Vilūnų senkapis ir akmens amžiaus gyvenvietė V

LTIki 2020 m. pavasario Vilūnų senkapio archeologai nežinojo, nors jis minimas dar 1935 m. LŽV (VAK, b. 20, p. 244). Vietos gyventojai jį vadina Skerdimais, prieš kelerius metus ieškotojai jame rinko radinius. Pirmasis į jį atkreipė dėmesį G. Piličiauskas, kovo 7 d. atvykęs apžiūrėti būsimos tyrimų vietos LLDJ darbų zonoje atsidūrusioje Vilūnų akmens amžiaus gyvenvietėje V. Žemės paviršiuje jis pastebėjo žmonių kaulų fragmentų, o metalo detektoriumi rado 10 žalvarinių radinių: apyrankių ir segių fragmentų, susilydžiusių dirbinių fragmentų ir kt. Dirbiniai surinkti daugiausia į Š nuo trasos esančiame dirbamame lauke ir pušynėlyje, trasos vietoje rasta tik žalvarinė grandelė. Žvalgant KU dujotiekio zonos trasą, kovo 14 d. būsimojo dujotiekio darbų zonos Š krašte rastas dar vienas radinys – žalvarinio žvangučio fragmentas, G. Piličiausko pakartotinių žvalgymų kovo 17 d. metu – dar 16 panašių žalvarinių radinių, iš kurių paminėtinas kabutis, žiedo praplatintu priekiu dalis, žvangutis, pasaginės daugiakampiais galais pusė, geležinė grandis, Zigmanto Vazos Rygos (?) šilingas. [...]. [Iš teksto, p. 225]

ENIn 2020, hitherto unknown Vilūnai Old Cemetery (Kaišiadorys District), which had been discovered that spring, was investigated in the GIPL work zone. It is on a N–S oblong (roughly 170 x 130 m, approximately 1 ha in area) sandy hill up to 5 m high. In monitoring the future gas line trench to the N of the Stone Age settlement located there, fragments of bronze artefacts, some fused, were encountered. In the spring of 2020, a field evaluation was conducted in the S part of the old cemetery at the site of a future gas main trench, during which 3 trenches (37.25 m2) were excavated and 14 16th–17th-century inhumations with contemporaneous grave goods were discovered. A full excavation was conducted there that summer when a 72 m long, 14 m wide (1008 m2) area of the gas main trench was excavated and another 81 separate inhumations, isolated human bones from at least 16 destroyed burials, and Stone Age flint artefacts were discovered. In all, 95 inhumations were excavated in Vilūnai Old cemetery, some of which (21 burials) had been destroyed or disturbed. 55 contained grave goods characteristic of Early Modern Age old cemeteries: silver and copper coins, iron knives, belt buckles, loops, bronze rings, fittings, buttons, earrings, a pin, leather purse fragments, clay pots and pot fragments, and spindle whorls. During the expedition about 500 items of very diverse artefacts and artefact fragments, the majority bronze artefact fragments or fused pieces of them, iron axes, were obtained from a person who had previously collected them using a metal detector at this site. These artefacts together with the 90 artefacts collected during another 2020 expedition that investigated this old cemetery hill (G. Petrauskas) show that a huge 13th–14th-century cremation cemetery existed here. The remains of Stone Age Settlement V were discovered throughout the investigated area.Its cultural layer had survived better on the hill’s SW slope. It consisted of a yellow sand layer up to 20 cm thick with flint finds, of which about 2800 were collected overall). The majority of them consist of raw flint, flakes, and blades. Of the artefacts, the burins, scrapers, inserts, and perforators should be mentioned. A possible sunken building site was discovered in a layer in trench 19. The settlement dates to the Mesolithic and is part of the same settlement investigated by another two expeditions in 2020. [From the publication]