Upytės žemė II tūkstantmečio pirmojoje pusėje

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Archeologiniai radiniai; Istoriniai ir archeologiniai duomenys; Istorinė geografija; Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); Lietuvos istorija; Paminklai; Panevėžio regionas; Sienos; Upytės žemė; Žemės; Archaeological finds; Boundaries; Historical and archaeological data; Historical geography; Lands; Lithuanian history; Monuments; Panevėžys Region; The Great Duchy of Lithuania; The Upytė Land.

ENThe Upytė Land is traditionally identified with the present Upytė in Panevėžys Region. But this assumption is not based on any weighty arguments to date. There are no obvious monuments of the first half of the Und millennium found in Upytė; besides, the local hillfort reminds superficially more of the New Age manor, the site of the castle from the battles with the Order times. This hillfort stands on the bank of the Vešetė River. As for the Upytė banks, there is no any known archaeological monument found there from this period. The Upytė Land at the turn of the second millennium could be roughly defined by the predominant cremated burial sites with the skeleton horse graves characteristic to these territories at these times. The closest to the Upytė burial site of such kind was explored in Rimaisai in 1938. These burial sites were left by the communities who lived in the unfortified settlements. The scarce hillforts are situated at the border territories of the Land. In the central part of the Land there is a big well-fortified Bakainiai Hillfort which could be considered the very first centre of the Upytė Land.The boundaries of the Upytė Land of the XIVth century could be partially defined by the localities mentioned during the Livonian Order crusades in 1363 to 1378. In the XVth century Upytė lost its former importance and became valsčius (small rural district); how far its boundaries were spread to the North is known from the inventories of the second part of the XVIth century. According to the known historical and archaeological data, at the beginning of the second millennium the Upytė lands covered the fertile Middle Nevėžis territories that bordered Semigalia in the North, Selonia in the East, Deltuva in the Southeast, and Samogitian lands in the West. Upytė was separated from them with wide forest strips, that now are mostly gone. In the South the Upytė boundary was the least distinctive - it ran somewhere in the area of Kėdainiai. [From the publication]

• Archeologija / Archaeology
• Istorija / History