Prekybos keliai: Lietuvos pajūris-Vidurio Lietuva vėlyvajame geležies amžiuje

LTŠio straipsnio tikslas - įvertinti galimus prekybos kelius, jungusius Lietuvos pajūryje įsikūrusius prekybos centrus su kaimyninėmis į rytus įsikūrusiomis baltų gentimis, o pirmiausia - su Vidurio Lietuva [p. 99].

ENArchaeological research in Lithuania has not yet provided a detailed picture of the early medieval road network. The prevailing (and poorly defined) opinion seems to be that exchange routes were water-based, and dominated by the Nemunas river. By contrast, Latvian archaeologists by the 1970's had already demonstrated that land- based trade routes were no less important to inland Latvia than those following rivers. We are forced into a similar conclusion when examining the trade that linked major Lithuanian coastal centers (where imported goods first arrived) to neighboring eastern Baltic tribes. It seems Ekely that imports from the Near East, Western Europe and Scandinavia arrived in Baltic lands during the Late Iron Age through shipping routes in the Baltic Sea. Trade centers on the Baltic coast played an important role in transhipping these goods further to the east. This trade flow most strongly affected the Curonian region and Lamata, while in central Lithuania it was much less pronounced.Analysis of archaeological data leads us to the premise that the dominant role for these trade contacts (between the coast and central Lithuania) was played by land routs starting from the coast and on through Lamata and south Samogitia. That a trade route through the Curonian lagoon and lower Nemunas was principally used during the Late Iron Age is doubtful, although the possibility of its existence can not be excluded. Apparently, among the more important routes we need to include the route from the Sembian peninsula towards the confluence of the Nemunas and Jura rivers, and then further up to Nemunas. Additional research is needed to evaluate the water-based routes from Sambia to the Nemunas.