Senosios Lietuvos šventvietės. Pakruojo rajonas

LT2017-2018 m. archyvuose ir bibliotekose buvo renkami, žvalgomosiose ekspedicijose tikslinami ir pildomi duomenys apie baltų religijos šventvietes Pakruojo rajone. Leidinį pradeda įvadas, kuriame nagrinėjami su šventvietėmis, jų tyrinėjimų istorija ir apsauga susiję klausimai. Toliau aprašomos 333 Pakruojo r. ir 8 Joniškio r. vietos, skelbiamos jų geografinės padėties koordinatės, matavimai, daugelis archeologinių, istorinių, tautosakinių ir etnologinių duomenų, 1840-1979 m. žemėlapių iškarpos, schemos ir nuotraukos. Leidinys tęsia autoriaus atliktus Žemaitijos (1998), Rytų Aukštaitijos (2006) ir Joniškio rajono (2016) šventviečių tyrinėjimus. [Anotacija knygoje]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Pakruojo rajonas; Senosios šventvietės; Mitologija; Lithuania; Pakruojis District; Ancient Sacred Places; Mythology.

ENWhen collecting information for the archaeological map of the Kaunas Province (prepared and published in 1899), the attention of the then researchers was attracted by two most famous stones of the Pakruojis land: Devil's Armchair in Titoniai and a stone with a footprint, called Holy, in Zigmantiškiai. Around 1908-1913, the Peleniškiai Hillfort was surveyed and the stone with a bowl at its foot was measured by Liudvikas Kšivickis. In the 20s to 30s of the 20th century, the State Archaeological Commission paid attention to some more sacred places: stones with bowls in Binėnai and Pašvitinys, the sacred hill in Paežeriai, etc. Teacher of English Juozas Šliavas who started work in Žeimelis in 1949 had never heard about that. In 1958, he founded a schoolchildren's folklore club and became its leader, and in 1959, a school museum was established on his initiative. The year 1966 marked a turning point in the folklore research activity of teacher Šliavas, related to the beginning of the wide-scale land reclamation and destruction of individual farms. Assisted by archaeologist Adolfas Tautavičius, linguist Aleksandras Vanagas, ethnographer Vacys Milius, and folklorist Norbertas Vėlius, Šliavas became a distinguished expert of Žiemgala (Semigallia): a researcher on Northern Lithuania and Southern Latvia, a connoisseur of their history and culture. It should be noted that he became actively involved in the search of the heritage treasures and took care of their preservation: before 1975, he had already visited and described all the archaeological and mythological sites in the Akmenė, Joniškis, Pakruojis, Panevėžys, Pasvalys, and Radviliškis districts.On 1 January 1975, Jonas Treškevičius (b. 1952) took up the post of the monument protection specialist of the Pakruojis district; he became a loyal assistant to Juozas Šliavas and independently discovered a number of sacred places, and primarily stones with bowls. Valentina Alekseriūnaitė (b. 1951), Juozas Čybas (1928-2004), Bronius Pupinis (1909-1992), and Algimantas Senulis (b. 1937) also contributed substantially to the monument preservation. An expedition led by the author of the present book worked intermittently in the Pakruojis district from 26 January 2017 to 17 August 2018. Over 18 days, 163 destinations sites were visited by cars, and 333 sites were described in the Code of Sacred Places, including hills, fields, groves, trees, stones, and springs related to the Baltic religion and mythology;1 moreover, the publication includes additions to the Code of the Joniškis District Sacred Places prepared in 2015-2016. The Code of the Pakruojis District Sacred Places includes: forests and groves (23), individual trees (15), hills (33), fields and meadows (11), swamps (29), streams (4), river parts (7), springs (24), non-processed boulders (40), and stones with bowls (154) that account for almost half of all the entries in the Code. Most of the villages in the Pakruojis District boast three, four, or even five stones with bowls. The villages following one another on the left bank of the Mūša River have especially many stones with bowls: three stones in Miciūnai, five in Sosdvaris, three in Pociūnai, and six in Kalevai. The stones were discovered and usually kept at the door of the house, in place of the stairs to the granary, in flower beds, at the arbours, or were frequently bricked into the foundations or masonry walls. For the first time, evidence was found that stones with bowls could be kept in a cooking room of the house at the floor level.It should be noted that the bowls of the stones in the Pakruojis district did not have the form of a regular circle at the top, they were rather of an oval shape; the bowls were usually moved from the centre towards the edge, and the stones were frequently rough-hewn. However, from now on, it is necessary to take a critical view of the classification of the stones with bowls in accordance with their form and the hypothesis of the stones possessing marks of hewing as having been intended for the corner of the house. The latest accumulated information leads to considering hewing to be a consequence of the later adjustment of sacred stones to various uses: stones with straight sides were usually put and to and aligned with other stones in the foundations and walls, the threshold of the house, the granary wall, etc. True, such a conclusion does not exclude the possibility that in a new place - the villages established in the second half of the 16th century -stones with bowls were still appreciated and respected, rites were performed at them, and even sacrifices were offered. The period (and most likely the previous one as well) is characterised by the association of those stones with grass snakes which represented the ancient Lithuanian deities of home (Dievai Pagirniai) known from written sources. It should be separately mentioned that a typical characteristic of the Pakruojis district is sacred forests and groves called Ąžuolyne [an oak wood] (11 sites), sacred oaks (12 trees), and hills called Bobkalnis [women's hill] (6 sites); moreover, valuable information was obtained about four stones with cup-marks: those sites in Northern Lithuania date back to the 1st millennium ВС. The same areas also stayed inhabited later and, in the 1st to the 4th century AD, they boasted barrows with stone circles. [...]. [From the publication]

• Etnologija / Ethnology
• Archeologija / Archaeology
• Istorija / History