Latvijas un Lietuvas teritorijas uzkalniņu ar akmeņu riņķi kapulauku izpētes vēsture

ENThe barrow burial fields with stone circle dating from the Early Iron Age and beginning of the Middle Iron Age (1–6/7th centuries) in the territory of Latvia and Lithuania have always attracted the attention of both ordinary people and scientists due to their surface structure and rich array of archaeological materials. Around 340 barrow burial fields with stone circles have been identified in total. A significant source base has been accumulated during the more than 200 years long research history which has allowed both characterizing the burial traditions themselves and making many assumptions on their social and also symbolic aspects. Basing on the archaeological excavation methods, organization etc., but especially on the tendencies in historiography, the research of the barrow burial fields with stone circle can be divided into four periods. During the time period from the first known barrow excavations in the second half of the 18th century until the 1920s, excavation works have been identified in around 60 of these monuments. The exact number of monuments studied cannot be determined. Taking into account that the scientific research criteria were not yet developed at that time, the source base is rather fragmentary.Therefore it is hard to assess which had been excavation works of scientific direction and which were merely guided by interest. As far as sources are concerned, the situation was better in Kurzeme and Vidzeme provinces, where archaeological excavations were mostly related to the activities of the scientific societies which regularly published reports on the performed works, including excavations. Therefore a much wider source base has remained from the excavations carried out in these provinces than from the research of Kaunas province. Yet the excavation methods were rather incomplete and these were mostly related to amateur gathering of different artefacts for private collections and funds of the newly created museums. Scientific excavations were carried out under the supervision of T. Dowgird, I. Abramow, R. Hausmann and H. Grewingk. Significant discoveries were made in the burial fields of Raginėnai, Visdergiai and Zante. However, already in the 19th century the accumulated archaeological material led to the first attempts to notice the origins, chronology and attribution of the burial fields. It is true though that at first these attempts sometimes were incorrect (for example, the notion of mystical burials of the giants and the so-called goth theory), and only at the end of the 19th century, thanks to R. Hausmann, an exact dating and explanation of attribution was given. At large these interpretations complied in essence with the cultural-historical tendencies dominating throughout Europe, but they were explained mostly within the categories of immigrant-local resident.The time period from the 1920s until the mid-1940s can be distinguished as a separate research stage of the barrows under study. During this period excavations have been carried out in around 47 of such burial fields, and in a totally different scientific quality. Scientific research conditions were elaborated during this period (the methods and documentation principles were improved) and it was subjected to supervision by professional archaeologists. The activities of B. Tarvydas, J. Puzinas, P. Baleniūnas, E. Šnore, H. Moora and P. Stepiņš should be especially distinguished. The most significant discoveries were made in the burial fields of Pavėkiai, Sandrausiškiai, Rinkšeliai, Īles Gailīši, Īles mežniecība (forestry), Rūsīši–Debeši and Slate. The cultural-historical approach still dominated in the interpretations of the barrow material during this period as well. Explanations of the origins of the barrows and transitions to the level burial fields were dominated by the migration and cultural diffusion theories. Only in the monument attribution issues their relation to the specific proto-Latvian, proto-Lithuanian tribes (Semigallians, Selonians or Latgallians) was already discussed. It is true that the latter tendency can be observed only in the works of the Latvian archaeologists, in Lithuanian archaeology the area of these barrow burial fields is perceived as a unified, ethnically not yet differentiated region. During the period from the mid-1940s till the 1990s excavations were carried out in around 50 monuments. The methods of the archaeological field works did not change essentially, but the approaches to their interpretations did change significantly. The number of excavations also decreased which can be partially explained by the Soviet orientation to the research of economic history, which attributed a greater role to places of residence. [...].