Amber discs with cross decoration in the South Eastern Baltic

ENNearly 40 amber discs decorated with a cross were collected in the graves and settlements of the Globular Amphora, Zlota and Bay Coast (Rzucewo) Culture. Having mapped the cruciform-decorated discs we recognised the northern boundary of their distribution from the settlements of Būtingė and Šventoji in the northwest to Słupsk in northern Poland. The southern boundary of their distribution is southern Poland and north-western Ukraine, the Eastern boundary - Daktariškė in Western Lithuania. The common period of amber discs with cruciform decoration found in all cultures extends for more than a millennium between 3300 and 2000 BC. The use-wear analysis reveal that both surfaces of amber disc were polished with leather or equisetum. The pits and lines were filled with tar, whitch was made combining pine resin, charcoal and wax. The results obtained from analysing disc from Daktariškė 5 settlement with FTIR and micro FT-Raman spectroscopy detected resin wax mixture in pits ornamentation and red clay in scratches. The place of those artefacts in graves, the fact that they were found decorated with various quite complex geometrical systems, begs the conclusion that they were connected with religion and conceal some essential information about social organization, calendarial or ideological phenomena they may be associated in Neolithic societies.