Grikapėdžio senovės gyvenvietė

LTGrikapėdžio senovės gyvenvietė (Birštono sav., Birštono sen.) įkurta Verknės žemupio kairiajame kranto vingyje ant antros ir iš dalies pirmos viršsalpinės terasos. Antros viršsalpinės terasos paviršius nežymiai nuolaidėja ŠV ir ŠR kryptimi upės link. ŠV pusėje vietovės paviršius staigiau nuolaidėja daugiau nei 4 m, pažemėdamas iki pirmos viršsalpinės terasos ir salpos lygio, o ŠR ir PV pakraščiai užsibaigia statokais buvusių pakrančių skardžiais su senvagėmis, puslankiu įsigraužusiomis į terasos šonus. Taigi, kadaise gyvenvietė egzistavo savotiškame eroziniame kyšulyje kiek išplatėjusiu galu, giliai įsiterpusiame į Verknės slėnį. Vietovės paviršius gyvenvietės ribose yra smėlingas, PR pusėje pereina į molingą aukštesnio lygio terasinę lygumą, o ŠV baigiasi pažliugusia smėlinga– žvyringa salpa. [Iš teksto, p. 103]

ENGrikapėdis Old Settlement (Birštonas Municipality) was founded on the first – second terraces above the flood plain on the left bank of a bend in the Verknė. This area is now a long sandy erosional protuberance that projects deeply into the river’s path. In 2020, due to the construction work in laying the pipeline, the KPIP conducted an archaeological investigation of this settlement. In all, a 92 m long, 10 m wide strip (920 m2) and 3 additional test pits (1 m2 each) at both ends of the utility trench were excavated. The investigation at the settlement revealed a sandy cultural layer, 5–40 cm thick on average, but up to 70–110 cm thick at the ends of the investigated strip, under a 20–50 cm thick plough layer that had been damaged by longterm ploughing and intense erosion. It identified about 40 larger structures (storage pits, hearths, postholes, the remains of a former building’s packed earth floor, a small well, and other various stains), 20 of which were radiocarbon dated and 8 subjected to macrobotanical analysis. The investigation identified 2 long and slightly sunken building sites, the first of which was about 5–6 m wide (only a 7–8 m long section was excavated) with a cultural layer up to 40–60 cm thick; the second of which had less clear depression contours, but an abundance of various structures: 6 large objects (hearths and storage pits) joined by a former packed earth floor to a general stain. The hearths and storage pits yielded an abundance of sherds of hand built pottery and fragments of burnt cobbles. The excavation of 23 areas yielded about 10,000 various sized sherds of hand built pottery with brushed, smooth, and burnished surfaces, about 2000 various flint finds, about 1000 fragments of burnt clay daub, a small quantity of small burnt bones, stone artefacts, and part of the back of an iron knife.The isolated thicker flint finds with a patina and the tanged point fragment show that people stopped at this location for first time at the very end of the Final Palaeolithic 11 millennia ago. People stopped here several times more in the Mesolithic – Early Neolithic as shown by the isolated sparse corresponding microliths (small blades with a blunt back, the trapezium microblade, the micro-burin, and blades knapped from a conical core). The location was inhabited more intensively in the early Bronze Age (19th–15th centuries bc) when the lower cultural layer formed in places. The sherds of hand built pottery with horizontal cord impressions, a large part of the flint finds including the irregular cores and several triangular and leaf-shaped tanged points with flat retouched surfaces, and the pointed top of a snaked-headed stone hoe should be ascribed to this period. This location was inhabited the most intensively at the end of the Early Iron Age (2nd–1st century bc or early 1st century ad). The upper cultural layer, which was found almost everywhere in the erosional terraced peninsula and contained abundant sherds of hand built pottery with brushed and smooth exterior surfaces, sherds of reduction fired pottery with smooth or burnished exterior surfaces, some flint finds, isolated burnt bones, and several stone artefacts should be ascribed to this period. [From the publication]