Konfliktų archeologijos šaltiniai vakarų Lietuvoje: priešistorės ir viduramžių kovų pėdsakai

ENConflict archaeology is a sub-discipline within archaeology focusing on the traces of conflicts of the past. Conflict archaeology is very closely related to military archaeology (focusing on the purposeful research of battlefields, fortifications, burials of military conflict causalities, weaponry and accoutrements, etc.). However, sources for conflict archaeology can be found not only by the means of purposeful military archaeological research. Archaeological research of settlements, hillforts, castles and burial monuments may also provide artefacts speaking of military and other conflicts of the past and burial sites of their causalities. Taking into account abundant archaeological materials, this article seeks to identify and provide a short review of the main sources for the conflict archaeology in Western Lithuania, speaking of the major prehistoric and medieval conflicts. Most of the information on the conflicts of the period discussed comes from hillfort research. Hillfort research materials accumulated before 2004 were summarized in the Atlas of the Lithuanian Hillforts prepared by Gintautas Zabiela and Zenonas Baubonis, and published in 2005 (Lietuvos piliakalnių atlasas, sudarytojai Zenonas Baubonis, Gintautas Zabiela, t. 1-3, Vilnius: Krašto apsaugos ministerija, 2005).The author of this article focuses on the review and assessment of the results of the more recent archaeological research, which was conducted after 2005 and thus was not covered in the Atlas of the Lithuanian Hillforts. The article also pays attention on the interpretation of some earlier archaeological finds, which happened to be left out of the research, and seeks to correlate archaeological research data to the information of the written sources. Besides that, the article provides a review of the data on specific burials found in the burial complexes of Western Lithuania, which may be assumed as the burials of conflict causalities.