THE NEWEST LITHIC, BONE AND ANTLER MATERIAL AND ITS RESEARCH FROM THE EARLY HOLOCENE SITES

The area of coastal Lithuania contains several major country‘s rivers system, palaeolagoons and peat-bogs (part of them as former lakes), however this area is still lacking early Holocene sites and material from them, compared to the inland region. This situation was influenced by the quite complex geological development of the region due to the changes in the water level of the Baltic Sea in the early Holocene and the lack of field works. Nevertheless, most of the obtained material comes as the stray finds, found during drainage and peat exploatation works. On the other hand, in recent years, research with available archaeological material has intensified. More new excavations have been carried out, as well as revisions of the old collections at the museums. Technological analysis of articles was adapted to the bone and antler findings from the Late Mesolithic settlement of Smelte and the stray T-axe from the submerged Late Mesolithic settlement on the seabed near Melnragė beach (Klaipėda region). These are some of the findings that symbolize rich osseous industry and the mobile art in the coastal Lithuania during the Atlantic. One of the most important sites in this area is Aukštumala. It is located on the fluvioglacial island in the former lake, which is now transformed into a peat-bog. The newest excavation showed that the island contains three sites and all of them belongs to the leaf-shape points technology, better known as the Swiderian culture. Currently that is the most earliest known occupation in the current area of Lithuanian coast. The lithic assemblage contains typical Swiderian points, axes, scrapers and knives, also a big part of lithics assemblage compromises of non-flint material. For better understanding of sites economy and communitie‘s relation to the wider region, use-wear and flint material chemical analysis were accomplished.
Author(s): Rimkus, Tomas (Klaipėda University, Institute of Baltic Region History and Archaeology)

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