| Abstract [eng] |
Wood has always been an important natural resource that has been extensively and diversely exploited. Despite its organic nature, the artifacts and traces of woodwork and fires made in the distant past can be found in archaeological contexts. Such finds are witnesses to the technological skills and capabilities of people in the past and reflections of the past natural environment. This thesis explores the potential of anatomical analysis methods for the study of wooden finds discovered during archaeological excavations and presents four different studies focusing on different types of archaeological contexts and finds. The first of them is devoted to the Sub-Neolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age artefacts found in the ancient sites of Šventoji, studied by the author since 2014. The second one is devoted to wood charcoal collected during the archaeological investigations of the Neolithic sites in the Curonian Spit. The third is dedicated to the wood of fishing structures dating from the Mesolithic to the modern period found in the Žeimena River. The fourth is dedicated to wooden dugout boats found in various places in Lithuania, mostly during underwater explorations, the oldest of which dates back to the Neolithic period and the youngest to the modern period. The methods used in this work are based on the analysis of anatomical microscopic features of wood: species identification, the determination of the harvesting season and the roundwood age and diameter analysis which is applied for the first time in the study of the wooden finds found in Lithuania. The work also introduces the discipline of Anthracology, which has not yet found a place in Lithuanian science. |
