Lithuania

ENAmarine archaeology is among the newest branches of Lithuanian research into prehistory. Though archaeologists have been digging along the shorelines of lakes and seas for decades, they never previously dared go further, despite the presence of ancient remains under water, too. Only in 1987 did archaeologists begin to dive in Lake Plateliai, seeking to find the road that once existed between the prehistoric settlement of Sventorkalnis, situated on a peninsula jutting into the lake, and the stronghold on Pilies Sala (Castle Island). As it turned out, the clear lake waters concealed a fantastic forest of piles, the remains of a bridge almost 300 meters long. Exploration of this structure from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is continued every year by archaeologists from the universities of Torun, Poland, and Klaipeda, Lithuania, under the leadership of Professor Andrzej Kola. The unusually well preserved constructions and Lake Plateliai’s rich prehistory have a special allure for archaeologists. Earlier historians have suggested that the first fortifications may have been built by Scandinavians during the Viking era. [p. 95].