Tyrimai Klaipėdos senųjų bažnyčių teritorijoje

LT2013 m. gegužės–lapkričio mėnesiais BRIAI tęsė archeologinius tyrimus Klaipėdos senamiesčio R dalyje, Turgaus g. 37. Miesto istorijos pažinimui tyrinėta vietovė yra svarbi dėl čia stovėjusių dviejų bažnyčių, kurios XVI-XVII a. sudarė vokiečių ir lietuvių bendruomenių religinį centrą. Jų atsiradimas ženklina vieną svarbiausių Reformacijos eigos etapų Klaipėdoje, kai kultūriniu požiūriu skirtingiems miesto ir krašto tikintiesiems Dievo žodis buvo perduodamas gimtąja kalba. Tyrimų metu buvo užfiksuotas maksimalus 3 m storio kultūrinis sluoksnis, įvairios archeologinės struktūros bei surinkta per dešimt tūkstančių XVI–XX a. laikotarpio dirbinių ir gyvulių kaulų. Radinius dokumentuoja Ramunė Bračiulienė, atrastas monetas identifikavo Eduardas Remecas, kaulinę medžiagą analizuoja Linas Daugnora (KU Bioarcheologijos laboratorija). Medienos mėginių dendrochronologinius tyrimus atlieka Vokietijos archeologijos instituto Dendrochronologijos laboratorija Berlyne. [...] [p. 265-266].

ENIn conducting an excavation at Turgaus st. 37, in the E part of Klaipėda old town, valuable information about the processes that occurred during the 16th–20th centuries was collected. They are reflected by the recorded remains of structures from various times, a cultural layer up to 3 m thick, and over ten thousand collected finds. The excavation yielded new data about the religious centre that stood there during the 16th–17th centuries and that included churches built by Lithuanians and Germans. Side and end/interior wall foundations, part of a crypt, and three burials belonging to the Lithuanian church were discovered closer to the river Naujoji Danė. The church was 11 m wide and the masonry foundations had been erected on an oak raft. The coins collected at the floor level date to the 1620s-1630s. The excavation allowed the previously investigated physical parameters of the St John’s church to be corrected. These parameters, after the data was systematised, correspond to the church portrayed in 17th century iconographies. It was oblong (49х16 m), with a tower in the front and two annexes in the side walls. In conducting the excavation, an embankment that had wooden reinforcement and was created in the first half of the 17th century was discovered alongside the arrow–headed bastion’s scarp.In the early 18th century it was expanded to the NE. In expanding the defensive system at that time a mound of earth was created above the demolished Lithuanian church and St John’s church was moved elsewhere. After the bastion lost its meaning, this area was assigned to urban needs. The new stage in the development of this site is attested to by a layer that formed in the bastion’s unfilled free approaches and dates to the late 18th early 19th centuries according to the lead seals. After assigning this edge of the city to industrial activities, in the 19th century this area was levelled by spreading out the bastion’s ramparts. In 1857 a herring sorting warehouse was erected there, the paving laid in its vicinity, which has survived fragmentally, was left for display in situ. 20th century buildings, a stone paved area, and canine grave were recorded during the excavation.