First Ams 14c Dating of Bronze and Pre-Roman Iron Age Cremated Bones From Barrows in Western Lithuania: Results and Interpretation

Abstract

Whilst the practice of cremation first emerged and spread in the East Baltic region during the 2nd-1st millennium BC, non-cremation burials in both barrows and flat cemeteries continued to exist in parallel or the inhumation custom was first replaced by cremations until, at the end of the Pre-Roman Iron Age, inhumation became the dominant burial custom. Barrows were the main type of burial monument in western Lithuania through the Late Bronze Age and Pre-Roman Iron Age, even during the transition from cremation to inhumation. The emergence of cremation led to a decrease in grave goods, which, combined with variations in the structure of the mounds and stone arrangements associated with cremation burials and the placement of graves inside or outside the barrow, left the typological method alone incapable of determining the beginning and duration of the cremation custom. Therefore, the AMS 14 C method was applied for the first time to date cremated bones from barrows in western Lithuania. This article presents twelve AMS 14 C dates yielded from a range of different barrows and graves in the following barrow cemeteries: Ėgliškiai, Kurmaičiai, Kveciai, Sūdėnai, Šlikiai, and Gintarai. The data was used to determine the duration of the cremation custom practiced in these barrows, and to identify chronological variations between different types of graves found within. The results indicate that cremation was practiced from the 9th-6th century BC to the 4th-2nd century BC. Comparison of AMS 14 C data from differently arranged cremation graves suggests that collective burials in barrows, burials outside the external stone circle of the barrow, and individual barrows for a single deceased could have co-existed.