Kuršių gyvenamasis arealas ir kultūra Lietuvos ir Latvijos pajūryje vikingų laikais

LTŠiame straipsnyje, remiantis archeologiniais duomenimis, yra apžvelgiama vikingiškojo laikotarpio kuršių teritorija Lietuvos ir Latvijos pajūryje bei aptariami išskirto laikotarpio kuršiškos kultūros bruožai. Reikšminiai žodžiai: vikingų laikotarpis, kuršiai, Lietuvos ir Latvijos pajūris, arealas, kultūra. [Iš leidinio]

ENWho lived in the old Iron Age in the territory of today’s Lithuanian and Latvian coast? Were they people of the same culture? The earliest written sources (Tacitus, Claudius Ptolemy) mention the Baltic area (Aestii) and even individual tribes. While there is general agreement on the names, the human settlements of the other tribes mentioned remain a debated issue. Written sources from the middle of the 13th century are used in this article to reconstruct the territorial structure of the Curonians during the Viking era, but the main source is the data of archaeological research. This made it possible to clarify the inhabited areas in the territories of the lands, to define more clearly the boundaries of the lands, and to identify the uninhabited places that separated the lands — deserts. The western border of all Lithuanian-Latvian coastal lands is the Baltic Sea, but the lands of Mėguva, Duvzarė and Piemare have been of different sizes, in different geographical environments. Among them were differences in material culture and ideologies. In the 3rd-4th century AD, at the seashore, from the Nemunas in Lithuania to the Saka river mouth in Latvia, the culture of the graves of the uncremated dead with stone wreaths spread. In the 7th century, a Curonian cultural area was formed on the basis of this culture. In the Lithuanian and Latvian coastal cemeteries, the dead were buried uncremated, and the graves were covered with stone structures. In the second half of the 7th century - beginning of the 9th century, the Curonian territory was very unevenly inhabited on the coast - in the southern part, around the current Lithuanian-Latvian border, many archaeological sites are known, while in the northern part, from the Šventoji River to the present Liepaja area, there are very few sites.One of the smallest Curonian lands on the Lithuanian coast was Mėguva. There are currently twenty-one known cemeteries and nine hill forts and human settlements in Mėguva from the 11th to the 12th century. The southern region of Mėguva was marked by the Girkaliai cemetery. The northernmost human settlements of Mėguva were already behind the Šventoji River. In the 10th - 12th centuries, the most important trade and economic centre of Mėguva was Palanga. The land of Duvzarė, north of Mėguva, has been similar in size to Mėguva. There are over ten 11th - 12th century hill forts, and a similar number of cemeteries. Archaeological data show that the eastern part of Duvzarė was more densely populated. There is no data about the 11th — 15th century Curonian cemeteries on the seashore from Šventoji to Barta. In the eastern part of Duvzarė land, the Impiltis complex is unique, consisting of a well- fortified hill fort, two human settlements, a cemetery and an alka. The land of the Pamarys was separated from the neighbouring territories in the south, east and north by deserts, in the west its boundary was the sea. In these lands, most human settlements have been further away from the sea, mostly along the eastern shores of the former lagoon lake, in the middle and north of the land. Twenty-five hill forts and cemeteries of the 11th to the 12th century are known on this land, but there were fewer people living in this area than in the more southern Curonian lands. The concentration of Viking-era treasures in the vicinity of Grobina indicates that it was the most important centre of the land.In the 11th and 12th centuries, some coastal human settlements acquired features typical of the early cities of the Baltic Sea region. Two possible human settlements of this kind are identified on the Lithuanian coast - Palanga in Mėguva land and Žardė in Pilsotas land, near the Curonian Lagoon. In the middle of the 9th century, Apuolė was named a ‘Curonian town’, but we do not yet have more precise data on the crafts and trade of this centre. Seaside trading centres, especially in the early towns, developed a different way of life and household culture than in agricultural human settlements. During the Viking era, the establishment of emporiums (trading centres) on the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic was associated with Scandinavian colonisation. The non-agrarian human settlements in the western Baltic lands founded by the Scandinavians, which existed until about 900, are considered to be the Curonian Grobina (Seeburg?), Apuolė, the Prussian town Truso (German: Elbing, Polish: Elbląg) and Kaupas-Viskiautai. [...]. [From the publication]