Šiaulių kapinynas

LT2008 m. pratęsti archeologiniai tyrinėjimai Šiaulių kapinyno (A1737) teritorijoje, rekonstruojamo Vaisių g. 16A namo sklype, Šiaulių mieste. Baigtos tirti 2007 m. perkasos 1 ir 2, iškastos 5 naujos perkasos – 184,5 m2 plotas [p. 128].

ENIn 2008 the excavations were continued on the grounds of Šiauliai cemetery (the city of Šiauliai) at the site of the house at Vaisių St. 16A, which is under reconstruction. 184.5 m2 was excavated and four disturbed male burials, nos. 7–10, were found. The bones emerged at a depth of 85–95 cm, the burials were oriented to the NW, arranged in rows, and the individuals were supine. All of the burials were concentrated in the courtyard of the house at Vaisių St. 16A, to the SW of the building. The individuals were buried with grave goods. Burial 7 had a socketed axe, burial 8 a bronze flat bracelet with flaring terminals and a rectangular-section shank, and burial 10 a socketed spearhead with a narrow leafshaped blade and a tanged iron knife. The mixed soil above burial 9 contained an iron crook-shaped pin, which could have belonged to this or a neighbouring burial. All the finds, including those found during earlier excavations in this cemetery, were used for a long period, except one 5th–7th-century spearhead with pronounced shoulders. On the basis of the result of radiocarbon tests on the bones from the individual in burial 8, the burial dates to the 2nd–4th centuries. Thus, the cemetery should be dated to the 2nd–7th centuries. Šiauliai cemetery occupied a small area of 0.32 ha and it is doubtful whether it was used over a long period. The cemetery was probably used at the turn of the Middle Iron Age, i. e. the 4th–5th centuries. This burial site is one of the earliest flat inhumation cemeteries, which were characteristic of North Lithuania up until the introduction of Christianity and after it the burial form did not change.