Northern Gold: Amber in Lithuania (c. 100 to c. 1200)

467 Pages·2011·22.17 MB·English

by  Audronė Bliujienė

Northern Gold
East Central and Eastern
Europe in the Middle Ages,
450–1450
General Editor
Florin Curta
VOLUME 18
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.nl/ecee
Northern Gold
Amber in Lithuania (c. 100 to c. 1200)
By
Audronė Bliujienė
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2011
Cover illustrations: Front: a compilation of raw amber, a lathed bead and necklace from
Užpelkiai.
Back: a lathed amber bead from Užpelkiai.
© Photographs by Audronė Bliujienė.
Language editor: Marianne Noble
Translator: Laima V. Sruoginis
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bliujiene, Audrone, 1954–
Northern gold : amber in Lithuania (c. 100 to c. 1200) / by Audrone Bliujiene.
p. cm. — (East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450–1450 ; v. 18)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-21118-6 (hardback : alk. paper) 1. Amber—Lithuania.
2. Excavations (Archaeology)—Lithuania. 3. Jewellery, Prehistoric—Lithuania.
4. Lithuania—Antiquities. I. Title.
GN799.A5B55 2011
553.8’79094793—dc23
2011035554
ISSN 1872-8103
ISBN 978-90-04-21118-6
Copyright 2011 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing,
IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP.
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CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ................................................................................... vii
List of Figures ............................................................................................ ix
List of Appendices .................................................................................... xxxi
List of Tables ............................................................................................. xxxiii
Chronological System Used in the Book .............................................. xxxv
List of Abbreviations ................................................................................ xxxix
Introduction ............................................................................................... 1
1. Baltic Amber: Distribution, Main Sources and Accessibility .... 5
2. Amber in Lithuanian Historiography ............................................ 15
3. The Aestii and the Glesum Epoch .................................................. 35
4. Amber in Medieval Lithuania ......................................................... 203
Conclusions ............................................................................................... 335
Appendices and Tables ............................................................................ 353
Bibliography ............................................................................................... 379
Index ........................................................................................................... 407

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work on amber is based on extensive Lithuanian archaeological evi-
dence: excavation reports and data from different archives and museums.
This work would never have come into existence without the assistance
of my Lithuanian and foreign colleagues, who granted me permission to
use their unpublished research, gave me advice and constructive criticism,
and who pointed me in the direction of relevant materials and archives.
I would like to sincerely thank my colleagues, who were particularly support-
ive of this work: Dr Audrius Astrauskas, Professor Jan Bemmann, Dr Anna
Bitner-Wróblewska, Ramunė Bračiulienė, Donatas Butkus, Professor Claus
von Carnap-Bornheim, Jānis Ciglis, Professor Florin Curta, Gytis Grižas,
Grażyna Iwanowska, Professor Eugenijus Jovaiša, Habil. Dr Michel Kazanski,
Vida Kliaugaitė, Habil. Dr Anna Mastykova, Dr Algimantas K. Merkevičius,
Dr Magdalena Natuniewicz-Sekuła, Professor Jerzy Okulicz-Kozaryn, Mirja
Ots, Alfreda Petrulienė, Habil. Dr Dieter Quast, Dr Arnis Radiņš, Dr Chris-
tine Reich, Vidas Semėnas, Dr Valdemaras Šimėnas, Konstantin Skvorzov,
Dr Jonas Stankus, Laimutė Valatkienė, Dr Vykintas Vaitkevičius, Algirdas
Varnas, Dr Ernestas Vasiliauskas and Jevgenijus Žikulinas.
I would also like to thank the following museums: The Lithuanian National
Museum in Vilnius, History Museum of Lithuania Minor in Klaipėda, the
regional museums of Kretinga, Panevėžys and Švenčionys “Nalšia”, the Lat-
vian National History Museum in Riga, the State Archaeological Museum in
Warsaw, the Museum of Prehistory and Early History in Berlin, the Roman-
Germanic Central Museum in Mainz and Rheinisches Landesmuseum in
Bonn. I am grateful to the publisher Versus aureus for permission to make
use of several illustrations from my book Lietuvos priešistorės gintaras (Lith-
uania’s prehistoric amber).

LIST OF FIGURES
1. Area of the distribution of Baltic amber-bearing sediments:
1 primary amber deposits; 2 amber from Paleogene deposits;
3 boundary of distribution of re-deposited amber. I Sambia
(Kaliningradskaia oblast, Russia); II Chłapowo (Poland);
III Grodno (Belarus) and IV Obuchov (Ukraine) amber deposits.
Map redrawn after Vladas Katinas, Iantar’ i iantarenosnye
otlozheniia v iuzhnoi Pribaltiki, fig. 12 .................................................. 6
2. Amber gatherers with scoop nets. After Elżbieta Choińska-
Bochdan, “Bursztyn w kulturze”, fig. II.3 .............................................. 7
3. Fragment of Olaus Magnus map “Carta marina et descriptio
septemtrionalium terrarium ac mirabilium rerum in eis
contentarum diligentissime elaborate” (Venice, 1539). Map
showing the Gdańsk Bay, Vistula Lagoon and Spit (formerly
Frische Nehrung, or Aistmarės Spit in Lithuanian) and the
Sambian Peninsula with “amber coast”. Map fragment enlarged.
After Barbara Kosmowska-Ceranowicz and Teresa Pietrzak,
“Z dziejów rozwoju wiedzy o znaleziskach bursztynu”, fig. 4 ........... 10
4. “Amber Routes” after Jose Maria de Navarro, “Prehistoric
Routes between Northern Europe and Italy Defined by the Amber
Trade”, plate I: + main route: early Bronze Age; . . . western route
branch: middle Bronze Age;—eastern route: early Iron Age ............. 23
5. Aestii/Balt Roman period cultural groups: 1 The West Lithuanian
Stone Circle Graves culture and its peripheral zone the
Southwestern Latvian Burial Sites; 2 The Lower Neman Grave
Fields; 3 The Collective Barrows culture or the North Lithuanian
and South Latvian Barrows culture; 4 The Central Lithuanian
Grave Fields; 5 The Southeastern Lithuanian Burial Sites;
6 The East Lithuanian Barrows culture; 7 The Dollkeim-Kovrovo
culture; 8 The Bogaczewo culture; 9 The Sudovian culture.
Schematic map prepared by the author with additions, after
Moora, Die Eisenzeit in Lettland bis etwa 500 n. Chr. II, fig. 90;
Adolfas Tautavičius, “Lietuvos TSR archeologijos atlasas”, map 1;
Wojciech Nowakowski, “Kulturowy krąg zachodniobałtyjski w
okrese wpływów rzymskich”, fig. 1; Rasa Banytė-Rowell,
“Romėnų įtakos laikai ir baltų kultūrų klestėjimo laikotarpis”,
fig. 9 ............................................................................................................. 37