Lieporių archeologiniai paminklai kaip žemaičių paribio kultūros atspindys

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Archeologinis kompleksas; Baltai; Geležies amžius; Geležies apdirbimas; Geležies gamybos vieta; Gyvenvietės; IV-VIII a. po Kr.; Kapinynas; Laidojimo papročiai; Laidosena; Lieporiai; Įkapės; Žemaičiai; Žiemgaliai; 4-8 cent. AD; Archaeological complex; Balts; Burial customs; Burial practices; Cemetery; Grave goods; Iron Age; Iron production site; Iron working; Lieporiai; Samogitians; Semigallians; Settlements.

ENThe Lieporiai complex of archaeological monuments composed of two settlements (settlement-1 and settlement-2) and the cemetery (4th-8th c. AD) was discovered and explored in 1987-2001. It was located in southern part of Šiauliai city. The area of 3537 m2 was excavated in the Lieporiai cemetery where 95 graves were found, and 450 archaeological findings were collected. Besides the funeral ritual place in the centre of the cemetery whith 86 fireplaces and 75 postholes was also discovered. Such finding has not analogies in Lithuanian archaeology. Lieporiai cemetery was attributed to the area of the Samogitian tribes according to the burial rites and the typology of the artifacts. The area of 2858 m2 in the territory of Lieporiai settlement 1 was explored, and 3 horizons of the cultural slay were detected there. The earliest horizon was attributed as Paleolithic (10th millennium BC) but the others were dated 4th-8th c. AD (Middle Iron Age). The middle horizon was ascribed as iron making period but the latest horizon (7th-8th c. AD) detected as the period of settlement’s buildings. The findings include about 20 iron ore excavating pits and the remnants 20 furnaces, the charcoal making pit, 4 wells (3 of them with wooden strukturē) and 8 buckets from lime bark in the silt soil of two wells, and about 400 kg of slag in the iron making period horizon. The rare object was also smithy with remnants of the forge. Some stone anvils and some tens of whetstones were dug up near the smithy. The chemical and the technological analyses of the iron making artifacts were carried out. The iron making place with all attributes of this craft from the Lieporiai settlement-1 was a particularly important and valuable finding to Lithuanian archaeology because it’s exploring gave a lot of new archaeological data and provided knowledge of metallurgy in Lithuania and it’s development.The Lieporiai complex of archaeological monuments is the most important route of the material culture investigation in Northern Lithuania. The new data of the complex scientific inquiry elucidate main tendencies of prehistory in Lithuania of the middle of 1st millennium AD. These are the establishment of open settlements and the territorial community, the beginning of the separation of the tribal nobility and the formation of the warrior set. It also threw light upon the alternation of funeral rites there. The archaeological materials of Lieporiai reflect the main local cultual features of Samogitians’ and Semigalians’ periphery. In the Lieporiai cemetery which was attributed to the Samogitians some features of Semigalian’s tradition were observed. [From the publication]