SETTLEMENTS, BUILDINGS AND FORTIFICATIONS
The development of settlements, dwellings and farm buildings is closely related to the economic structure. Changes in the economy were followed by changes in fortifications, the form of buildings, their arrangement and purpose in various periods.
There is knowledge of campsites in the Baltic region where people lived as early as at the end of the Paleolithic and the beginning of the Mesolithic. In the early and middle Neolithic, there used to be several buildings in the settlement where related families lived, forming a separate kin community. During this period, people start constructing not only buildings located above ground level but also semi-underground buildings. Knowledge has been obtained of fortified settlements that existed from the late Neolithic. Their emergence is related to changes in community relations and economy.
The buildings of the early Metal Age are best known from the explored early hillforts of Lithuania. People settled in the hillforts of eastern Lithuania; i.e., on separate hillocks with steepened slopes, as early as at the end of the 2nd millennium B.C. In northwestern Samogitia, this happened a little later – in the early Iron Age. The earliest layer of hillforts in other regions of Lithuania dates back to the first centuries after Christ.
The old Iron Age. According to localization, two types of settlements are distinguished in the old Iron Age: a fortified hillfort settlement and an unfortified settlement in open ground. Foot settlements that were set up next to hillforts are attributed to this period. Their emergence should be related to demographic and economic changes in the community life. People chose such places where they could engage in agriculture and stock breeding. In addition, it was sought to settle in places that were protected by natural barriers, convenient for defending against enemies. The purpose of fortified hillfort settlements was dual. Some hillforts with improved fortifications became an integral part of a residential and farm complex – a hillfort with a foot settlement, which probably performed the most important – defensive function. Other hillforts with rather large levelled summits, surrounded by more complex defensive fortifications, were the community’s permanent residential place.
Fortified hillforts already had a rather complex system of ramparts, ditches and structures as well as buildings. Levelled summits of hillforts were still protected in the old ways: fences consisting of a post structure made of vertical and horizontal timber and poles were built on a low rampart (Aukštadvaris, Trakai district). Sometimes the hillfort was surrounded by a rampart with a barrier of posts, and a long house stood on its inner side (Migonys, Kaišiadorys district). Ramparts and defensive structures were built using beaten and daubed clay. In this period, compound fortifications of hillforts spread such as a rampart and two ditches (Kurmaičiai, Kretinga district), two ramparts and a ditch between them (Bražuolė, Trakai district), a rampart and a ditch with a wooden defensive wall made of vertical stakes driven into the ground and horizontally placed timber between them (Kunigiškiai (Pajevonys), Vilkaviškis district).
The so-called settlements in open ground also had certain fortifications. Small ramparts around such settlement could have had more than just a defensive purpose: they could have protected people and herds of domestic animals from wild animals.
The flat hilltop was encircled by long pole buildings. In part, they represented the fortifications of hillforts around the levelled summit. The outer walls of these buildings consisted of posts dug into the ground with spaces between them filled with thinner round timber. Long houses were divided into dwelling and out buildings equipped with hearths.
The middle Iron Age. The purpose of hillforts changed in the middle Iron Age: they became defensive. The wooden castles standing on the hillforts were started to be used only in case of danger. During this period, the style of construction changed too: around the 6th century, the long houses encircling the top of the hillfort, which prevailed earlier, were replaced by lafted structures.
The hillforts of this period are of the river bank type: these are protuberances of the coastal elevation, located on the valleys of rivers and streams or at their confluences, surrounded by deep ravines or valleys. The castles built on such protuberances were used by the communities located on the hillside and in the surrounding areas. The castlets were constantly strengthened: ditches were deepened, ramparts were heightened, and fences were built on them. The main rampart and the edges of flat hilltops were equipped with double-walled palisade encircling the top of the hillfort. It was a two-storey structure: its ground floor was adapted for farming purposes; the second, for defence (Apuolė, Skuodas district). The castle yard was accessed through a gate, which was usually equipped at the end of the large rampart. The courtyards of castles ranged in size from 500 to 2000 m2. Long buildings divided into small rooms stood on the edges of the levelled summit of the hillfort. The blind wall of these buildings also served as the defensive wall of the castle itself.
In the middle Iron Age, the so-called “miniature” hillforts are also known. Their levelled summits were only about 100 m2 in size, and the ramparts were between 3 and 5 m high. The purpose of such hillforts is explained in various ways: they could have been refuges, the abodes of the tribal aristocracy as well as structures with a sacred purpose.
During this period, people lived on levelled summits of hillforts, on river valleys, and in settlements established near lakes. Farmsteads used to be set up at the approaches of hillforts too – behind the defensive ditch. They were surrounded by ditches and a log fence. Long buildings encircling the top of the hillfort were replaced by log cabins. At the very end of the middle Iron Age, their construction improved: the logs were interlocked, and the hearth that stood on the clay floor was replaced by a stone stove.
The late Iron Age. Some of the hillforts from earlier times were still used, others were equipped in new places – near water or on the biggest hillocks of the area. The hillforts of this period are not uniformly fortified: in western Lithuania, they are more strongly fortified and in its eastern part, the defensive facilities are poorer. This could be explained by the fact that it was during this period that the inhabitants of the eastern Baltic Sea coast territories encountered the Viking expansion. Hillfort settlements are fundamentally restructured: they are well fortified and turned into strong castles that meet the new requirements of military equipment. Hillforts were surrounded by ramparts of various sizes and ditches between them (Eketė, Klaipėda district). When a part of the hillfort adjoins the fields, a semicircular rampart (Aukštadvaris) is poured on that side at the edges of the levelled summit of the hillfort. Levelled summits are oval and quite large – 1000 - 4000 m2 in size, sometimes even up to 1 ha. Sometimes the flat hilltop is divided into two or three uneven parts by ditches and ramparts (Dapšiai, Mažeikiai district). One levelled summit used to be larger, it was the dwelling and farming part of the castle, the other part was outer wards intended for defence. Hillforts of western Lithuania of this period had as many as several outer wards. Defensive outer wards and farmhouses stood on the side of ramparts. It was a long structure with an outer wall made almost entirely of stones. Its upper part, connected to the rampart wall, formed an integral defensive complex. No stoves or hearths were found in such structures; they were intended for storing inventory and served as a hiding place for dwellers in case of danger. Dwellings, outbuildings and craftsmen dwellings stood some distance away from the defensive outbuildings, on the edges of the levelled summit of the hillfort. Only tribal chiefs, dukes and warriors dwelled permanently in such castlets.
The majority of the population had settled on the foot of hillforts and in settlements located further from them, which occupied a considerable area – 2-5 ha (Imbarė, Kretinga district). They are surrounded by fences of wooden poles, ramparts are built around them. Buildings are quadrangular, with stoves but with no floors. Walls are plastered with clay plaster.
BUSINESSES
From the Neolithic times, the businesses of ancient Lithuanians and their ancestors were agriculture and stock breeding. As these two branches of farming grew and expanded, the importance of hunting, which was the main mode of subsistence, decreased. In certain periods, sometimes these branches of farming prevailed more, sometimes less. From the old Iron Age, agriculture and stock breeding become the main businesses, while hunting remains only an auxiliary branch of economy.
Agriculture. In the areas inhabited by the Baltic tribes, people began to engage in agriculture at the end of the 3rd millennium B.C. – in the late Neolithic. The oldest tools and cultivated plants related to agriculture were found on the seacoast territory of Lithuania (Šventoji). Eastern Balts began to engage in agriculture much later – in the late Bronze Age (6-5 centuries B.C.).
In the first centuries after Christ, the most important place in the economy of the Baltic tribes was occupied by agriculture, dominated by stock breeding. The settlements of that time were expanding in the forests surrounding them: in order to obtain charcoal, which is needed for smelting iron, and to increase the areas of pastures and arable land, trees were cut down. The importance of forest cutting and woodworking in people’s lives is evidenced by axes and woodworking tools found in men’s graves – adzes, ice-picks, gouges.
Subsistence farming continued in the middle Iron Age. The community of that time lived in small hamlets. The dominant form of tillage was swidden agriculture accompanied by the arable and two-field tillage system.
The level of agriculture at that time can be judged from the tillage and harvesting tools. Tillage tools such as ards and coulters are not common finds as they were used for ploughing until they were completely worn out and it was not customary to place farming tools in the grave of the deceased. Currently, only two graves are known in the territories inhabited by Balts, where wooden ards with iron coulters were found (Szwajcaria, Poland and Uošenikai, Latvia). A few more iron coulters were found in the cultural layers of the 9th-11th centuries in Lithuanian and Latvian hillforts.
Other agriculture-related tools were found in greater numbers. These are primarily axes with which men of all tribes were seen off to the other world. Axes were used to prepare swiddens. In the middle Iron Age, both socketed axes and axes with a blunt end were used in different regions. In the western part of the Baltic region, socketed axes prevailed, while in the eastern part, axes with a blunt end dominated. At the end of the 1st millennium - the beginning of the 2nd millennium, a new and better axe with a wide blade and a blunt end appears.
Another important group of tools related to agriculture are hoes, which were used by women for loosening the earth. Hoes are mostly found in Semigallia because there was a custom here to put a hoe in women’s graves as a grave good. Apparently, from this area, such custom spread to the lands of Upland Lithuania; less often, to the lands of Selonians.
As early as in the first centuries after Christ, sickles were used for harvesting and cutting grass. In the middle Iron Age, sickles were very diverse, similar to knives with a curved tang. Some of them have a curled-up point and an arched blade. Such sickles were common in the Lithuanian, Upland Lithuanian and Semigallian lands and were used from the 5th century. At the turn of the 9th century, the shape of sickles changes: they are made larger, the blade is sharply curved in an arc, small teeth appear. Such sickles were common throughout Lithuania, with the exception of the ethno-cultural area of Curonians, where scythes prevailed. The Baltic tribes began to use scythes in the first centuries A.D. and they remained in a similar form throughout the 1st millennium and the beginning of the 2nd millennium. Scythes were common in the Curonian and Semigallian lands, where the custom of placing a scythe in the man’s grave prevailed.
During the middle and late Iron Age, almost all currently known cereal crops (barley, wheat, oats, rye, millet) and legumes (common peas, broad beans, lentils) were grown as well as turnips and flax. At the end of the 1st millennium - the beginning of the 2nd millennium, a two-field system appears, when summer and winter cereal crops are sown. In the 9th-11th centuries, a three-field system is formed: one part of the field is left untilled, the other two parts are for sowing summer and winter crops. Agricultural produce constitute the main food ration of people at that time.
Stock breeding. The level and extent of stock breeding can be judged from animal bones found in hillforts and settlements. Already in the cultural layers of hillforts and settlements of the middle Iron Age, the bones of domestic animals predominate. The diversity of domestic animals allows us to talk about meat and dairy farming. Lithuanian archaeological material shows that the base of the herd consisted of bovine cattle. In terms of abundance, the second place was occupied by pigs; and the third place, by microlivestock, which were comprehensively useful because they not only provided wool, fur, meat or milk but also required less effort to keep them. In addition to meat and milk, bovine cattle were used for ploughing the land and as a tractive force. Horses were also used for this purpose. In the 9th-11th centuries, horse burial grounds appeared in central Lithuania, which shows that the importance of horses in people’s lives has increased significantly: horses were used not only for ploughing – they were needed in warfare, and their meat was suitable for use as food.
In the 1st millennium - the beginning of the 2nd millennium, stock breeding and agriculture in Lithuania were closely related. Only by engaging in these two businesses, people could guarantee themselves a source of livelihood and create additional products.
Auxiliary businesses: hunting, fishing, beekeeping. In addition to main businesses – agriculture and stock breeding, dwellers also had auxiliary branches of activity: they were engaged in hunting, fishing, and beekeeping. For almost the entire 1st millennium, hunting remained an important auxiliary branch of economy, only at the turn of the 2nd millennium its role significantly decreased. This is shown by the ratio of found bones of domestic and hunted animals. The bones of hunted animals do not make up even 10% of all finds. Large animals were mostly hunted – elks, deer and wild pigs, which shows that beasts were hunted to supplement meat resources. Fur-bearing animals were hunted somewhat less; these were beavers, martens, stoats and squirrels. Hunting of precious fur-bearing animals becomes more active at the time when their furs become an object of trade.
Hunting tools are changing slowly. In the middle Iron Age, they remain the same as they were hundreds of years ago: these are spears and arrows. Traps, loops, nets are also used.
Fishing played an important role too. We have very little information about it. Hillforts and settlements are usually located on the coasts of rivers or lakes; therefore, fish was an additional source of food for people. The tools and method of fishing remained almost unchanged throughout millennia. Only the materials from which they were made were changing. The finds of the cultural layers of hillforts, dating back to the 9th-11th centuries, include iron harpoons and fishhooks, stone and clay net-sinkers. Fish were caught with nets, weirs, fishing rods and harpoons.
In the 1st millennium - the beginning of the 2nd millennium, one of the auxiliary businesses was beekeeping. It was mostly hollow tree beekeeping. The importance and demand for beekeeping products was growing: wax was needed to make ornaments; besides, it was also one of the most important objects of trade – honey was used for food, drink, and medicine. Additional sources of food, apparently, as before, remained picking of berries, nuts, mushrooms and wild fruits.
CRAFTS
Crafts are related not only to the specialization of community activities but also to differentiation by wealth. Farmers who had more produce ordered more beautiful and expensive ornaments, weapons, and tools. These processes in the Baltic region took place slowly due to small communities. Many more iron, brass, silver and silver-plated artefacts are found in burials, settlements and hoards of the late Iron Age than in the sites of the previous period. In the 9th-11th centuries, craftsmen already produced so many articles that they could supply not only their community with them; therefore, the shapes of the artefacts found in various archaeological sites are similar or even identical. Craftsmen settled near castles and settlements, which eventually grew into craft and trade centres.
Iron mining and smithing. The dwellers of the territory of Lithuania got acquainted with metal work in the early Iron Age. It was probably already then that the production of metal work from local raw materials began, but it should be maintained that the real beginning of metallurgy is the first decades after Christ, when massive smelting of iron from marsh ore began. The only source of iron in Lithuania was the so-called marsh ore, which is found in the entire territory. Ore is mined in marshy areas. Before smelting, it was washed, dried, chopped, and fired. This way it was purified. Extraction of iron is best represented by the remains of melting furnaces and metallurgical slag. The remains of furnaces were found in hillforts (in Aukštadvaris, Trakai district; in Paplienija, Telšiai district) and in settlements (in Lieporiai, Šiauliai city). Most often, the lower part of such furnaces remains: the foundation on which a cylinder-shaped furnace was built from clay. Iron smelting slag, also known as dross, is found in many places, especially in the cultural layers of settlements.
It is believed that in the middle Iron Age, the same people smelted iron and forged articles from it. Although it could also have been the case that each community made its own iron, and the blacksmiths could have been visitors who forged the necessary tools and weapons. In the late Iron Age, metal processing became the main source of livelihood for a certain group of people and completely separated from agriculture.
In the 5th-8th centuries, about 30 different metal articles were used on the territory of Lithuania. At that time, all existing production technologies of iron articles were already known and applied. In the 9th-11th centuries, we can talk about the greatest technological achievement of blacksmiths – the production of Damascus steel, which is believed to have come from Germans. This is one of the types of high-quality patterned steel, obtained by welding pieces of steel of various carbon grades or braided wires into one strip. Mostly Damascus steel spearheads and slightly less, swords were forged.
Based on the amount of iron artefacts, it can be assumed that every larger settlement must have had its own blacksmith who would forge agricultural implements and other household ironware. However, in the 5th-9th centuries, these blacksmiths were also farmers, as they had little work to do and with other members of the community devoted part of their time to farming. In Lithuania, the blacksmith began to separate from the farmer and iron manufacturer from the 11th-12th centuries. In the late Iron Age, after the final separation of crafts, local blacksmiths forged almost all produce: weapons, ornaments, work tools.
NON-FERROUS METALLURGY AND JEWELLERY
In addition to ironworking and blacksmithing, another important craft of the Baltic tribes was smelting of non-ferrous metals and production of articles from them. The level and extent of jewellery of that time can be judged from very abundant finds in burial grounds. Ornaments were mostly made of brass; tin and silver were used less often and gold was particularly rarely used. The components of brass remained the same throughout the entire period of metals: copper, zinc, tin or lead; only their ratio was changing. Balts had their peculiar style of ornaments, not at all similar to their neighbours’ style. This shows that jewellers were local craftsmen.
Unlike ironworking, non-ferrous metallurgy and jewellery were related to trade. There are no non-ferrous metals in the Baltic lands. They were imported in the form of rods by merchants from the mines of Central Europe, which were located in the Carpathians and the Alps. Non-ferrous metal smelting furnaces remained largely unchanged throughout the entire metal smelting era. In the middle Iron Age, brass ornaments were mostly cast. They were cast using disposable clay casting moulds. However, casting required more raw material, there was a lot of spoilage; therefore, non-ferrous metals were also processed in other ways: by forging and drawing. Various sash-like and massive bracelets, penannular brooches, pendants were forged as well as settings and plates to decorate brass ornaments and to make bindings for combat knives and sword scabbards. Forged and drawn wire of various thicknesses was used to make neck-rings, rings; knife and sword handles were wrapped with thin wires. Jewellers finished their articles in other ways too: by grinding, rasping, riveting, soldering, pressing, torquing (twisting the wire around its axis), engraving.
Around the middle of the 1st millennium, ornaments of local origin, made of silver raw material, appear. Their number is increasing in the 5th-7th centuries. In graves, silver ornaments are found together with brass ones. Silvered or silver-plated ornaments appeared earlier than silver ornaments. Tin is very important for the silvering process, that is why this metal had to be imported together with silver.
Baltic ornaments of all periods are characterized by the abundance of decorations, especially with geometric patterns. Ornamentation is done with special tools: burins, pointed chisels. The decoration itself usually consists of various intersecting lines, rhombuses, triangles, reeds, circlets, eyelets, dots or their groups.
Although ornaments were found in great abundance, few of their work tools were found. These are crucibles for melting metal, ladles for pouring it, casting moulds, tongs, anvils, hammers, chisels.
HOME BUSINESSES
Pottery. This one of the most important branches of the economy has probably gone through the longest path of development: from the Neolithic, when the first hand-moulded pots with pointed base appeared, to the appearance of the pottery wheel. For a long time in Lithuania, like in other countries too, women moulded by hand. Pots were used for storing supplies, cooking, and for eating from them. The purpose determined not only the shape of the pots but also their quality.
During the Iron Age, the way pottery was made did not change much.
In the early and old Iron Age, pots were moulded in the same shapes as in the Bronze Age. During this period, all ceramics in the Baltic lands becomes very similar. In the first centuries after Christ, rusticated pottery appears in the territories of Lithuania and Latvia, when the outside of a moulded and partly dried pot is daubed with clay; therefore, the surface becomes coarse. Pots come in various sizes, they have little profiled walls, no handles, are mostly unornamented, badly fired. Pots with plain burnished surface are less often found. In making clay paste, granite was used as a temper.
As to the purpose of pots, the ritual ceramics that was placed in the grave of the deceased must be distinguished. This is primarily the so-called miniature pottery, found in Lithuanian coastal cemeteries throughout the entire Iron Age. From the 10th century, wheel thrown pots are found in the cremations of the Barrow culture of eastern Lithuania.
Available data leads to the conclusion that in the middle Iron Age, there were still no pottery craftsmen, pots were moulded by each family for their own needs. In the 9th-11th centuries, it can be noticed that hand-made ceramics, which prevailed throughout the 1st millennium, is gradually being replaced by wheel-thrown pottery. Signs of this change are reflected in moulded and already partially thrown pots. In addition, moulded pots with an ornament typical of wheel-thrown pottery appear. Research has established that the pottery wheel came to Lithuania around the 10th century by two routes: the pottery wheel reached the eastern regions of Lithuania from the eastern Slavs who settled in the neighbourhood, and it was introduced in the western regions through the Old Prussian and Jatvingian tribes from the western Slavs. The shape and ornaments of the early wheel-thrown pottery also differ. Ceramics found in eastern Lithuania are characterized by a pattern of straight or wavy lines on the upper part of the vessel. Pots found in western Lithuania are decorated with comb-shaped or circle-shaped stamps.
Wheel-thrown pottery is an indicator of a new economic level. It distinguishes pottery from home-based businesses as a separate branch of crafts. At that time, craftsmen appear who throw pots not only for their own use but also for sale.
In addition to pots, spindle flywheels, casting moulds, crucibles and other small tools for smelting non-ferrous metals are moulded from clay.
Wood processing. There is no doubt that wood was widely used from ancient times: all implements used on the farm or their parts are made from it; however, we have very few surviving wooden objects. Woodworking tools are most commonly found. Wood was needed for wooden shafts of iron tools and handles of weapons. Woodworking tools changed little since the first centuries A.D. The main tool for processing wood was an axe. In addition, knives, chisels, small chisels, adzes, gouges, carvers were used. These tools were found both in settlement layers and in individual graves. They might have been placed in the graves of woodcarvers, who must have been in every community.
Processing of bone, horn and antler. Bone was continued to be used for various purposes, but from the middle Iron Age it was used much less than in previous periods. Handles of small tools, combs, darning needles, pipes are made from bone. During the middle Iron Age period horns and antlers were increasingly used for making drinking horns.
Amber processing. Amber has always been a favourite of jewellers and merchants. The dwellers of Lithuania were making amber articles and ornaments from the Neolithic and traded them with their northern and southern neighbours. Neolithic Baltic amber artefacts are found in Estonia, Novgorod and Tver regions, Finland and Sweden.
In the Bronze Age, amber became the most important object of Balts’ exchanges for copper alloys. Many amber objects are found in the copper mining areas of central and south-eastern Europe, but amber gained its greatest importance during the Roman Empire period, in the old Iron Age. It was an important trade object not only in the Roman provinces but also in the Baltic lands. Along with Roman artefacts, amber ornaments are also found in many old Iron Age sites. Everyone – men, women and children – adorned themselves with amber. Most of amber was found in the graves of girls and women. Amber beads were often used in necklaces, usually with enamel and glass beads, and sometimes with brass coil beads. It is not uncommon to find one amber bead-amulet in each grave, mostly in the graves of men, but they are also found in the graves of women and girls. Interestingly, not a single necklace consisting only of amber beads has been found from this period. The further from the sea, the less amber is found in the sites of the old Iron Age, but from the second half of the 5th century, after the fall of the Roman Empire, more amber is found in all sites of Lithuania.
Spinning, weaving, sewing. No family could do without spinning, weaving or sewing. In graves, sometimes scanty remains of former clothing are found. These allow to conclude that linen textiles were woven with 2 heddles, woolen outer textiles were woven with 4 heddles, using vertical looms until the beginning of the late Iron Age. Tools related to this business are far more often found in graves: these are needles and spindle whorls, often simply called spindles. Scissors are very rarely found. Needles are made of bronze and iron; spindles, of clay, stone, less often, of amber. Clay spindles are well fired, stone ones are made of soft sandstone. They usually come in truncated biconical and cylinder shape, sometimes are decorated with pits, groups of intersecting lines, a reticulated pattern or rows of parallel horizontal lines. Slate spindles are also found in the cultural layers of the hillforts of the 11th century. These are artefacts imported from Old Rus.
In addition to textiles, belts were woven. Their weaving tools are found in Curonian graves. Belts also used to be tablet-woven. Threads were dyed with plant-based dyes, which were used to extract blue, red, yellow, brown colours. Clothes were also made of fur and leather. Leather was also used for belts, shoulder straps, shoes, scabbards for combat knives and swords, and parts of riding gear.
TRADE
Trade and trade routes were among the most important areas of life in the oldest Lithuanian society. Trade took place at all times, only trading interests differed. Throughout entire Stone and Brass ages, the main object of trade was raw materials: in the beginning it was flint, amber; in the Bronze Age, copper, zinc, tin, bronze weapons and ornaments; in the early Iron Age, iron and metal work. When Balts learned to extract iron from marsh ore themselves, the standard of living of tribes rose and their attention turned to luxury goods – silver, enamel, and glassware.
The Stone Age. Throughout the Stone Age, the main raw material for making tools was flint. In Lithuania, high-quality flint deposits are found only in the southern and southeastern parts; therefore, the inhabitants of the present-day Estonia, Latvia, and northern Lithuania used to bring good-quality flint from the territories of southern Lithuania and northwestern Belarus. In the Neolithic period, black and yellow flint began to flow from Valday to eastern Latvia and Lithuania. In the Neolithic, amber trade intensified. Amber ornaments were traded with the northern neighbours, while green slate articles were imported.
The early Metal Period. The first metal that reached the Baltic lands around 1800 B.C. was tin bronze. Brass articles on the territory of Lithuania are known from the sites of the 16th century B.C., but almost all brass and old Iron Age metal articles were cast from tin bronze. Brass alloys took hold in our region and in the entire Baltic Sea coastal area at the beginning of the old Iron Age; i.e., around 10-40 A.D. It is believed that the first brass articles – axes and ornaments – came from the copper mines of central Europe. The most important object of Balts’ exchange is amber, many articles of which are found in the copper mining areas of central and southeastern Europe. Pretty soon, Baltic metallurgists learned how to process copper alloys locally; therefore, copper alloy rods were started to be transported to the Baltic lands, which were used by local craftsmen to make weapons, work tools and ornaments: brass flanged axes, narrow long Nortican type axes, large spearheads with wide lugs, pins, temple ornaments and other.
Around the 7th century B.C., the earliest iron articles appear in the Baltic lands. All of them are imported. It is believed that the iron artefacts used to reach the Baltic lands by the same trade routes along which the copper alloys were transported. At the beginning of the old Iron Age, there was no longer any need to import iron, Balts started smelting iron from local marsh ore.
The old Iron Age. During this period, Balts begin to bring luxury items and precious metals. Silver appears on the territory of Lithuania as early as in the 1st-2nd centuries. The Roman Empire becomes the main trade partner. In the 1st-4th centuries, the so-called Amber Road existed, connecting Balts of the Sambia Peninsula with the Roman Empire. It is believed that not only amber was transported along this road but also animal furs, skins, honey, and wax. In exchange, brass, silver and gold coins, brass vessels, glass goblets, ceramics, glass and enamel beads, various brass, silver, gilded and enamelled ornaments, Roman swords as well as silver and copper raw materials were imported from the provinces of the Roman Empire to the Baltic lands.
The sea route was also important for people living along the Baltic coast. It was used to maintain trade relations with the Roman provinces of Gallia and Pareine, from where Roman ships sailed around the Jutland peninsula to the Vistula, the Oder, and possibly reached the mouths of the Nemunas and Daugava.
At the same time, relations were maintained with the cities on the northern coast of the Black Sea through the eastern roads that ran along the Prut, Dniester, Southern Bug and Dnieper rivers. The most important for the Baltic tribes was the Dnieper road. The Nemunas, Neris, Nevėžis, Dubysa, Jūra and Minija rivers were of great importance for domestic trade.
In the old Iron Age, trade relations were also maintained with the southern Scandinavia and Finno-Ugric tribes of the Baltic region, in whose territory articles typical of the Baltic tribes of Lithuania were found: neck-rings with cone-shaped terminals, ladder and round openwork brooches, rosette pins.
Lithuanian Balts also maintained relations with Baltic tribes that lived to the east. It is believed that the inhabitants of Lithuania adopted crook-like pins from the eastern Baltic tribes.
The middle Iron Age. After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the main trading partner, trade also temporarily came to a standstill in the 5th-6th centuries, but it did not stop completely, only the direction of trade changed: from the south and southwest it turned to the north and northwest. During this period, more intensive trade with Western Europe and Scandinavia begins. The Nemunas continues to be an important trade route. Non-ferrous metals, new weapons, luxury goods and other innovations arrive in Lithuania via the lower reaches of the Nemunas. The main export product of Balts – amber – begins to interest the Germanic nobles.
The main imported goods continue to be non-ferrous metals: copper, zinc, tin, lead, silver. Trade and exchange take place in two directions – with each other and with neighbours. Mutual trade between the Baltic tribes should be called exchanges, because in this period, goods are exchanged for goods, although the tribal nobility could settle with more distant lands also in silver or money that circulated at that time or their equivalents – furs or amber. Exchange goods were wax, leather, and agricultural produce.
In inter-tribal exchanges, amber becomes the most important, as it is used by female Lithuanians, Lettigallians, Selonians, Upland Lithuanians and women of other tribes. In earlier periods, amber mostly travelled to the Roman provinces, and in the middle Iron Age, it is increasingly found in the graves of women of other Baltic tribes too. Amber used to come from the Curonian lands, while furs, iron alloys, and some ornaments were transported to the coastal territory from forested areas; therefore, sometimes, ornaments or weapons that are not characteristic of that area are found in graves.
There is more data on trade with more distant lands. All surviving imported finds can be divided into several groups: weapons, warriors’ clothing, drinking horns and ornaments. In the 5th-6th centuries, trade in weapons particularly intensifies. This was apparently due to the unrest in central Europe. The earliest imported swords of this period date back to the 5th century; they were found in Krikštonys and Taurapilis, in the so-called graves of dukes. In addition to swords, imported shield bosses (umbos) are found too. Men also had imported spurs. They should be attributed to Thuringian masters. The earliest silver and brass drinking horn fittings were also made not by local craftsmen but brought from Scandinavia.
Trade in ornaments continued throughout the middle Iron Age. The largest group of imported ornaments consists of glass beads, although much fewer of them have been found, compared with the old Iron Age. All glass beads are imported because there were no glass workshops in the Baltic region. At that time, the prevailing custom was to make necklaces just from glass beads. Along with imported glass and enamel beads, locally made amber beads or brass coil beads were also stringed. In this period, blue glass beads were most common, although greenish, yellowish, and rarely, red and black beads would also occur. The fewest beads were found in the graves of the 6th-7th centuries. Apparently, their production in the old centres stopped at that time. Blue glass eyelets, which were used to decorate pendants and the heads of pins, were also imported.
In the area between the Vistula and the Pasłęka, a number of hoards of the beginning of the middle Iron Age with gold artefacts were found: coins and ornaments, which are attributed to Scandinavians. 7 such hoards are known.
At the end of the period, Gotland and the Daugava River, providing easy access to the Dnieper and the Black Sea, become very important for trade. The Baltic tribes who lived in the territory of present-day Lithuania become involved in this trade too. Lithuanian rivers, especially the Nemunas, become important waterways, and trade with forested regions of Lithuania intensifies.
In addition to non-ferrous metals, everyday goods were also transported to the territory of the Baltic tribes, the most important of which must have been salt. It reached Lithuania from Pomerania, the Persante valley, by sea, and later, by rivers and land.
Although trade and exchanges expanded throughout the territories inhabited by the Balts during the middle Iron Age, trade did not yet become a business during this period. No graves with scales and weights dating back to the middle Iron Age have been found. Meanwhile, graves of such Germanic tribes are known.
The late Iron Age. Most knowledge about trade of the Baltic tribes in the 9th-11th centuries is provided by archaeological finds: imported items, silver alloys, raw brass and silver material, scales and weights as well as numismatic material – Arab coins and a few West European denarii.
Coloured glass beads dating back to the late Iron Age were mostly found in western Lithuania, although individual beads are also found in eastern Lithuania. Small, round or truncated biconical beads in bluish, greenish colours stand out from them. They do not form separate necklaces, most of them are single or mixed with other glass beads in necklaces. Such beads were found in Latvia and in the territories inhabited by Slavs. Performed excavations showed that coloured glass beads in this form had most likely come to the Baltic lands from Byzantium or Egypt. Black and red as well as gold and silver coloured beads were also imported from there. Most of them were found in the western part of Lithuania. Necklaces were also strung from cowrie shells, which came from Maldive Islands, located in the Indian Ocean, and which were distributed by Arab merchants throughout the entire Eastern world. They entered the Baltic region via the Middle East, via the Volga, Dnieper, Vistula and Daugava rivers. It is believed that cowrie shells came to Lithuania from Latvia, where they were particularly widespread in the 9th-13th centuries.
In the late Iron Age, the inhabitants of the territory of Lithuania mainly obtained brass raw materials from the southern regions of the Danube and Western Europe. Brass used to be brought in the form of rods, which were very similar in shape and weight to those of silver. In addition to brass, the amount of silvered and silver-plated artefacts increased significantly during this period. Silver from Western European mines mostly reached the eastern part of the Baltic coastal territory. From the middle of the 1st millennium, silver also came to Lithuania from the Scandinavian lands. From the end of the 8th century, silver came to Europe from the Arab world in the form of Arabic silver coins. In the 9th century, they also appeared in the Baltic territory. Arabic dirhams would be brought to both the Baltic lands and other European countries as chopped coins. This shows that coins were used not only as money but also as raw material for the production of silverware.
Important mediators for the Baltic tribes maintaining trade relations with the West were the Scandinavian lands. Goods were transported to the Baltic region via Scandinavian lands by sea, rivers and by land. One of the most important goods in trade with Scandinavia and other Western European countries was weapons. Swords constitute the largest group of imported artefacts. These are the weapons that belonged to the members of the nobility. Swords were brought to the Baltic lands from several production centres: from Pareine and Scandinavia. Pareine was a prominent sword-making centre at that time, producing sword blades that sometimes bore the inscription ULFBERHT. Currently, about 50 swords with inscriptions on the blades have been found in the Baltic lands. It is believed that these swords came to Lithuania from Pareine through Gotland merchants. Those swords that are decorated in a Scandinavian style – with braid patterns and animal motives – can be considered as imported from Scandinavia and definitely as Viking swords.
In addition to swords, spearheads were also imported to Lithuania. Their blades are long, narrow, and their sockets are decorated with a vaulted ornament. They date back to the end of the 8th century - the beginning of the 11th century. It is believed that these spearheads came to the Baltic lands from Scandinavia, where they were widely used by Vikings.
Other imported weapons are battle axes with a wide fan-shaped blade. A part of them is forged by local masters, made by copying the imported ones, adopting their form and technology. So far, about 200 such axes have been found in the Baltic region. They originate from Scandinavia. It is one of the main elements of Viking weaponry of the 11th-13th centuries.
In the late Iron Age, trade was one of the most important areas of economic life. This is evidenced by scales and weights found in graves and hillforts, which are important for determining weight measures and their units. 56 scales from 25 sites are now known on the territory of Lithuania. Almost all of them were found in burial sites, except for the later ones found in Vilnius Lower Castle. All scales are small, folding. They consist of a brass beam, on the ends of which brass bowls are attached with brass chains or simply cords. Along with scales, brass weights (even several in each grave) are often found in graves, although quite a lot of them are also found separately. Weights are more often found than scales. Currently, 117 weights have been found in 22 locations in Lithuania. They are iron, covered with a thin layer of brass, mostly truncated biconical or barrel-shaped, their weight varies from 20 to 40 g. Scales and weights appeared in the Baltic lands in the 10th century and spread in the 11th-12th centuries. Most of the graves with scales and weights were found in the seacoast area, near the main trade road. The shape of scales in the Baltic and other lands is the same, only the ornamentation differs. The peculiar decoration of scales allows to conclude that they were produced locally in each region. Scales and weights are found in graves abundant with grave goods. Scales with weights were used to weigh precious metals – silver and possibly brass as well as coins and silver alloys, whose weight often coincides with the weight of larger weights. A certain system of weight measures had to be developed to weigh silver and coins. The existence of such system can be judged from the weights, a part of which has impressed marks on the ends: eyelets or crosses, which were meant to indicate a certain measure of weight. It has been identified that the prevailing weight measurement system in Lithuania at that time was the Scandinavian one. Its basis was a mark, divided into öre and örtug. The weight of the mark is 204 g; öre, 25 g; örtug, 8.5 g. The second measurement system also existed, it was based on the Arabic dirham. At that time, it was dominant in Eastern Europe. Thus, in the 10th-13th centuries, the merchants of the Baltic region must have known the weight measurement systems of Eastern and Western Europe.
Source of information: project of Latvia-Lithuania cross-border cooperation programme 2007-2013 “Baltic Culture Park” (Šiauliai Region Development Agency).