The Baltic Archaeological Seminar (BASE) was devised to be an international medium for Baltic archaeologists, who could come together and discuss the main current problems in the Baltic archaeologies.
The leading theoretical question of the first seminar was how to interpret material culture - a problem that all archaeologists must deal with from the very beginning of their scientific research. The interpretation of the material culture of the past is indeed one of the central problems in archaeology. Since the development of archaeology as a science, the majority of research has concentrated on typology, chronology and chorology, and the dating of material objects. These subjects of research are definitely necessary, but should not be the final goal of archaeology.
Author(s): Valter Lang (ed.)
Series: Interarchaeologia, 1
Publisher: Universities of Tartu, Riga & Vilnius
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 182
Baltic Archaeological Seminar: An Introduction / Valter Lang 7
Valter Lang: Archaeological Cultures and Ethnic History: Some Examples from the East-Baltic Early Iron Age 11
Mindaugas Bertašius: The Archaeology of Group: From Situational Construct to Ethnic Group 29
Algimantas Merkevičius: Material Culture and the East-Baltic Bronze Age Society 39
Andris Šnē: Understanding Power: On the Study of Late Prehistoric Social and Political Structures in Latvia 53
Vykintas Vaitkevičius: Interpreting the East Lithuanian Barrow Culture 71
Tõnno Jonuks: Principles of Estonian Prehistoric Religion with Special Emphasis to Soul Beliefs 87
Romas Jarockis: Christian Coins in Pagan Graves? Artefacts, Texts and Research Traditions 97
Rasa Banytė-Rowell and Anna Bitner-Wróblewska: From 'Aestii' to 'Esti'. Connections between the Western Lithuanian Group and the area of distribution of 'tarand'-graves 105
Mari-Liis Rohtla: Crossbow Fibula as a Reflection of Social Status and Relations 121
Audronė Bliujienė: Pottery in Curonian Cremation Burials. Some Aspects of Interaction across the Baltic Sea in the Late Viking Age and Early Medieval Period 147
Kristiina Johanson: Putting Stray Finds in Context - What Can We Read from the Distribution of Stone Axes 167
