Ažušilės pilkapynas

LTStraipsnyje pristatoma archeologinių tyrinėjimų Ažušilės pilkapyne medžiaga. Pilkapyne 2000- 2007 m. ištirta 12 stipriai apardytų sampilų. Jie buvo apjuosti duobėmis arba grioviais, dalis jų buvo su akmenų vainikais. Pilkapiuose aptikta degintinių kapų su įkapėmis arba suardytų kapų liekanų ir pavienių radinių. Dauguma jų datuojami VIII-IXa. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Ažušilės pilkapynas; Rytų Lietuvos pilkapių kultūra; Pilkapiai; Laidojimo papročiai; Degintiniai kapai; Ažušilė barrow cemetery; East Lithuanian barrow culture; Barrows; Burial rites; Cremations.

ENAžušilė barrow cemetery (Ignalina District) is in Vidiškės forest about 0.7 km NW of Ažušilė village, about 0.4 km N of lake Ežerėlis (Barnis) and about 0.4 km NE of lake Lukštinis. An area of about 350 x 130 m contained 94 mounds that sort of form two groups (east and west). Some of the barrows have been disturbed. During 2000-2007, 12 badly disturbed mounds (about 1869 m2) were excavated in the east barrow group. The excavated barrows were 5-11 m in diameter and up to 1 m high. The barrow mounds had been badly disturbed. The base layers (original ground surface), which contained a small quantity of small pieces of charcoal, survived somewhat better. The mounds were ringed by pits of various shapes or ditches. Barrows 1, 3, 6, 8, and 12 were surrounded by pits of various shapes and oblong pits - ditches. Barrows 2, 4, 5, 9, and 11 were ringed by one longer ditch on one side of roughly half the mound, and on the other by pits of various shapes. At the foot of barrow 7 were two ditches and at the foot of barrow 10 a continuous ditch with one gap. No clearer order was noticed in the arrangement of the pits or ditches. A stain - posthole (?) was recorded on the edge of barrow 8. There were no continuous stone kerbs around the barrows, but the majority had a few stones laying mostly near the edge of the mounds or in the pit and ditch fill. The barrows probably did not have continuous kerbs, but more likely constructions symbolising them. They were clearer in barrows 4, 7,8,10, and 11. On the other hand, the kerbs could have been completely destroyed.Each of the barrows probably contained 1-3 cremations. Many of them were badly disturbed or completely destroyed. The precise number of burials is not clear. The burials contained individuals of both sexes and various ages. The remains of approximately 20 individuals have been identified osteologically and on the basis of the arrangement of the bones in the barrows. A comparatively large number and diversity of grave goods were discovered in the excavated barrows, but the majority of them were in the destroyed barrow layers rather than in the graves.A large percentage of the grave goods consisted of clothing elements and ornaments. Iron buckles or parts of them were found in barrow 6, burial 1?, barrow 8, burial 1 and in destroyed grave locations in barrows 4 and 8. Two bronze neck-rings (twisted wire and with crutch-shaped or saddle-shaped terminals) and a bronze penannular brooch with rolled terminals were found in barrow 11, burial 2(?). An iron pin (?) fragment was discovered in barrow 12, burial 1. Bronze flat bracelets or parts of them were found in barrow 6, burial 2(?), barrow 11, burial 1 and as chance finds in barrows 3 and 7, and two bracelets with a convex, triangular cross-section in barrow 11, burial 2(?). A bronze coil ring was in barrow 12, burial 1. Bronze coil beads were found in barrow 3, burial 2, barrow 11, burial 1, barrow 12, burial 1 and in a destroyed grave location in barrow 2, a small chain in barrow 6, burial 2(?), fragments of melted ornaments in barrow 3, burial 2, and part of an unidentified iron artefact in barrow 1, burial 1(?). In addition, hand built pottery sherds were discovered in barrow 6 and in barrow 11, burial 1.The barrow and grave constructions of the excavated barrows have features characteristic of both the Middle Iron Age (stone kerbs, the arrangement of the pits around the mounds, and the shape and orientation of some grave pits) and the Late Iron Age (ditches around the mounds). The majority of the artefacts discovered in the barrows have a wide chronology and are characteristic of the end of the Middle Iron Age and the Late Iron Age. The most likely chronology of the excavated barrows is the 8th—9th centuries with only some artefacts possibly being slightly earlier or later. The material from the excavation of Ažušilė barrow cemetery is insufficient for more comprehensive generalisations about the size or structure of the community that left it. The excavations provided new data about some burial rites: burial with grave goods for the opposite gender, the breaking of grave goods, and animal burial (sacrifice?) with humans. [From the publication]