Akmenės krašto šventvietės. 2017-2024 m. žvalgymai

LTPer pastarąjį dešimtmetį atliktos Akmenės krašto šventviečių paieškos ir pirmieji sukauptų duomenų tyrimai – reikšmingas visuomenės įsitraukimo į mokslinius tyrinėjimus rezultatas, sektinas kraštotyros pavyzdys. Apie tai dar labai mažai pasakota ir rašyta. Straipsnyje apžvelgiami XIX–XX a. tyrinėjimai ir bendrinama tai, ką Akmenės rajone ir kaimyninių Mažeikių, Telšių, Šiaulių, Joniškio r. savivaldybių pakraščiuose pavyko rasti XXI a. pirmojoje pusėje. Žvalgytas apie 50 x 50 km dydžio arealas, kuriame buvo lokalizuotos 183 esamos, 90 sunaikintų šventviečių ir 93 vietos, turinčios jų požymių (dar 37 vietų lokalizuoti nepavyko). Tai milžiniškas žinių aruodas – lietuvių prigimtinės kultūros turtas, kurio vertė ateityje tik augs. Šiame straipsnyje pateikiamas tik vienas iš galimų sukauptų duomenų analizės būdų. Taikant kraštovaizdžio archeologijos metodologiją, kuriamas tam tikras erdvėlaikis – modelis, kuris parodo koreliaciją tarp Akmenės krašto šventviečių geografinio paplitimo ir jų chronologijos. Reikšminiai žodžiai: baltų šventvietės, Žiemgala, Venta, Vadakstis, Akmenė, kraštotyra.

ENBefore 2017, when one of the authors began searching for Baltic sacred sites, the Akmenė district and adjacent edges of Mažeikiai, Telšiai, and Šiauliai districts remained largely unexplored. Today, this 50x50 km area — from Tryškiai (Telšiai d.) in the south to Vėgeriai (Akmenė d.) in the north, and from Ukrinai (Mažeikiai d.) in the west to Šakyna (Šiauliai d.) in the east — stands among the most thoroughly surveyed in all of Žemaitija. Researchers identified a total of 183 sacred sites and 93 locations with indicators of sacredness. Unfortunately, another 90 sacred places have disappeared or were destroyed, while 37 remain unlocalised. Trees provided the largest dataset (133 in total), followed by stones (80), hills (46), rivers (41), springs (30), wetlands (27), village cemeteries (17), mythologically named settlements and locations (13), forests (11), lakes (10), meadows (7), roads and paths (3), and ravines (2). However, a detailed classification of sacred sites in Akmenė falls outside this article’s scope — especially since fieldwork continues and the dataset is still evolving. Finds from the Late Stone Age (3rd millennium BCE) concentrate around Papilė (8: Fig. 1), marked by boat-shaped battle axe discoveries. Bronze Age (2nd–1st millennium BCE) artefacts appear evenly across the region. In the Early Iron Age (1st–4th c. CE), the local settlers retreated from forests and swamps. All known sites — burial mounds with stone rings and two pitted stones — cluster around the Venta and Virvytė Rivers. A second concentration centres on the middle Vadakstis, while a third likely existed near Žagarė.During the Middle (5th–8th c.) and Late Iron Age (9th–12th c.), the number of hillforts and flat cemeteries increased significantly near major rivers and tributaries, revealing two territories inhabited by the Semigallians. Around Vadakstis lay the southern edge of Duobenė; around Venta, a smaller independent territory emerged — its historical name remains unknown. Between these lay an uninhabited, forested, and marshy 12–28 km-wide stretch, still sparsely populated today. This strip, extending southeast from the lower Vadakstis to Šiupyliai, is likely connected to Baltic religious and mythological ideas about the “other” world — the realm of gods or the dead — from the 1st to the 13th century. At the dawn of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, battles with the Livonian Order intensified. The final Semigallian castles fell in 1289–1290. Settlement in Semigallia during the 14th–16th centuries remained uneven. Burial monuments from this time cluster around the Vadakstis and Venta rivers — areas previously inhabited by Semigallians in the Iron Age. The first larger settlement to emerge in the previously empty stretch was Akmenė (first mentioned in the 16th century). Research of church networks shows that until the late 16th century, Akmenė remained one of two large churchless zones in Samogitia. Four of the region’s earliest churches (Viekšniai, Akmenė, Papilė, and Tryškiai) lie within the sacred tree zone, suggesting that sacred groves remained in use until — and even after — the construction of churches in the late 16th to early 17th centuries.

• Etnologija / Ethnology
• Archeologija / Archaeology