The Baltic art is mostly known from found ornaments. First of all, quite many ornaments have survived, they were placed into grave goods. Ornaments were made of strong materials. As a rule, their purpose was ritualistic or functional (to fasten and the like). Meanwhile, there are very few examples of applied and decorative arts, usually only fragments (pot handles, tool handles, and the like). This happened because the said items were used on a daily basis.
We will briefly discuss the Baltic art in the following sequence: origins of the Baltic art, ceramics, amber in the Baltic culture; main groups of metal ornaments, their decoration; ornaments of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania; decoration of festive clothes; anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, plant and geometric motives in the Baltic art. In 2009, the fundamental catalogue of the international exhibition under the Lithuanian Millennium Programme Art of the Balts was published, which has no analogues until now. Based on this catalogue, the peculiarities of the Baltic art will be briefly reviewed. Most of the illustrations presented in this publication are also consistent with the subsection Art of the Balts.
THE BEGINNINGS OF THE BALTIC ART
The first Baltic culture – the Baltic Coastal culture – was formed in the late Neolithic, about 2700 years before Christ. The art examples of that time allow to identify the most important human needs of this period fairly accurately – to subsist and preserve one’s kin. All human activity and energy was directed to the said needs. In those times, individual activity was not yet feasible; people could survive only by acting together. When analysing collective actions, we also encounter a collective idea that drives that action, the collective knowledge of the world, and collective creation.
Art had not yet separated itself as an independent, strictly defined field of human activity, as it was directly related to cognition and the need to survive. The multiple meaning of creation and its functions were determined by its multifaceted relation with all cultural processes. Artistic expression was associated with other cultural phenomena: mythology, religion, rituals. Over a long period of time, the expression of collective art was changing, but even the nobility retained the old symbols.
Archaeologists agree that the Balts’ formation process involved Indo-Europeans (people of the Corded Ware culture and the Baltic Boat-Axe culture) and people of the autochthonous cultures – Narva and Nemunas cultures. From these cultures, a new culture – the Baltic Coastal culture – was formed. It goes without saying that some art traditions were also adopted.
CERAMICS
One of the oldest manifestations of art is ceramics. The pottery of the Baltic Coastal culture is characterized by few profiled beakers, wide-mouthed pots with handlets, funnel-shaped wide-mouthed pots, deep basins and oval elongated bowls-lamps. Figures of people, mostly men, are also found in the decoration of the pots. Generally, pots with human figures are considered ceremonial. The Corded Ware culture is attributed to Balts. Most knowledge from this culture is obtained about pots. Pots were flat bottomed, their surface was decorated with cord impressions. They varied: graceful beakers, amphora-type pots, wide-mouthed pots of various sizes, round basins and bowls, and elongated bowls-lamps. Huge earthenware jars for storing food supplies are also found. It is believed that pots for cooking and table vessels have already distinguished themselves in this era.
The decoration of corded ware pots is very diverse. Motives of cord impressions, hollows, and incisions prevail. Herringbone and nipped rhombus ornaments are often found too. The pot handles of this ceramics also distinguish themselves by a variety of shapes and decorations.
Pottery, both from the Stone Age and later times, provides knowledge not only about people’s mode of life – it is also a source of ethnic information. Pottery shapes of the Early Bronze Age were inherited from the Neolithic. From ceramics with brush marks of various Neolithic cultures it was transferred to brushed pottery, where later, brush strokes formed a kind of ornament. The irregular horizontal brush marking is related to the pottery making technology, while the vertical brush marks are as if a new motive of ornamentation. In the Bronze Age, pots became simpler, their shapes became similar. This trend can also be seen in the Iron Age.
AMBER IN THE BALTIC CULTURE
The origins of amber processing go back to the period of the Narva culture (6th-3rd millennium B.C.). The excavations of several hundred archaeological sites have confirmed that the tradition of manufacturing and trading amber ornaments, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines in the eastern and southern regions of the Baltic Sea began to form in the 4th millennium B.C. in the Narva culture and the Comb-Marked Pottery culture. The people of these cultures were the first to collect amber on the southeastern shores of the Baltic Sea and to make various artefacts from it: they used to make ornaments or sell the barely processed raw material, maybe also the trial pieces of the artefacts. When making figurines and ornaments, craftsmen first took into account the forms created by nature. They altered the natural shape of amber by slightly smoothing and polishing the sharp, uneven edges and occasionally cutting them out. A simple geometric ornament consisting of shallow dots and strias grouped in rows used to be etched on the surface. Buttons and button-shaped beads in various shapes, cylindrical beads, discs, large rings, pendants of various forms, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines – these are the main types of amber ornaments of the old local cultures.
Buttons and button-shaped beads. Double buttons used to be made from the drops of amber, while flat pieces would be used for making small round, square or rectangular button-shaped beads. The good side of the button would be carefully polished, and two V-shaped holes used to be drilled from the inner side so that they were not visible on the good side. Such button-shaped beads were not sturdy, that is why they used to be sewn on the outside of the garment and performed a decorative function.
Pendants also make up a large part of amber artefacts. They were made mostly using very clear amber plates, formed in the wood tissues or subcortical cavities of the trees that produced resin or from drop-shaped amber pieces.
Cylindrical beads were made of clear layers of amber icicles. Such icicles were formed while resin was periodically dripping slowly from the damaged part of the tree. After chipping away these cylindrical icicles (about 20 cm long and 2-3 cm in diameter) and polishing them, drilling holes on both sides with long flint drills, very delicate beads were made, sometimes even up to 10 cm long and 2 cm in diameter.
Disks and large rings began to be manufactured already in the Middle Neolithic period. These are ceremonial ornaments that were usually placed over the eyes of the dead. They could have symbolized light and the like. Large amber rings were taken over by the inhabitants of the Baltic Coastal culture. They can be found in the Neolithic settlements of Būtingė 2, Šventoji 3 and the coastal environments of Lake Lubans. It is believed that amber disks were associated with the Sun and perhaps with the ideas of the creation of the world and were made only from very high quality and clear amber.
Anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines. The first figurines were found at the end of the 19th century in the treasure trove of Juodkrantė. These figurines date back to the second half of the 4th millennium B.C. - the 3rd millennium B.C. (Middle and Late Neolithic). They are characterized by a clear eyebrow arch and a nose. The said figurines are identical to the old wooden and bone figurines made by the representatives of the pro-Baltic culture. All amber figurines have two, four, five or even six holes, which suggests that the figurines were worn hung and probably there were necklace spacers. Several zoomorphic figurines depicting moose heads, birds, and bears were found in the Stone Age sites of the Baltic region. The figurines are very abstract because amber is fragile and not very suitable for highlighting details.
Amber was most intensively traded in 3500-2000 B.C. The greatest amber treasures date back to this period too. Large amber trading centres were located in Šventoji, Juodkrantė, Nida, the Sambia Peninsula and Žulavai region, in the lower reaches of the Vistula. Amber ornaments spread in Eastern and Northern Europe.
During the Bronze and Early Iron Ages, climate change and rising water levels led to the decline of most of the important amber mining and processing centres. Amber mining and trade survived only due to the Sambia Peninsula. It is noticeable that amber was also sparsely used in the territories inhabited by Balts themselves. This could have been influenced by the previously mentioned reasons and the established custom of cremation of bodies.
In the Bronze Age, double buttons, beads became the main artefacts; pendants are still found, the latter are usually of poor quality.
Amber mining, processing and trade intensify again in the 5th century B.C. - 5th century. Amber is described by the Greek historian Herodotus (5th century B.C.). The writer and traveller Pytheas (4th century B.C.) also tells about amber and the journey to distant lands, during which the land of amber is reached. In 98, Tacitus describes Aistians and their way of life. Trade relations even with the Roman Empire are evidenced by treasures of Roman copper and silver coins, discovered during archaeological excavations.
Quite many amber artefacts are also found in the Baltic sites of that period. On the territory of Lithuania, about 950 units were found in 35 burial grounds, of which most abundant were the cemeteries of Mazkatuži, Šernai, Baitai, Dauglaukis, and Lauksvydai. Amulets, ornaments, work tools – spindles were found in these burial grounds. Amber amulets surrounded by bronze or iron rings were mostly found in men’s graves; while in women’s graves, beads and pendants made of the best quality amber. Wealthy female graves distinguish themselves by exquisite multi-coloured enamel and amber bead necklaces.
During the early Middle Ages (5th-13th centuries), the trade in amber raw material and artefacts did not stop, only the routes and scope of amber trade changed.
Widespread amber ornaments in the areas attributed to the Baltic culture at the lower reaches of the Vistula, the Sambia Peninsula, the confluence of the Nemunas and the Jūra (the Linkūnai area) show the existence of important amber trade centres, while amber artefacts were found in almost 100 archaeological sites in the territory of the present-day Lithuania alone. They are found throughout Lithuania, but mostly on the seacoast, in the lower reaches of the Nemunas, while the eastern boarder of the greatest spread reaches the Nevėžis River – this is the territory mainly inhabited by the Curonian, Samogitian and Scalvian tribes.
The main types of amber artefacts, common in the Baltic region at that time were lathed and semi-lathed beads, some of them with a notched surface. The most common were Basonian beads, which were particularly prevalent in the territory of the present-day Lithuania, the territory of western and southern Baltic tribes in the 5th century. Particularly expressive were beads with a notched surface, which come in the forms of a spool, disk, semicircle, cone and other. Their surface is profiled with step-like deepened lines. In the territory of the present-day Lithuania, such beads were mostly found in Užpelkiai, Stragnai (seaside area), Diržiai, Kalniškiai (central Lithuania) and Vidgiriai. Elongated, irregularly shaped amber beads are less expressive.
Exclusive necklaces made only of amber beads are found in the graves. Sometimes such necklace consists of even more than 150 beads.
A large number of amber finds is found in the part of the Scalvian lands, also called the Lamata land, located south of the Curonian lands, in the basins of the Minija and Šyša rivers. It could have been significantly influenced by the Baltic tribes of the Sambia Peninsula. Here, at least 12 archaeological sites of this period are known, where amber artefacts were found: cylindrical, barrel-shaped, truncated biconical amber beads. Most of them were found in the vicinities of Švėkšna, Šilutė, Priekulė. These lands where attempts were made to mine amber industrially, could have been one of the most important habitats of amber mining and processing of the West Balts’ tribes. Particularly impressive amber bead and brass string twinings were found in Vėžaičiai cemetery and are kept in Šilutė Museum.
Another important habitat of the Baltic tribes where amber artefacts are common is the territory inhabited by Curonians, especially the lands of Pilsots and Mėguva, and the cemeteries abundant in amber in Anduliai, Lazdininkai, Laiviai, Palanga, Genčai. In the settlements of Palanga, especially at the foot of Birutė Mountain, pits were found where amber raw material, trial pieces were stored and several amber artefacts were discovered together with them. More than 100 amber artefacts were found in Curonian cremations, while in Curonian primary burials of 8th-12th centuries, especially in women’s graves, amber artefacts are placed at the head, on the chest, waist and in the neck area. The most common grave goods are carved, gouged truncated biconical amber beads, and from the 11th century, also lathed ones. Female Curonians would have 1-3 beads placed in the graves; less often, pendants. Both for men and women, amber beads used to be placed in the head area, maybe to adorn the headgear.
Spindles are found in the graves of Curonian women, only in more diverse forms: truncated biconical, cylindrical, spool-shaped, flattened spherical.
Amber amulets. Figurine amulets are especially interesting. Comb-shaped amber pendants – “comblets” are found in Curonian graves of the 7th-9th centuries. They are usually triangular, rectangular or irregular in shape and almost all have either relief-carved or incised small comb-like teeth. Probably the earliest amulets of this type, dating back to the 7th century, were found in the graves of Lazdininkai. The length of the amulets is up to 7 cm, and the width is up to 5 cm. The amulets were worn hung; therefore, they usually have a hole at the narrower end. About 50 such amulets are known from the coastal area. They were found in men’s graves, placed in the areas of the chest or waist, and could have been fastened to sword handles or metal binding of scabbards. The magical meaning of amulets would be confirmed by folklore: in Lithuanian folk tales, the hero escapes from witches or other persecutors by throwing a comb over his shoulder and an impenetrable forest grows behind him. Most of such amulets were found in the cemeteries of Lazdininkai and Palanga. Ornamented amulets or the same brass ones were also found.
Common grave goods for Curonians, the only ones from the Baltic tribes, were miniature tools. Southern Curonians placed especially unique amber artefacts in women’s graves – miniature symbolic band-making tools. Parts of such tools are found: square tablets with holes in the corners. Most often, similar band weaving sets were made of brass and even silver tin.
There are significantly fewer amber artefacts in the cemeteries of Samogitians and Semigallians than in the ones of coastal Curonians. In Samogitian burial grounds, one or two amber beads for each buried individual used to be attached to brooches for men and to pins for women. Truncated biconical amber beads dominate, often with a small roller in the middle. In the 6th-8th centuries, Semigallians placed amber in graves even less often than Samogotians.
Slightly more amber artefacts are found in horse burial grounds, which archaeologists usually attribute to western Upland Lithuanians, located in southwestern and central Lithuania, especially closer to the trade artery of the Nemunas. They were placed in graves here in the 8th-14th centuries.
During the entire historical period, starting from the 10th century, small amber crosses, rosaries and other artefacts of applied art were also produced in the Baltic territories.
METAL AGE ORNAMENTS
Around 2000 B.C., the Metal Age began, which lasted until the 13th century. This period is already characterised by metal ornaments, although in the absence of raw materials, ornaments were also made from other materials (for example, bone).
It is believed that crossbow brooches came to the Baltic lands from Western Masuria, Scandinavia and the Danube region of Southern Europe. Most often, Balts copied and developed crossbow brooches of the Masurian region. In the 5th-6th centuries, Baltic crossbow brooches with the motives of the heads of a dragon, grass-snake or even riding horse appear.
Penannular brooches have been known in the Baltic lands since the 7th-8th centuries. In the 8th-9th centuries, Curonians, Lamatians, and Scalvians start wearing flat brooches. The German culture created conditions for introduction of round brooches in the Baltic region.
Spiral bracelets are one of the oldest metal bracelets in the Baltic region. Another group of bracelets is sash-like bracelets. Still another group of ornaments is plaited and spiral neck-rings, which distinguish themselves by functionality. Pendants in various forms remain popular.
Read more about the said groups of ornaments in the column Zoomorphic and Plant Motives in the Baltic art. Thorough descriptions of every group of ornaments (neck-rings, bracelets, brooches, etc.) could be provided, but the volume of the publication does not allow this. As it has been already mentioned, the description of the Baltic art is based on the fundamental publication – the catalogue of the exhibition Art of the Balts; therefore, in this paper, more detailed descriptions of only two groups of ornaments are provided.
The largest groups of ornaments. According to the compilers of the catalogue Art of the Balts, pins and rings particularly stand out from the Baltic ornaments.
Pins are the Baltic ornament of local origin with the longest (almost four millennia) manufacturing and application tradition, which has also experienced European influence. Pins can be used to fasten clothes, to attach hanging ornaments (usually chains across the chest), also, to hold the hair, to fasten hats and other headgear, scarves and cloaks. The shape and typology of pins was mainly determined by raw material.
The oldest pins found in the Baltic lands (3rd millennium B.C.) are bone ones. These pins are usually massive, made in the tradition of ornamented bonework. The appearance of bone pins is associated with raising sheep and the appearance of woollen textiles and clothing. These pins were very suitable for fastening clothes.
The next stage in the development of bone pins is the Bronze Age. Particularly abundant collections of pins are known from the early hillforts of eastern Lithuania (1st millennium B.C.): the localities of Narkūnai, Petrašiūnai, Vorėnai, Nevieriškė, Kereliai, Sokiškės and the localities of northwestern Belarus – Ratiunki, Zamoshje.
The Bronze Age distinguishes itself by a wide variety of bone pin shapes: with a nail-shaped head, a crook-shaped head, flat-headed, natural bone-shaped and with a spool-shaped head, variously convexed heads, pins with a loop. The appearance of these pin shapes was determined by the forms of brass pins found in the territories of Central Europe.
During the period of Roman influence, when Balts actively traded amber with Romans, many pins in the shape that prevailed in many cultures of Central and North Eastern Europe are found in Baltic hillforts and settlements. These are pins with a cylindrical head (1st-3rd centuries), with a spool-shaped head (2nd-4th centuries), with a barrel-shaped head (2nd-3rd centuries), with a wheel-shaped, ring-shaped head (3rd-5th centuries), with a crook-shaped head (5th-8th centuries), pins with a round and rosette-like head, pins with a spherical head, needle-like pins (mostly in the territory of the present-day Latvia) as well as unique pins (a pin with a round openwork head, with a swastika embedded in the middle was found in Strazdai and Jeciškiai burial grounds, in the lower reaches of the Nemunas).
Pins with a spool-shaped head are common in the hillforts, barrows and flat burial grounds of the present-day Lithuania (Samogitia, northern Lithuania), Latvia, and Old Prussian tribes.
Ring-headed pins are found in the burial grounds of central Lithuania, barrow cemeteries of Samogitia and Northern Lithuania, settlements of Samogitia, Latvia, Estonia, and Masuria.
Pins with a cylindrical head in the territory of Lithuanian are mostly found on the seacoast, in the present-day districts of Klaipėda and Šilalė.
Crook-like pins distinguish themselves by a simple shape: a ring-shaped head bent to the needle, which often ends with a hook or snail. They are mostly found in men’s graves. These pins are usually made of iron. They were widespread in the present territories of Lithuania and Latvia, in the territory of Old Prussia as well as in the territories of the present-day Belarus and Russia.
Pins with barrel-shaped heads are found in western and northern Lithuania, Latvia, and in the lands of the Old Prussian tribes. These pins are called this way because of their barrel-shaped heads with a hole in the middle. A chain link used to be run into it and sometimes ornamental rods were attached to it, and chainlets with pendants were attached to the rods or immediately to the chain link.
Pins with a round and rosette-like head are rarely found, mostly in Old Prussian and Curonian lands. Pins with silver plated heads are also found. They are attributed to the oldest examples of silver ornaments.
Pins with a triangular head form a particularly abundant group of ornaments. They were common in the lands of Curonians and Semigallians. These pins are further divided into groups:
1) cruciform – the oldest ones. They have a flat triangular head with a tag or a small hole for a chain link. They are made only of brass. One side of the head of most of the pins is ornamented. This is the most abundant group of ornaments.
2) openwork cruciform and cruciform pins with hemispherical knobs were common in the lands of Curonians, Samogitians and Semigallians in the 6th-8th centuries.
Pins of the period of Roman influence are characterized by vertical composition, graphic lines, and dominating geometric motives. All pins distinguish themselves by expressive contours. Ornamentation in them does not dominate but is intended for the structure of ornaments. Pins, their heads and ornaments distinguish themselves by symmetry. The expressiveness of pins is emphasized by yellow and black colours. Assemblage is also characteristic to them: pins, chain links, chainlets and pendants are combined into one ensemble. Usually pins are brass, very rarely silver and silver plated. Some are also decorated with blue perforations or eyes. They are decorated by stamping, striking, forming a distinct relief, applying an openwork ornament. Geometric ornamentation was most popular. Ornaments were decorated with small triangles, dots, perforations, circles, studs, strokes, notches, crosses, herringbone patterns.
The form of either pins or other Baltic ornaments is never overshadowed by their decor. In order to make ornaments decorative, jewellers skilfully knew how to arrange patterns on a plane. Some pins are of especially high artistic level.
Rings are one of the most symbolic and particularly significant ornaments. Their importance is emphasized in the surviving folklore, folk songs speaking about fingers with gold ringlets. Grave goods show that the custom of putting a ring or rings on the fingers of the deceased was quite common. Rings worn on fingers do not have any practical functions. True, sometimes during the fights, massive ancient rings were used to protect fingers and hands. However, to this day, the ring remains simply an ornament testifying to the owner’s social position in the society, community or family ties, a tendency to demonstrate status, power, wealth or a certain asceticism.
Rings became widespread in the Baltic countries in the Old Iron Age, the period of Roman influence. It is proposed to divide old rings into the following groups: spiral rings, sash rings, rings with unconverged terminals, signet rings, cruciform rings.
In the 1st-4th centuries, spiral rings prevail. They are found until the 13th century. Rings with 3-5 curls were most common, sometimes they had even 7-9 curls. Most often, rings were twisted from triangle and half-round cross-section wire. The curls are adorned with a simple ornament of notches. Vitality was given to the curls by bending the terminals of the rings, twisting them upwards. A zoomorphic motive is clearly visible in the decoration of rings, often it was attempted to give rings the appearance of a grass-snake or snake.
Rings of two or three curls with widened side curls in the front part form another unique group of Baltic ornaments that appeared in the second half of the 3rd century. Another group of 3-curl rings with a widened middle curl is characteristic of Germanic lands too. Widened curls are decorated with geometric motives, animal ornamentation, perforations, indentations, notches, zigzags.
Sash rings are similar in shape to modern wedding rings. They were made of brass and were decorated with notches, perforations, and grooves. Mostly worn in the 1st and 2nd centuries.
In the 3rd century, rings as ornaments become particularly fashionable. Local craftsmen are coming up with increasingly more forms, some of which are very peculiar. For example, the front part of the ring is cruciform (formed from 5 connected disks), rosette-like or widened. The widened front part sometimes reaches as many as up to 4 cm. Such rings are called shield rings. In Kurzeme, rings are found with a hollow semicircular rise for a small pebble or a piece of metal. In the 13th and 14th centuries, signet and closed rings (with a glass head installed in a square or rhombus shape) appeared.
One more group of rings is plaited or twisted rings. The front part of these rings is plaited from several wires.
It should be noted that rings found in the grave goods always go with other ornaments (neck-rings, bracelets) and usually their decoration echoes the decoration of other ornaments.
ORNAMENTS OF THE NOBILITY OF THE GRAND DUCHY OF LITHUANIA
Most of the Baltic ornaments and ornaments created by silversmiths for the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania are excellent works of applied art of the 12th-15th centuries. Silversmiths were well versed in the secrets of various alloys, combined several metals with surprising skill, had mastered silver plating and gold plating and other most various techniques as well as were able to delicately select and compose ornaments. They were not conservative with regard to innovations and allowed masters from foreign and southern cities of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania to work with them, took over many Scandinavian traditions through the Curonian and Old Prussian tribes, quickly adapted and changed Byzantine and Germanic traditions.
The nobility’s ornaments distinguish themselves from other found ornaments only by metal (silver) and a more elaborate form of decoration. The same groups of Baltic ornaments are found (in the large treasures of Stakliškės, Skomantai, Gėliogaliai, Kretinga and in the late burial grounds of Vėluva, Tilžė, Kernavė, Kuršių Nerija): penannular brooches, round flat brooches, flat and sash-like bracelets, bracelets with a plaited band, twinings and medallions, beads, metal bindings of scabbards, large neck-rings, rings (with plaited or widened, flat front part).
The ornaments of the nobility of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania is the brightest and last flash of culture based on Baltic traditions. These ornaments are an expression of the state’s economic and cultural power, while the shape and perfect composition of its artefacts also reflect the aesthetic ideals of the customer – the upper class of Lithuania.
REFLECTIONS OF THE BALTIC ART IN THE DECORATION OF FESTIVE CLOTHES
The surviving Baltic ethnographic heritage reveals many traditions of applied art and clothing decoration, which were formed in previous centuries. Traditional festive Latvian folk clothes of the 18th-20th centuries and their components are an excellent material proving the connection with the clothing and ornaments of the old Baltic tribes of the 9th-13th and later centuries – Lettigallians, Curonians, Selonians and Semigallians, found on the territory of Latvia during archaeological excavations. Folk clothes were constantly changing. One of the areas where the inheritance of old traditions and their development manifesting itself in new forms is very clearly visible is sash textiles (bands, belts, woven earring edgings and the like), their weaving techniques and pattern compositions. Festive embroidered woollen shawls and (unmarried) girls’ headgear – bead wreath, which belong to Latvian ethnographic heritage, are closely related to the decoration traditions that existed in the 11th-13th centuries. The same can be said about metal ornaments – brooches, rings, etc.
Women’s clothes are most interesting and have the greatest artistic value. From the artistic point of view, the most significant components of the women’s costume both in the Iron Age and at the beginning of the 19th century were wreaths, woollen shawls, brooches, sashes, and rings.
Woolen shawls are the most decorative and important part of the costume, which bears great artistic, ethnographic and archaeological value. There is quite a lot of knowledge about the old shawls because they were decorated with brass rings and coil beads, which had preservative properties.
The most ornate were blue shawls dyed with dyes that were extracted from the true indigo or the dyer’s woad. The oldest large shawls decorated with brass rings were found in the Lettigallian and Selonian burial grounds of the 7th-8th century. The most ornate shawls were decorated in the 11th-13th centuries. Shawls range in size as follows: 55-90 x 105-130 cm. Shawls are divided according to the intensity of decoration: shawls with an undecorated middle area, with partially decorated middle area, and shawls with the entire area decorated. The edges of shawls are decorated with triangles or the sign of Jumi (the name of the deity of the fertility of the fields), swastikas, which symbolize the Sun, prosperity, fire. There are shawls decorated with crosses. The patterns are arranged along three axes: two axes divide the shawl diagonally, and the third divides it vertically. The vertical axis determines the symmetry of the ornament at the ends of the shawls.
At the end of the 12th century, brass ornaments of Lettigallian shawls began to be replaced by strips made of glass beads along the edges of the shawl.
Curonian shawls are almost identical. In Kurzeme, in addition to blue shawls, brown, light grey or white undyed shawls decorated with brass are also found. Curonians are characterized by zigzag, herringbone, triangle or rhombus motives, the basis of which is the repetition and arrangement of the V-shaped motive.
Shawls were also decorated with narrow card-woven bands. Based on the reconstructed Lettigallian shawls of the 12th-13th centuries, it can be seen that their ends are decorated and the edges are strengthened by a narrow card-woven band with a zigzag ornament and inwoven coloured thread tassels. A wider band without tassels runs along the edge of the shawl. Its ornamentation is often more complex than of the band at the end of the shawl. Narrow card-woven bands are considered the oldest technique of weaving band textiles.
Auleja belts are in the second place. Their weaving technique is considered a transitional stage from card-woven belts to woven belts. They can be woven both with weaving tablets and with tools intended for woven belts (beam and heddles or heddle reed). This technique is more suitable for weaving patterned textiles rather than for tablet-weaving.
Patterned card-woven sashes usually came in two-colour combinations: blue with red and red with yellow. This is confirmed by the surviving archaeological finds of the Selonians and Lettigallians of the 11th-13th centuries. In this period, another combination of colours existed in the Lettigallian card-woven sashes: blue with yellow. Sometimes a combination of two colours is supplemented with the third colour.
Patterns of belts are characterized by the so-called principle of balance. Belts were decorated with geometric ornaments. The simplest version of the balance principle is the optical ratio created by dark and light checks of the pattern. This principle is expressed not only in the combination of dark and light skeins. Much more often, “positive” and “negative” pattern elements are arranged alternately in the belt. The latter combination is also applied to belt textiles, the pattern of which is made mainly of triangular or trapezoidal elements.
The “floral” bands also reveal a composition based on the principle of balance. The “floral” bands form a subkind of woven belts, the pattern of which is formed mainly from warp yarns with small rises of weft threads above warps or below them. The pattern created by yarns resembles small schematic flowers.
Woven wreaths embroidered with brass spirals is another part of the old costume of Balts. It is a head ornament of unmarried women (girls). Woven wreaths were sewn from red or dark brown textile decorated with zigzag or cross zigzag ornaments, supplemented with linear belts.
ANTHROPOMORPHIC MOTIVES IN THE BALTIC ART
Human images have been known in applied art since the Stone Age. This is evidenced by the finds from Šventoji, Nida, Kretuonas, Zvejnieki, but ornaments associated with Balts are from a later period of Roman influence. In openwork ornaments, human figures are also found among elaborate geometric figures (rhombuses, triangles, crescents, swastikas, crosses, circles). However, comparing the total number of finds, it can be seen that the image of a person in Baltic ornaments is very rare and not elaborated. In openwork ornaments, the human figure is usually transformed into a graphic sign. In other ornaments, only the head is depicted in relief, usually highlighting the arch of eyebrows and the nose.
Another group of art on the anthropomorphic theme is the so-called Prussian women (prūsų bobos). There are about 20 surviving examples of monumental stone sculpture in the former Old Prussian lands. Unfortunately, these sites have not yet been fully explored. The sculptures resemble stelae with slightly deeper lines depicting hands, drinking horns and sometimes swords. Only heads are more prominently carved.
ZOOMORPHIC AND PLANT MOTIVES IN THE BALTIC ART
Prehistoric researchers usually emphasize the geometricity characteristic of Baltic decoration, which is most visible in the shapes and ornamentation of metal ornaments. The Baltic region also distinguishes itself by a tradition of animal representation, which is characteristic only of them.
The oldest images of animals can be found as early as in the Stone Age, in the pre-Baltic culture: these are images of moose heads, birds, wild boars, bison. They are also found in later periods.
A larger wave of the zoomorphic style reached the Baltic lands not earlier than in the second half of the 5th century. Embossed images of beasts (mostly deer) and birds are found on the silver bindings of drinking horns and pendants.
Crossbow brooches. It is believed that crossbow brooches came to the Baltic lands from Western Masuria, Scandinavia and the Danube region of Southern Europe. Balts mostly copied and developed the crossbow brooches of the Masurian region. Balts’ crossbow brooches with dragon, grass-snake or even riding horse head motives appear in the 5th-6th centuries. The plastic expression of the earliest examples is complex, but there is no doubt that they represent animals, while the later ones are so simplified and geometrized that they can be considered zoomorphic only after comparing them with the earlier ones. The variation and minimalism of zoomorphic images could have been determined by the lack of technical skills or strong local aesthetic canons. In addition, copying of one brooch from another created conditions for the appearance of brooches in abstract geometrical shapes, as usually copies were made not from the original but from the copy that was increasingly growing worse.
In crossbow brooches, Balts often used the motive of an elongated zoomorphic head. Since it has become quite schematic, we can only guess what could have been depicted in the design of brooches: a riding horse, dragon or a grass-snake?
In the 8th-9th centuries, Curonians, Lamatians, and Scalvians began to wear flat brooches with a grass-snake or grass-snakes intertwined as a figure of eight or a swastika. Such brooches were found in western Lithuania, in Palanga, Stragnai, Dvyliai, Laiviai, Genčai, Vyžaitai sites. Because brooches are very similar in appearance and found in the same region, it is concluded that they were cast locally. It is important to mention that this motive was an important symbol in the Germanic culture of that time (it was used for decorating Germanic sarcophagi). A spiral bracelet worn by Curonians (8th-9th centuries) resembles a coiled up snake, whose terminals, decorated with small eyes, only reinforce the zoomorphic impression.
In the 10th century, with the disappearance of pins with a triangular head, flat openwork brooches and spiral bracelets, the zoomorphic motive moves to the terminals of sash-like bracelets and horn bindings. The motive becomes evident in the latter in the 11th-12th centuries and remains in bracelets until the 10th-13th centuries.
Horns are decorated with stylized grass-snake heads facing each other, the composition of which resembles the letter W.
Reptiles looking at each other can also be found on bracelets with zoomorphic terminals. Bracelets come in several types. Some of them have semicircular, circular or even angular cross-section terminals, usually finished with transverse incisions or multi-directional notches, plaiting, tablet-weaving patterns, while the animal’s head is given away by a pair of small quite high ears cast at both terminals. The bow of the bracelets of another group is slightly squeezed in at the triangular flat terminals. The small ears are cast in relief at the point where they squeeze in, and the small muzzle itself on the triangular plane is decorated with 3 or 4 small eyes.
The terminals of Lettigallian zoomorphic bracelets sometimes resemble horse hooves and sometimes, they are very narrowed. The head can be recognized by barely noticeable grooves merging with the ornament or by two bumps that can be pointed, round, or angular.
The zoomorphic motives were applied the latest to penannular brooches. These brooches were known in the Baltic lands as early as since the 7th-8th centuries, but small zoomorphic heads began to be cast on their terminals only in the 11th century. This tradition survived even until the 18th century (Vaškevičiūtė, 1995, p. 294). The terminals of most brooches resemble the head of a dragon or a grass-snake. Over time, the terminals of the brooches changed so much that a new shape – the lily flower – was created.
One more group of zoomorphic ornaments is pendants. The most common motives of pendants are a bird and a riding horse. The motive of birds is common in the land of Lettigallians. Some of the pendants with birds are roundish, some are openwork. Moulds found in Tervete hillfort, Semigallia, show that bird-shaped pendants came in many different shapes and they were cast in one place.
The development of miniature horse figurines – pendants – is similar to that of birds. Roundish figurines are the oldest, and over time, openwork pendants reminding flat small riding horses are also found.
It is believed that round brooches came to the Baltic lands from the German culture (via the Hanseatic route) in the 13th century and were worn by Semigallians. Brooches were cast from brass and silver and were usually made by German goldsmiths. Most often and for the longest time these brooches were worn in the Kurzeme region. Most of these brooches are decorated with plant motives. Brooches are divided into several groups according to their ornamentation: the oldest brooches with a profiled bow (the vine motive); brooches engraved with imitations of Renaissance arabesques (the leaf motive) and acanthus ornamentation; bubble brooches (usually found with traditional clothing); the motive of joined hands or engagement brooches.
GEOMETRIC MOTIVES IN THE BALTIC ART
Geometric motives are among the most common in the art of people, including Balts. From the 5th century B.C. to the Middle Ages, many ornaments, items of clothing, dishes and other items of daily use, weapons and urns in which the remains of the deceased were placed were decorated with geometric motives in the Baltic lands.
The development of ornaments was significantly influenced by trade relations with ancient Rome. For example, belts with buckles and clasps came to the Baltic lands from the Danube region provinces of the empire. Belts are fastened with a buckle with a fixed spike and a round semi-circular frame or a hook-shaped clasp. Buckles were usually openwork. The ornate openwork ornament was composed of motives of various geometric shapes, one of the most popular being vertices joined in a rhombus and openwork, usually with concave edges. As a rule, diamond-shaped openwork is combined with other decoration motives, for example, a bow and semicircle. A motive of vases or stepped openwork was also common.
The openwork ornamentation of chest belts – plates and spacers – particularly flourished in the territories of Latvia and Lithuania. Openwork plates were connected by rows of chainlets and attached to the garment with two pins, with a pin and a brooch, less often, with a pair of brooches. The openwork decoration was very diverse, it consisted of the motives of the cross, overlapping wheels, semicircles, rhombuses, swastikas and squares. Often the openwork ornament was arranged in strips and formed ingenious compositions.
Openwork with geometric motives was also used to decorate pendants. These pendants were attached to various neck-rings. The decor of pendants is characterized by triangular and rhombic motives.
From the 7th century, trapezoidal tonguelet pendants appeared in Lettigallia, which became the predominant type of pendants until the very 15th century. In the 10th century, they are accompanied by shield pendants. In the 12th century, rhombus-shaped pendants appear.
In the 14th and 15th centuries, bear claw pendants in brass binding are found. Bear tooth, wolf and lynx claw pendants also occur.
In the middle of the 17th century, pendants seem to come to life again. Hung to kind of buttons and brooches. Heart-shaped brooches with pendants appear. During this period, pendants become an adornment of shawls.
Another group of Baltic ornaments with openwork ornamentation is flat brooches and pins.
Artefacts decorated with enamel. In the first centuries, one of the most ornate groups of artefacts in Central and Eastern Europe as well as in the Baltic lands were artefacts decorated using the so-called champlevé enamelling. Geometric recesses for enamel were carved on the surface of the brass ornament, or the ornament was cast with a deeper relief straight away. Enamel powder – a mixture of quartz, soda, magnesium, chalk and other metal oxides – was added to those recesses, which determined the colour of the enamel. Decorating with enamel required a lot of experience: proper preparation of glass and the base and choosing the heating time and temperature. Baltic and Central European goldsmiths became familiar with this technology when they saw enamelled artefacts that came from the Roman Empire.
In the Baltic lands, enamel artefacts are concentrated in Masuria, Suwalki region, the present-day north-eastern Poland, central and eastern Lithuania. Enamel was used to decorate all kinds of ornaments: brooches, pendants, elements of chest belts, neck-rings, bracelets, rings, diadems, pins, parts of belts, chains of drinking horns. The earliest artefacts decorated with enamel in the Baltic region date back to the end of the 2nd century. It can be maintained that the period of their prosperity was the 3rd-4th century, and the latest enamelled artefacts are from the first half of the 5th century.
The most popular ornaments with enamel are penannular brooches. Often penannular brooches are found with a triangular cross-section bow, ending with large round shields with enamel depressions. In the middle of the bow, a quadrangular, usually a rhombic shield, is attached, which is also decorated with enamel.
Another abundant group of enamelled ornaments is crescent-shaped pendants. In the Baltic lands, crescent-shaped pendants with an openwork body were especially common.
Chest belts decorated with enamel and chain belts for drinking horns, decorated with enamel, are attributed only to Balts.
There are many sites in the Baltic lands, testifying to a direct connection with the enamel workshops located further east, in the Middle Danube region and near the Upper Oka. The finds that reflect this connection most are wide sash-like bracelets with triangular cross-section and thickened terminals as well as triangular openwork brooches.
Impressive enamelled ornaments are not frequent and common finds, and their variety is a testimony to the fact that most of them were made according to individual orders. It is assumed that artefacts decorated with enamel were an expression of social prestige, testifying to the owner’s high status.
Another way of decorating ornaments is small stamps. This method of decorating Baltic artefacts was common from the Early Iron Age to the Middle Ages. Crossbow brooches with a star-shaped foot and a spade-like foot stand out most. The motives of the decorative patterns on the feet, chiselled or embossed, formed elaborate compositions of dots, tiny concentric wheels, triangles, squares, rhombuses and small stylized stars. These crossbow brooches were cast from brass, and their feet were sometimes covered with silver plates.
Stamping technology was also used for decoration of buckles. Buckles were made of brass, and the binding was covered with silver tin with a decorative stamp ornament (double rows of small wheels, semicircles with a dot in the middle, the motive of the twisted S).
The Baltic tribes and their culture were formed by amalgamation of people of the Indo-European (Corded Ware culture and Baltic Boat-Axe cultures) and autochthonous – Narva and Nemunas – cultures. It goes without saying that the emerging new culture took over the best traditions from its predecessors. This is reflected in amber artefacts. Since Balts maintained trade relations both with the Roman Empire and with Western and Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, they did not escape the cultural influence of these countries. Every new artistic trend that came from other countries was transformed, Baltic symbols were adapted. Balts also stood out with unique ornaments of local origin, for example, pins.
Source of information: project of Latvia-Lithuania cross-border cooperation programme 2007-2013 “Baltic Culture Park” (Šiauliai Region Development Agency).