Abstract
Only a few artifacts discovered in Lithuania can be considered as examples of portable art from the Final Palaeolithic period. Three of them were found in the Neris river valley in central-eastern Lithuania: an engraved slate pebble from the Eiguliai 1А site, a notched blade from the Skaruliai 1 site, and a flint “figurine” from the Vilnius 1 site. Discovered by Rimutė Rimantienė and her father Konstantinas Jablonskis, these three finds were the first and for many years the only artifacts underpinning the discussion of art from the Lithuanian Final Palaeolithic. The debate on the tentative function of these items, initiated by Rimantienė, is reviewed in this study before presenting the results of the latest research on the subject between 2012 and 2017, carried out using a range of methods: visual examination, comparative analysis with other archaeological finds and reconstructed prehistoric tools, surface analysis under a microscope. The functional interpretation proposed as a result of these investigations in two cases disproves the identification of these artifacts as portable art.
Highlights
The emergence of the human ability to create art is considered one of the most important features of the European Upper Palaeolithic overall
The first humans appeared in the territory of modern-day Lithuania in the Final Palaeolithic, it is possible, in theory, that some incursions into the region occurred before the Weichselian glacier
The engraved slate pebble from Eiguliai, dated to the Final Palaeolithic, was identified as a tool used to rasp the edges of flint cores, while the notched blade from Skaruliai was interpreted as a fragmented tool, maybe used for scraping, perhaps dated to the Mesolithic period based on the flint-knapping technology
Summary
The emergence of the human ability to create art is considered one of the most important features of the European Upper Palaeolithic overall. Mesolithic portable art is found all over Europe: the skills needed to ornament pieces of bone or stone are evident in many places, including northeastern Europe (Płonka 2003). Most sites are situated on sandy river banks, the relative scarcity of Final Palaeolithic remains, whether stone artifacts, fragmented burnt bones, or other archaeological features. Not many artifacts from Europe can be dated as early as the Preboreal period, among them some engraved pieces of bone, amber or stone bearing mostly a faint linear ornament, which were not always published While the discussion of Late Palaeolithic art sources of inspiration and considerations on aspects of ornamented Mesolithic artifact functions in the northern region are ongoing in southern-central Europe, archaeologists in Lithuania are faced with searching for any kind of evidence of Final Palaeolithic art
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