KAUP 2014 ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS & RESEARCH HISTORY K R, I M, A M & V I. K with contributions by Adam Cordes, Kristian M. Gregersen, Marie Louise Jørkov, Niels Lynnerup & Egidijus Šatavičius ABSTRACT Despite the uniqueness of the environment of the The article is a report on fi eld activities of 2014 at a peninsular, around 3000 BC, at the beginning of the renowned location of Kaup forest near Wiskiauten/ Late Neolithic in the Baltic Region, Sambia was already Viskiautai, nowadays Kaliningrad oblast of Russia, and a part of the cultural development of huge territories in a sentimental journey through the research history in a central, northern and eastern Europe, from the Rhine in region at the crossroads of ancient communication webs, the west, to the Upper Volga in the east and from the Alps and more recently – of diverse political agendas. Field in the south to southern Finland in the north. By 3000 BC activities focused on the so-called Barrow 1, the only new types of sites and artefacts appeared in these areas, known mound at Kaup dated to the Neolithic, otherwise in particular of the Corded Ware culture (Milisauskas dotted with burials of the Viking Age. It was an attempt & Kruk 2011, 294). Vessels like amphorae, beakers, to reconstruct barrow architecture, which has resulted in cups and others were commonly decorated by cord a deconstruction of previous views based on rather scarce impressions. Boat-shaped stone axes, in fact, battle axes, excavation reports of the 19th – early 20th century. The triangular arrowheads, and knives of fl int, wrist guards, Neolithic barrow of Kaup remains a unique testimony of bone pins, amber beads and pendants also appeared in the social complexity and spatial awareness of the early the area, as well as new settlement and burial types. On 3rd millennium BC when Europe was under the spell of the basis of these quite radical changes in the material the Corded Ware and other related cultural phenomena. culture, it is claimed that almost all aspects of human life, social, ideological and economic have changed radically. The origin of the Corded Ware culture has been INTRODUCTION disputed for almost a century. Two main explanations have been proposed: a massive migration of the Pit Grave or LATER NEOLITHIC & EARLY BRONZE Yamnaya culture people, also known as the Kurgan people AGE IN THE KAUP REGION from the steppe territories to the north of the Black and The Kaup burial mound is one of the key Late Neolithic the Caspian Sea, or locally initiated changes. According and Bronze Age archaeological sites in the southeastern to Gimbutas (Gimbutas 1991), a “massive infi ltration“ of part of the Baltic region. It is located in the northern part the Kurgan people from the steppe areas initiated cultural of the Sambian peninsula, close to the Curonian Spit, changes in central and northern Europe (Gimbutas 1991, which is a 98 km long and 0.4-3.8 km wide, and sea water 384). This model has gained a signifi cant support from on both sides (note 1) (Fig. 1). The Sambian peninsula the recent DNA studies (Haak et al. 2015; Allentoft et al. itself is a unique environmental area in the Baltics, rich 2015). However, other archaeologists suggest that several in amber deposits. The northern part is bounded by the smaller innovations or gradual local changes played the Baltic Sea and the Curonian Lagoon; the western part main role in the cultural transformation of a very wide is surrounded by the Baltic Sea; the southern part by region (Waals 1984; Bankoff & Winter 1990, 175) (see the Vistula Lagoon and Pregel/ Prieglius River; and the also Nordqvist, this volume). In turn, such innovations eastern part by the Deima/Deimena River. gave rise to socio-economic and ideological changes. 86 Acta Archaeologica Fig. 1. Location of Kaup (1) and distribution of other sites in a broader region where barrows of Corded Ware temporal horizon have been encountered and investigated; all in Northern Poland: 2 - Babięty Małe, 3 – Żygląd, 4 – Modliborzyce, 5 – Kuczkowo, 6 – Krusza Zamkowa, 7 - Ciechrz, 8 – Bożejewice, 9 – Kęsocha (data from Okulicz 1973; Kośko & Kločko 1991; Sobieraj 2001 & Pospieszny et al. 2015). In the southeastern and eastern part of the Baltic, a cultural layer attributed to ca. 3300-3000 calBC (Ibsen from the Bay of Gdansk and the Vistula Lagoon to the 2009, 72-73). Curonian Lagoon and the Latvian coast the local variant Larger excavations have recently been conducted in of the Corded Ware culture is termed the Baltic Coastal or the southern part of the peninsula. In 1994 Edwin Salts- Bay Coast culture (Rzucewo, Haff küstenkultur, Pamarių). man, an archaeologist from Kaliningrad, discovered the The knowledge of this complex in the Sambian peninsula Pribrezhnoye settlement (former Heyde-Waldburg) lo- is still quite limited. cated on the coast of the Vistula Bay, about 200 m to the west of the Pribrezhnoye suburban settlement, now part Settlements of Kaliningrad city (Saltsman 2004; 2013). It is diffi cult to reconstruct the settlement system of these According to the excavator, the settlement was estab- coastal people. Only a few settlements have been properly lished on the fl at northern slope of a sandy elevation, 7.5 excavated, such as Succase, Rzucewo, Tolkemit, Nida, m above sea level. The elevation is separated from the Šventoji, and some others (Žurek 1954; Kilian 1955; bay by marshy lowlands and seems to have occupied an Gimbutas 1956, 157-159; Gimbutas 1965, 395-397; area of about 15,000 m2. The southern and eastern parts Rimantienė 1989; Rimantienė 2005). Two types of sites of the settlement were destroyed before the excavations, are recorded: permanent settlements and seasonal camps which covered 1,760 m2. Remains of 16 built structures (Rimantienė 2005; Milisauskas & Kruk 2011, 307). Some were found, and at least two occupational horizons could archaeologists (Gimbutas 1956, 157-158; 1965, 395-396) be established. The earliest phase shows direct links with also mentioned fortifi ed hilltop settlements. According to the Globular Amphora culture, underlining its still some- Gimbutas, the Rzucewo settlement is located on several how neglected importance for the cultural shaping of the terraces near the Bay of Gdansk, reinforced by timber region. The later can be attributed to the Baltic Coastal posts and big stone slabs (Gimbutas 1965, 395). All these culture (Saltsman 2013). mentioned sites are outside of the Sambian peninsula. At least three dwellings were occupied simultane- In Sambia, until now, only a few settlement sites have ously. Larger House 2 was located at the southern edge been discovered and only one of these excavated nearly of the settlement; it was orientated in SW-NE direction, completely. In 2007, close to the Kaup mound, and to the being 17.70 m long and c. 4 m wide (Fig. 2). Two double east of Kaup forest, in the village of Palve, Timo Ibsen, rows of postholes were left from the walls of the dwell- following Otto Kleemann’s inventories published in ing. Another row of more substantial postholes was found 1939, confi rmed through survey trenches the existence of inside this two-aisled building and served to support the Kaup 2014 87 Dwellings of both phases had sunken fl oors, thus ena- bling better preservation of remains. Pottery and some stone and amber artefacts were found both inside and out- side the houses. They include small trapezoid axes made of slate and crystal rock, amber beads and pendants, and some other fi nds. Huge amounts of various types of pot- tery, such as amphoras, beakers, bowls and others have been reported. Half of the pottery shards (51.36%) is un- decorated (Saltsman 2004, 142). According to the data obtained from the Baltic Coast- al settlements (Pribrezhnoye, Nida, Šventoji, and Rzuce- wo) it can be concluded that there were small scattered villages on the peninsula. They consisted of one to three small or medium size rectangular houses, with 7-40 peo- ple altogether in one village. Only in rare cases bigger houses were constructed, like the one in the Pribrezhnoye settlement. Each house contained from one to two – per- haps three rooms with one round hearth inside. It is as- sumed that small-scale societies, perhaps heterarchical with a common patrilineal ancestor, lived along the coast during this period. It is diffi cult to reconstruct the subsistence strategy of the Baltic Coastal people, since we have very little evi- dence on the economy, especially from older excavated settlement sites. Some archaeologists suggest that the population was a pastoralist one, others think that it was dependent on farming (Milisauskas & Kruk 2011, 304- Fig. 2. Plan of House 2 at Pribrezhnoye settlement. After Saltsman 2004, Fig. 2. 307). According to data from excavated sites in Nida and Šventoji, which are close to the Sambian peninsula, the gable roof. According to Saltsman, the dwelling was sub- people in the coastal areas near the Baltic Sea, subsisted divided into two rooms. Moreover, there are indications largely on maritime fi shing and sea-mammal hunting, as of further internal subdivision of space, resembling stall well as on hunting and gathering in the forests close to the dividers. A round hearth of 1.20 m in diameter was found settlements. In Nida and Šventoji 1A settlements, small almost in the centre of the dwelling. In fact, it was pos- scale farming and animal husbandry might have been sible to reconstruct two hearths at the same spot nearly practiced as well (Rimantienė 1989; Rimantienė 2005). completely overlapping each other. Charcoal from the Bones of cattle, sheep/goat, pig, dogs and horses in small hearth of the upper layer has been AMS-dated to 4220 +/- numbers, have been found in the Nida settlement, as well 40 BP (Le-6217) or 2924-2620 calBC (99.7% probability, as seeds of domesticated plants, such as wheat and millet Reimer et al.