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Amber Discs with Cross Decoration in the South Eastern Baltic

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Amber Discs with Cross Decoration in the South Eastern Baltic Adomas Butrimas Amber Discs with cross decoration in the South Eastern Baltic A Ö Vilnius Academy of Arts Press, 2Ū1 8 Lietuvos mokslo taryba This research was funded by the Lithuanian Research Council, project No. MIP-036/2015 A book review by Prof. Dr. Albinas Kuncevičius Dr. Marius Iršėnas Designer Martynas Gintalas Illustrators: Rūta Spelskytė, Martynas Gintalas Photographers: Jogailė Butrimaitė, Stasė Butrimienė, Vaidotas Aukštaitis, Kazimieras Mizgiris, Arūnas Baitėnas Copy editor: S. C. Rowell, Teresė Valiuvienė Assistant Laima Spelskienė Vilnius Academy of Arts Press Dominikonų str. 1 5, LT-01131, Vilnius Printed by Standartų spaustuvė Dariaus ir Girėno g. 39, Vilnius ISBN 978-609-447-310-4 CONTENT Foreword \ 9 The corpus of amber discs with cross decoration \ 11 Research problems \ 16 Manufacture \ 18 The amber discs without cross decoration in the Eastern Baltic \ 25 The discs with cross decorations, Materials from excavations in Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine \ 32 Topography of the Daktariškė 5 Neolithic settlement \ 32 Cultural layers, stratigraphy, spatial research \ 34 Finds and chronology \ 36 Description of the ornamented disc \ 44 Typology, distribution geography and chronology of cruciform-decorated discs \ 57 Distribution Geography \ 60 Find Circumstances (context) \ 62 Investigation of Stone Age amber discs and rings by the Methods of Natural Science \ 64 Use-wear analysis \ 66 FTIR and micro FT-Raman spectral analysis of disc with cross ornamentation \ 70 Interpreting the symbolic the meaning of discs \ 77 Discs as prestige objects \ 77 Discs - between the sun and the moon, the mysteries of Light and Dark \ 83 Conclusions \ 89 Catalogue of discs \ 90 References \ 97 Index \ 112 Fig. I. Cross-section of a resin-producing tree trunk. Illustration by R. Spelskytė 7 Fig. II. Blue earth with natural amber piece in Palanga Amber Museum 8 FOREWORD The warmth, magnetic qualities and colour of amber seem to require that this substance embody very important meanings. From time immemorial the sun, the universe and the human model of the world came to be imagined in the eastern Baltic region via amber artefacts, especially amber discs. The earliest amber discs, found in settlements and graves and known from the old collections in the Eastern Baltic are dated to the early and middle Neolithic. Quite a large number of such amber discs made during the Neolithic period have been found on the territory of what are now Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and other neighbouring countries; most often they just have an evenly polished surface without further decoration. Another group of amber discs contains discs with a cross (cruciform) decoration. These are much later and are connected with cultures of the Late Neolithic. They are also found in graves and settlements and are known from old collections. The closer analysis of this group provided in this book is connected with one special example that was found in the cultural layer of Daktariškė 5 Neolithic wetland settlement in the Biržulis Lake area of Western Lithuania, which boasts a large concentration of Stone-Age monuments. The ornamental system of these discs cannot be regarded as having a purely aesthetic motivation. The complex ornamental system on both sides of the amber discs from Daktariškė 5 and other settlements illustrates a depth of astronomical knowledge, which is deeply encoded; this is connected with mythical interpretations developed by past societies in the region and shows that the creativity of cultures without writing was not inferior to that of more advanced civilizations, just more difficult and interesting for us to decode. 9 Fig. 1. Part of Juodkrantė amber ornament collection in the East Baltic Sea coast sand (copies). Photo by K. Mizgiris IO THE CORPUS OF AMBER DISCS WITH CROSS DECORATION Earlier contributions. The majority of the earliest former presentations of amber discs with cross decoration deal with a description of individual discs as well as with suggestions of chronological affiliation, and in the best cases with interpretations of how they were produced. In Lithuanian territory the first description and interpretation was published as early as 1882 by Dr. Richard Klebs (Klebs 1882) (Fig. 1). In his book devoted to the Juodkrantė (Schwarzort) collection from the Curonian Peninsula he describes 5 amber discs with cross ornamentation (Klebs 1882, tabl. Ill, fig. 1,21; tabl. II, fig. 22; tabl. XI, figs. 6, 7). He gave detailed drawings of these discs (which he termed Linsen und Scheiben [Lenses and Discs]) along with detailed descriptions of forms, ornamentation and the colour of the amber, and published results of experiments as to how they were produced using flint scrapers and borers. According the use-wear investigation he carried out with Otto Tischler, a conclusion was drawn to the effect that the ornamentation had been made using a bone awl during the Stone Age, without using any metal implement. According to R. Klebs, the collection of the Stantien and Becker Company contained 43 amber discs, while the collection of the Provinzial-Museum der Physikalisch- Ökonomischen Gessellschaft in Königsberg had 17, but only 5 of these were decorated with cross ornamentation (Klebs 1982, p. 17) (Fig. 2 ). 0. Tischler was the first to discover that the small pits on amber discs and other ornaments had once been filled with resin in order to obtain a certain glow (Tischler 1883, p. 102). In the territories of Poland and former Eastern Prussia La Baume, L. Kozłowski and Dr. L. Łebiński, published amber discs from investigations in Stauchwitz Augustów (county Ortelsburg), Borucin (county Nieszawa), Świerczyn (county Nieszawa), Naruscewo (county Plonsk), Rzeszynek (voivodeship Inowrocław), mainly from the graves of people belonging to the Globular Amphora Culture (Łebiński 1888; Kozłowski 1921, 1923,1924). 11 Fig. 2. The drawings of amber discs and rings with and without cross decoration from R. Klebs' publication, 1882 12 In 1956 Eduard Šturms presented the first overview of Amber artefacts in Eastern Globular Amphora Culture which retains considerable importance to this day (Šturms 1956). All the amber discs and buttons with cross decoration known until that date are included in this carefully illustrated publication from the territories of Lithuania, Poland with parallels from Germany and Denmark. He was the first to map all the amber ornaments of the Eastern Group of the Globular Amphora Culture, including discs and buttons with cross decorations (Šturms 1956, p. 17). As a matter of fact, Šturms was the first to interpret the place of amber discs with cross decoration in the graves of people belonging to the Globular Amphora Culture; he connected them with men's graves and interpreted them as symbols of the sun and a cult of the sun. He also noticed that the natural colour of amber has a special value for this purpose. In this publication he presented 19 amber discs and buttons with cross decoration that were known to him, attributing them to what he termed the Linsen und Scheiben Group. A major contribution was made to research and studies of amber by the Polish archaeologist Ryszard F. Mazurowski in his doctoral dissertation "Amber in the Polish territories in the Stone Age" (Mazurowski 1983). Here we find the first very full overview of the corpus of amber artefacts from the South-Eastern Baltic area (not only from the territory of Poland) and the first very clear typology of amber artefacts, including ornamented discs. Mazurowski connected his interpretation of the manner of wearing amber discs with the place where they were found in graves, namely by the heads of men in Globular Amphora Culture graves at Wierzbowe and Kuczyny. He also used parallels of ornamented bone discs from the graves of Brześć Kujawski 4, where they were found on the front parts of the heads of cows (Wiślański 1966, fig. 42: 10), However, we should note also that E. Šturms was right in saying that discs with cross decoration can be connected with Globular Amphora Culture, because later investigations of wetland settlements in Šventoji, Būtingė, and Daktariškė 5 demonstrated, that discs with cross decoration and other elements of ornamentation are В Fig. U. Ornamented amber disc from Palanga. Feliksas Tiškevičius collection. Palanga not only from the Polish group of Globular Amphora Culture (Sturms 1956; Mazurowski 1983, p. 45). The first ornamented amber disc to be published by Lithuanian archaeologists is known from the amber collection of Count Feliksas Tiškevičius at Palanga. The cross consists of curved single lines of small drilled pits and is quite unique among other cross decorated discs (Puzinas 1938, fig. 8: 4) (Fig.4). More amber discs were found in Lithuania after World War II during Rimutė Rimantienės excavations of the Sventoji- Būtingė complex of Stone Age settlements (Rimantienė 2005). One amber disc was found in Būtingė 2 Neolithic sacrificial site together with a battle axe and elk bones, and a fragment of another disc was found at the Šventoji 1A wetland settlement. One of the most impressive amber discs decorated on both sides was found by the present Author at the Daktariškė 5 Neolithic wetland settlement near Lake Biržulis in West Lithuania (Butrimas 2001,2016). The amber disc from Daktariškė has been presented in conference papers, and described together with the whole complex of amber ornaments from the Daktariškė 5 settlement. Data have been derived from multifunctional investigations of the amber disc with cross decoration: use-wear, FTIR and micro FT-Raman spectral analysis were conducted. 15 Research problems The main problem of investigation is the territory, where the discs were found. The political allegiance of these territories changed many times during the twentieth century and the museums and collections where they were housed changed location too, belonging to different states. The Second World War was very destructive for people, institutions, buildings and collections alike in the Baltic Region. For this reason, most amber collections are known from old publications and do not survive, or survive only in fragments (Ritzkowski, Weisgerber 1999, p.
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