From Mesolithic to Early Christianity : the development of the ritual complex in the Northern part of lake Biržulis (Lithuania) according to archaeological, linguistic and historical research

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Atsivertimas į krikščionybę; Aukojimo ir laidojimo vietos; Aukojimų ir laidojimo vietos; Mezolitas; Neolitas; Sakralizavimas ir monumentalizavimas; Sakrališkumas ir monumentališkumas; Žemaitija (Samogitia); Conversion to Christianity; Lithuania; Mesolithic; Neolithic; Sacralisation And Monumentalisation; Sacrificial and Burial Sites; Samogitia.

ENSeveral ritual complexes are known in Europe, the origins of which reach back to the Stone Age, and their chain of development includes the metal ages or even the period of official conversion to Christianity, such as Stonehenge (England), Newgrange (Ireland), and Alvastra near Lake Tåkern (Sweden). Such complexes stretching across a long chronological period are known also from western Lithuania, in Žemaitija (Samogitia). On the basis of archaeological, linguistic and historical research we attempt in this paper to reconstruct the development of the Donkalnis and Spiginas Mesolithic-Neolithic cemeteries, sacrificial hearths, and funerary feast sites, which date from the middle Mesolithic period to historical times. We have selected a very narrow area along the shores of Lake Biržulis in western Lithuania. During the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods this was an 800 m. east-west-oriented area, where discoveries have been made of settlements, sacrificial and burial sites, and a seer’s grave. On the basis of archaeological and ethnological Indo-European studies and the earliest historical sources (namely, the land registers of the bishops of Žemaitija from 1421–1662) we study the later period from the early metal ages to the very late official conversion of the area to Christianity in 1413, during which time the area spread 1,000 m. westwards. An attempt is made to reconstruct the sacralisation and monumentalisation of this space over almost 7,500 years from 5980 B.C. to A.D. 1413–1421.