Abstract
This article investigates the burial customs of the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages in the territory of northwest Lithuania, focusing on barrow mounds and individual grave settings and grave goods. More than a century of excavations yielded 19 burial sites, in which 182 graves are known (169 cremations and 13 inhumations). The gathered data regarding burial customs consist of grave settings, burial locations within the mounds and grave goods, and these are used to interpret some features of how the communities were socially organized. During the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, the dead were buried in different types of graves: barrow mounds and flat graves; individual graves had different stone arrangements in both of mentioned types. This work presents a hypothesis that different types of graves and stone arrangements associated with burials were not just a result of time-related burial customs changes, but it could be an indicator of the social identity of the deceased. It is one of the possible indicators that hierarchic societies existed during the period in question.
 Keywords: Late Bronze Age, Early Iron Age, barrow mounds, cremation burials, inhumation burials, society, northwest Lithuania
Highlights
Grave goods of cremation burials dated to the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages
There is no single paper focusing on the social organization of Early Metal period communities through a detailed analysis of burial sites in Lithuania or its regions
This paper contains data of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age burial sites in northwestern Lithuania and analyses of the predominant burial customs in the region in an attempt to reconstruct some aspects of the social organization within the communities
Summary
Straipsnyje analizuojama vėlyvojo žalvario ir ankstyvojo geležies amžiaus laidosena dabartinės Šiaurės vakarų Lietuvos dalyje, daugiausia dėmesio teikiant pilkapių ir individualių kapų įrengimui bei įkapėms. This work presents a hypothesis that different types of graves and stone arrangements associated with burials were not just a result of time-related burial customs changes, but it could be an indicator of the social identity of the deceased. Lietuvoje ankstyvojo metalų laikotarpio visuomenės socialinės organizacijos tyrimai intensyviau pradėti vykdyti tik šiek tiek daugiau nei prieš dešimtmetį Kuriame, remiantis detalia laidojimo paminklų analize, būtų pamėginta atsakyti į kai kuriuos ankstyvojo metalų laikotarpio visuomenės socialinės organizacijos klausimus. Remiantis jais, rekonstruoti kai kuriuos aptariamo laikotarpio visuomenės socialinės organizacijos bruožus. Dėl šių priežasčių kol kas negalima išanalizuoti skirtingais laikotarpiais vykusių socialinių procesų ir tiksliau datuoti kai kurių laidojimo paminklų
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