| Abstract [eng] |
The paper discusses a rare archaeological and anthropological find - a Late Neolithic grave, found in the year 2000 in Gy-vakarai village (Kupiskis region). The site was discovered by chance, when local inhabitants were digging gravel from the slope on the left bank of the Žvike creek. Radiocarbon dating (two separate samples of bone analysed): 3745±70 bp (right tibia, Ki-9470) and 3710±80 bp (left ulna, Ki-9471) confirmed the initial supposition of Late Neolithic, and actually falls to the very end of this period. The following grave goods associated with the inhumation were found: boat-shaped polished stone axe with shaft-hole; hafted axe, produced from flint of a greyish colour; a blade-knife, produced from flint of a greyish colour; a hammer-headed bone (antler?) pin, found among disturbed bones of the burial (to our knowledge this is the first hammer headed pin in Lithuania). The osteological analysis of the burial revealed that the bones belonged to one fragmentary skeleton. Bone fragments are well preserved, and were from parts of the skull vault, both maxillas, the right side of the mandible, five cervical, twelve thoracic, five lumbar vertebrae, fragments of ribs, the handle of the sternum, both clavicles and scapulae, humeri, ulnae, right radius, right and left hand bones, fragments of both coxal bones, femora, tibias, fibulas and bones of the feet. The skeleton belonged to an adult male that died at the age of 35-45 years. The skull vault was too fragmentary for measurement, visually it can be evaluated as hypermorphic, dolichocranic, with an average or even a broad face. The postcranial skeleton is hypermorphic, with marked muscle insertions. The reconstructed stature is 173-176 cm. Such a massive skeleton is typical of other Lithuanian Corded Ware/Boat Axe culture people, and similar to those found in Estonia, Prussia and later the Fatyanovo people from the Central Russian plain... |
