About the People Buried in the Cemetery of Baitai: their Cultural Integration throughout the Baltic Sea Region and the European Barbaricum in the 3rd Century AD

Abstract

The aim of this article is to present several types of jewellery dating to around the time of Phase C2 from the Baitai Cemetery in Western Lithuania. These examples have been chosen to detect their role as indicators of far-flung contacts with Germanic areas in the Baltic Sea region of the European Barbaricum. The Western Balts dwelling on what nowadays is the Lithuanian coastland during the Late Roman Period were connected culturally not only with neighbouring kin-tribes, especially those living in Samland and Masuria, but also kept vital contacts with Germanic peoples in the Baltic Sea region. The Germanic fashion favoured by the Baitai elite is testified by a small silver-gilt detail on a rosette brooch of Group 6 according to the typology of Przybyła found in Grave 31. The origin of the production of Group 6 brooches is associated mainly with the Wielbark culture (Poland) and the region of Frisches Haff. The findings of these brooches on Bornholm, Gotland and in Västergötland indicate that for the Germanic people of the Wielbark culture and for the Western Balts inhabiting the coast the closest ties via the Baltic Sea were towards the north-northwest. The silver spiral ring with broadened terminals found in the same Baitai Grave 31 represents locally made jewellery, created following the examples of Scandinavian snakehead rings (Schlangenkopffingerringe). Another spiral finger ring from Baitai Grave 22 was made partly of twisted and partly of notched silver wire, close to the style of ornaments produced for the elite in various regions of the European Barbaricum. The type of round tutuli pins from Baitai Grave 8 is a local creation of the Late Roman Period and based on several sources of inspiration. One of these is a rosette tutulus seen in brooches in areas along the River Elbe and in Southern Scandinavia. It is noticeable that in the same horizon of the later version of tutulus of Phase C2 bronze bracelets with slightly thickened terminals (early versions of club-headed arm rings [Kolbenarmringe]) appeared in the Western Lithuanian areas. Most probably, they are modest parallels to the fashion of luxury gold and silver Kolbenarmringe known in various regions of the Germania Libera. Intensive, far-flung contacts of the inhabitants of what is now the Lithuanian coastland via the Baltic Sea brought new »cosmopolitan trends« of costume which merged into the local fashion of the Western Balts during the 3rd century. The Baitai cemetery finds are one of the important sources for intensive communication between the Germanic and Balt people.