Pottery finds from the Kalniškiai cemetery dated to the 5th-6th centuries

Kalniškių kapinynas yra išskirtinis V–VI a. archeologijos paminklas Lietuvoje aptiktos keramikos gausa. Abiejų lyčių suaugusiųjų ir vaikų kapuose rasti 25 gerai išlikę puodai, 3 jų ornamentuoti. Šie indai papuošti gnaibymo žymėmis ir nagų įspaudais sekant vakarų baltų - sūduvių puodžių tradicijomis. Ten tokiu būdu buvo ornamentuojamos urnos sudegintų mirusiųjų palaikams supilti. Kalniškių kapinyną palikusi centrinės Lietuvos etnokultūrinės srities aukštaičių bendruomenė turėjo tiesioginių kontaktų su sūduvių etnokultūriniu arealu ir iš jų perėmė šiuos puodų puošybos būdus. Tačiau Kalniškių kapinyno puodai buvo savitai panaudoti laidojimo apeigose. Tai viena centrinės Lietuvos etnokultūrinės srities gyventojų aukštaičių naujųjų laidosenos elementų inspiracijų.Pottery artefacts are the main finds in Lithuanian hillforts and settlements dated to the Iron Age. But they are quite rarely found in cemeteries and barrow cemeteries. Therefore the Kalniškiai cemetery (Raseiniai district, Ariogala parish) is an exception with unbroken pots found in 25 burials. The purpose of this article is to notify of the richest pottery collection in Lithuania dated to the 5th-6th centuries, which was detected in the Kalniškiai cemetery, and to disclose the relationship between cultures of Baltic tribes. Unbroken clay pots were found in 24 burials. One of them was a stray find. In burial 95 the features of wooden pot were no ticed. It is the only group o f cemeteries in Lithuania dated to the Migration Period where so many unbroken pots were found. The pottery was detected in eight male burials, in six female burials and in three child burials. The artefacts were placed at head and at feet o f burials. The sex of buried individuals in other 8 burials was unclear, due to the poor anthropological material or to disturbance. All pots found in the Kalniškiai cemetery were hand-thrown. According to their shape, they can be classified into four types: 1) ribbed pots; 2) bucket-shaped pots; 3) jars and bowls. According to their surface decoration, they are classified into pots with rusticated surface and pots with plain burnished surface. Clay mass was mixed with fine-grained, medium-grained and coarse-grained granite temper. Walls of pots were up to 1.6 cm thick. Pots were of medium size, their height being from 7.5 cm to 16.5 cm, and the diameter o f orifices from 13 cm to 24 cm; their bases from 7.5 cm to 15 cm in diameter. Kalniškiai's pots are likely to have been fired in open fire, since their colour is not solid: black, grey, brown, tawny, deep brown and pink. The colour of pots reflects the environment of firing, firing temperature and quality of pottery. Other finds detected in most burials where the pots were found, have a routine chronology in the Lithuanian archaeological materials. They are headbands, neck-rings. They are of three types: a) with coiled wire terminals and with loop-and-hook clasp; b) double pronounced with long terminals, profiled with loop-and-hook clasp c) moulded headband. Brooches are o f four types: a) crossbow decorated with ringlets; b) crossbow with bent foot; c) crossbow with long foot and moulded clasp; d) crossbow with triangular foot. Bracelets were found in 5 burials. They were with thickened terminals, sash-like and spiral. Iron crook-like pins and pins with flask-shaped head were found in 4 burials. Kalniškiai burials with pot finds can be dated to the period between 400/450 and 500/550 BP according to comparison and dating of finds. In the burial traditions in the territory of Lithuania potters was used quite seldom during the Migration Period. The custom to place vessels in burial places was not very well established. In Sudovia, the southern neighbour of the Uplander, the burial traditions were quite different. The individuals were buried in urns after cremation. The pottery was very important in the Sudovian spiritual culture. It was quite widely used in these territories.. The bones o f cremated individuals were placed in smartly decorated urns. The analogue ornament was also detected on pots found in the Kalniškiai cemetery. It implies that the Uplandcrs could have used the same motifs of urn decoration as the Sudovians. These motifs were used for decoration of their own pots. Placement of pots into burial places of Kalniškiai cemetery might have been a peculiar interpretation of western Baltic burial traditions. The Kalniškiai cemetery contains in a distinctive archaeological site in Lithuania o f the 5th-6th centuries due to abundance of pottery finds. Vessels were pinched-im-pressed and decorated by making dents with nail according to traditions o f western Baltic and Sudovian potters. They used the same method for decoration of urns for cremated human remains. The community of the Laplanders had direct contacts with the Sudovian ethno-cultural habitat and took over the methods for pot decoration. But pots from the Kalniškiai cemetery were used in burial rites. It is one of inspirations of new burial elements in tire ethno-culture of the Uplander