LITHUANIAN AMBER ARTIFACTS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FIRST MILLENNIUM AND THEIR PROVENANCE WITHIN THE LIMITS OF EASTERN BALTIC REGION (original) (raw)

The spread of amber in Lithuania and its popularity over different periods, application of amber in ornament production, changing trends in amber jewelry wear as well as the links of these customs with gender, sex, and, more generally, with the Lithuanian ivorld outlook, are the issues usually discussed based on ungrounded assumptions that the amber artifacts found in Lithuanian burial sites and the cultural strata of hill-forts and settlements had originated from the Lithuanian coast. It is unexpected, but credible possibility, that Baltic Sea amber artifacts, belonging to different archeological sites across Lithuania, are not only local products, but also imports via different trade routes. As far as analysis of Lithuanian amber artifacts has established, raw amber was exported from the coast southwards. Lathed and semi-lathed amber beads found at the cemeteries in central Lithuania, the lower Nemunas region and even in coastal Lithuania and dated to the late Roman Iron Age—early Migration period, are imports of several workshops in the lower Vistula, Kuiavia areas, Mazurian Lakeland, Sambian peninsula and other regions. On the other hand, it should be noted, that amber beads of common shapes known since the Roman Iron Age onwards, figure-eight shaped beads-pendants and these of other less common shapes, as well as beads and other amber artifacts typical of the Vendel and the Viking Age were produced by local amber crafstmen in coastal Lithuania.