaitijan context too
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