Lyngby Type Artefacts in Lithuania

Abstract

The article sets out to discuss the distribution, typology and chronology of Lyngby type horn artefacts discovered in Northern Europe and the Eastern Baltic region for the first time in the Lithuanian scientific archaeological literature. Based on radiocarbon dating, the article makes a conclusion that the tools in question were used in the Eastern Baltic region both after the Last Glacial Period and before the Last Glacial Maximum. According to the latest research findings, two artefacts (Šnaukštai, Klaipėda district; Kalnėnai, Jurbarkas district) which were found on the Lithuanian territory are for the time being the only human-made artefacts dating to the period before the Late Nemunas Glacial Maximum, which were discovered in Lithuania and Northern Europe. According to radiological imaging, these finds were used both in the periods of existence of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens later. New findings in the research of Lyngby type artefacts enable us to understand the process of settlement in both Lithuania and the whole Eastern Baltic region during the Late Paleolithic. The research also resorts to ethniccultural parallels relating to the daily routine of the reindeer hunters of the 18th–19th centuries and the tools used by them.