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Lake Luokesas in Lithuania has become the centre of attention in northern European wetland archaeological research after the discovery of two Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age pile dwellings. Their unique location, chronology and building techniques have the potential to revolutionise our understanding of important aspects of wetland communities in later prehistoric Europe.

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The phenomenon of northern pile dwellings has been found in different geographical zones and landscapes of the Circum-Baltic region: in sea landscapes and on the shores of inland lakes and rivers. Inland sites were established in specific lacustrine landscapes, appearing within former post-glacial basins. The pile dwellings revealed here are characterized by different types of wooden buildings, including structures with raised floors. They are dated to the 4th millennium BC to 4th century BC in Central Europe and the Baltics, and to the end of the 4th to end of the 3rd millennium BC – in NW Russia and Belarus. They appeared in major cases independently and followed different cultural trajectories. The article presents an overview of a number of sites which can be attributed to pile dwelling settlements distributed in the Circum-Baltic area. It discusses particular features of their construction, traits of material culture, and site location patterns.

More than 70 logboats are known in Lithuania and about half of them date before 1800 cal AD. This paper reviews these more ancient logboats, which were discovered in the beds of former or still existing lakes and rivers and present new radiocarbon (14C) dates and wood taxa identifications. Special attention is paid to the logboat found at Šventoji 58, which is at present the oldest 14C-dated (2895–2640 cal BC) logboat found East of the Baltic Sea. Most logboats from the pre-1800s period were 14C dated to medieval and early modern periods and they were made out of pine and oak wood. From a very scarce dataset available it seems that oak wood was introduced into logboat building by Neolithic people, who also brought new technologies in stone tool production. We also noted that 14C dating does not confirm the logboat typology suggested in earlier studies.