Die Völkerwanderungszeitlichen Dolchmesser der samländisch-natangischen Kultur auf dem Gebiet Ostpreußen

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Baltai; Archeologija; Archeologiniai radiniai; Durklai; Lietuvos istorija; Balts; Archaeology; Archaeological finds; Daggers; The Lithuanian history.

ENThis publication is devoted to knives-daggers, which represent one of the most spectacular and specialized weapon forms of the Early Migration period (period D) and is characteristic for a number of archaeological cultures of the West Baltic circle. The classical fully developed knife-dagger clearly differs from the other bladed weapons of the Early Middle Ages in its awl-like long blade end and the presence of three broad fullers on each of the single-edged blade's sides, which run together for approximately half its length, and a distinctive short tang. This publication represents a revised version of the PhD work of the author, which was finished in November 2011 at the Humboldt University of Berlin and as such is based on the archaeological material that was known until then. Later research data and publications of other authors are considered in this publication only if they can significantly add to or change the results of the research performed between 2007 and the end of 2011). Only two concentrations of knife-dagger finds are currently known - in the territory of modern Lithuania and in that of the Kaliningrad region of Russia (central part of the former German province of East Prussia) respectively. The primary goal of the performed research was the investigation of the knives-daggers of the sambian-natangian culture, also known in the West European literature as the Dollkeim-Kovrovo Culture. Its archaeological monuments, dated to the Roman Period - Great Migration Period, are distributed on the Kaliningrad (up to 1946 - Sambian) Peninsula and in the neighboring territories of the historical landscapes of Natangia and Nadrovia.While a part of the investigated archaeological material was found during the archaeological excavations of the last 30-40 years, the majority of the knife-dagger finds were discovered within relevant burial complexes in the prewar research period (second half of the 19th - first half of the 20th century). Almost all the prewar finds and corresponding archival material, which up to 1945 were preserved in the "Prussia" museum in Königsberg, disappeared in the final phase of the war and for a long time were believed to had been lost forever. However, in the 1990's it became known that major parts of the collection and archive of the "Prussia" museum had been preserved from 1949 onwards in the depot of the Berlin Museum of Ancient and Early History in East Germany. Numerous knives-daggers, as well as corresponding archival documents, were discovered in the newly found archaeological sources. [...] Even more interesting and rather unexpected observations have been made by the author concerning the way in which knives-daggers were carried. Until recently it has been believed that knives-daggers were carried on the shoulder straps of the type balteus Vidgiriai. This research hypothesis, based in fact exclusively on the published results of the archaeological finds analysis from the territory of modern Lithuania, was later on assumed, without proper verification, to be true also for the archaeological material of the sambian-natangian culture. The subsequent search for the preserved metal elements of similar shoulder straps and their descriptions in the above-mentioned sources (museum collections, pre- and postwar publications, as well as archives) revealed numerous finds of this art, which originally belonged to at least 21 shoulder straps from 10 burial sites alone in the sambian-natangian culture area.Altogether 27 metal parts of the 15 shoulder straps were rediscovered in the preserved remnants of the "Prussia" collection alone, though they seem to have never been identified as such from the very moment of their original discovery in the graves until modern times. The mapping of these finds showed that their area of distribution overlaps, as anticipated, to a large extent with that of the knife-dagger finds. Results of the chronological analysis of the relevant grave inventories allowed dating of the investigated shoulder straps at least in the sambian-natangian culture area to the phases C3/D1-D3, which also corresponds with the chronological time frames defined for knives-daggers. However, in none of the investigated burials could a co-occurrence of knives-daggers and shoulder straps of the type balteus Vidgiriai be demonstrated. Instead, the so-called (battle) knives with broken backline are present in a quite high number of burials with shoulder straps of the discussed type. [...] In conclusion, it must be mentioned that a modern study analogous to that described above should also be performed on the archaeological material from the burial grounds in the territory of Lithuania. Popular knife-dagger relevant hypotheses that were developed in the last decades of the 20th century should be re-examined by means of a comparative analysis of the older excavation material with the finds resulting from the recent field campaigns. Currently open questions of historical and paleosocial nature, which are related to the emergence of knives-daggers in the southeastern part of the Baltic Sea basin in the early phase of the Early Migration period, can be answered only through the comparative analysis of the relevant archaeological monuments in the whole distribution area of the knife-dagger finds. [From the publication]