Pabaisko kautynių amžininkų kapai Gaiciūnų senkapyje

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Archeologija; Chronologija; Gaiciūnų senkapis; Laidosena; Lietuvos Didžioji Kunigaikštystė (LDK; Grand Duchy of Lithuania; GDL); 15 amžius; Pabaisko mūšis; Palaidojimai; 14 amžius; 15 amžius; Įkapės; 14-15 cent.; Archaeology; Battle of Pabaiskas; Burial customs; Chronology; Gaiciūnai Old Cemetery; Grave-goods; Graves; Lithuanian XV c. history; Shrouds; The Grand Duchy of Lithuania.

ENUpon approaching the 580th anniversary of the Battle of Pabaiskas, Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences, General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania, Vytautas the Great War Museum and Ukmergė District Municipality implemented the project "Pabaiskas in the History of Lithuania". Apart from the localization of the battlefield, assumptions were made to find and explore the burial places of the warriors killed in the Battle of Pabaiskas. We assumed that the warriors should not necessarily be buried in individual cemetery plots, but they could also be buried somewhere nearby the cemetery existing in the 15th century. [...] Gaiciūnai cemetery was established in eastern part of Gaiciūnai, about 1.2 km northwest from the town of Pabaiskas and westward from the road Pabaiskas-Sargeliai, at the north-eastern slope of Gaiciūnai lake dip. The excavations of 1979 (a gravel pit of the size of 80 x 80 m and 6 m deep) revealed 2 eroded graves; the scattered cerement was collected (Pict. 1, 2). [...] The burial places were covered in the hill part from the east to the centre (Pict. 3). The bodies were buried in pits from 25-30 cm to 80-90 cm deep. The pits of graves did not stand out. The people were buried lying on the back, the legs stretched, and the hands stretched at the sides or crossed on the chest (Pict. 4-8). [...] The orientation of the dead clearly speaks for the cherishing of Christian values. All the dead were placed with the heads directed to the west (with a certain deviation to north-west). Men, women and children were buried in the cemetery. The demographic situation was as follows: 4 graves of men, 6 graves of women, and 3 graves of children. Graves No. 5, 7 and 8 contained bird bones. It was determined that children's graves contained bones of the partridge, the men's graves enclosed bones of the cock, and women's graves contained bones of the hen. [...].The cerements of the analysed period were not abundant as in the Pre-Christian period. All the discovered ones could be grouped into: household articles, jewellery, clothing articles, animal claws and pots. Household articles included knives, awls and spindles. The most frequent were iron knives (graves no. 3,6,7,9,10,11,12 and by accident 2) (Pict. 11-13). They were placed in the graves of men, women and children at the left side of the dead. The knives were iron, with straight back and tang, from 12.5 to 19.5 cm long. The chronological timeline of these knives is dated back to the first quarter of the 16th century. Only one awl was found in a man's grave No. 10. A spindle was discovered in grave No. 9 of a 30-40 year old rich woman (Pict. 12). [...] Jewellery was found in the graves of one child and five women. They included bead temple rings, earrings, necklaces, brooches and rings. The bead temple ring was found in grave No. 1 of a woman (Pict. 7). It was fastened on the left side of the headwear. It as made of brass, coiled in three windings and dated back to the first half of the 15th century. Earrings were found in four graves (No. 7, 9,11 and 12) and one earring was found in an accidentally destroyed grave. Pairs of earrings were found in all the graves, yet the pair consisted of earrings of two different forms [...]. The earrings are dated back to the middle and the second half of the 14th century or the first half of the 15th century [...] Two necklaces were found. They contained of pendants, beads, bells and spirals. The cross-shaped amulets were not frequent findings in Lithuanian old cemeteries. [...] The discovered graves are dated back to the second half of the I4th-15th century (Pict. 13). Four brooches were discovered: three of them were found in grave No. 9 of a woman and one brooch was found accidentally. The brooches were made of brass, flat and convex in the middle. [...].Not many bracelets are found in the graves of the 14th-15th centuries. The ones that we discovered are dated back to the 15th century. Despite the fact that rings are frequently found in the graves of late cemeteries, only two were discovered in Gaiciūnai: graves No. 6 and 11. A baby (grave No. 6) was buried with a coiled ring, whereas a woman was buried with a ring with the diamond-shaped ring widened at the front. The graves are dated back to the second half of the 14th-15th centuries (Pict. 13). Clothing parts included buckles and chains. They were found in graves No. 3, 8, 10, 11 and 13. All the graves were men's graves, expect No. 11, which belonged to a woman. The chain found in grave No. 11 was adjusted to fasten a knife to a belt or string (Pict. 16). Other brooches were of oval- and square-shaped. Brooches with brass and chain bindings, which presumably were used as money or pouch planking, were discovered in the graves. An animal's claw covered with brass was found in grave No. 9 of a woman. The chronology of this type of amulets is defined relatively precisely - the end of the 14th-15th centuries. According to the author of the current article, such cerements are related to the relicts of paganism. Pots or their parts were discovered in graves No. 1,4,5 and 7. They were found in all the cemeteries of the 14th-15th centuries (Pict. 12). The pots were annealed in the reductive environment, thus they were brittle. The pots were placed at the feet of the deceased or even put on the grave (Pict. 5,8,10 and 17). Having analysed the process of burying and the cerements, it is possible to state that the deceased of the rural community buried in Gaiciūnai old cemetery lived in the surroundings of Pabaiskas in the end of the 14th-15th centuries, and were the contemporaries of the Battle of Pabaiskas. [From the publication]

• Archeologija / Archaeology
• Istorija / History