Kražių apylinkių proistorė

The article reviews the prehistory of the vicinity of Kražiai by exploring archaeological monuments of the region. The oldest findings in the vicinity of Kražiai (stone axes) date back to the Neolithic Age (4th-2nd centuries BC). The Early Iron Age (1st-4th century) is much more informative in this respect. The then vicinity of Kražiai was rather densely inhabited. The monuments of the then periods, i.e. the barrows that were explored in Akmeniai, Perkūniškis and Paalksnis are a perfect evidence of that. Barrows were usually equipped not far from settlements. The number of graves of unburned dead people found in those barrows varies from 1 to 9. All the dead were buried with a shroud. The majority of graves were of the late 2nd and 3rd centuries. On the edge of the 4th-5th centuries this region saw a great deal of changes in burying traditions. The dead of that period were not buried in barrows, but in separate holes in the land dug separately for each of them. The Middle Iron Age (5th-9th centuries) does not provide us with much information on the matter. That period left several graves in Akmeniai, and the Galiniai was presumably formed at that time. The Paalknsiai necropolis with destroyed and burnt graves was one of the most examined monuments dating back to the period between the 9th and 12th centuries. The monument is severely damaged, but it was still possible to gather quite a number of articles and pieces from the destroyed graves. There were a number of arms and jewellery pieces among those articles. A great part of them originated from Scandinavia and the Kiev Russia. The vicinity of Kražiai has several settlement-mounds which formed in the latter period. A wide network of the vicinity settlements and the increase of number of inhabitants brought new settlers to the current territory of the town of Kražiai