Viking Age Amber Artifacts
✎ Beginning with the 7th century, the level of amber artifacts considerably decreased. Amber artifacts from the Viking Age are rarely found in Lithuania. Although amber artifacts from the Viking Age are less numerous, they are more diverse in form. They are not only traditional truncated biconical, flattened spherical or irregular amber beads, but also pendants, amulets in different shapes, round plaques, miniature spinning tools, and other unique items made of amber. Singly found amber beads prevail among the finds of the Viking Age. Therefore singly found amber beads should be considered amulets. The custom to wear single amber beads or amulets spread all over Lithuania. The main Viking Age amber artifacts remain amber beads. In coastal Lithuania, in the areas of the highest concentration of amber artifacts, amber beads are hand-made, produced by knife and chisel, and frequently unpolished.
Over the entire second half of the 1st millennium and the beginning of the 2nd millennium, small necklaces of bronze spirals, pendants, and several glass or occasionally amber, beads were the only neck ornament used by the females of the Lithuanian Baltic tribes. In the Viking Age different Baltic tribes show somewhat different traditions of placing amber into graves. In the period mentioned, Baltic tribes, besides wearing amber beads of commonly used shapes, would also wear amber artifacts of other shapes. The fact that amber artifacts are not frequently found in Viking Age graves can be partly accounted for by the cremation burial rites. However, from the 3rd to the 4th century, the cremation rites differed among the Baltic tribes. From the late 4th to the 5th century, eastern Lithuania practised cremation of their dead. The Sudovians-Jatvingians in south-eastern Lithuania knew cremation rites as early as the 3rd and 4th centuries. In central Lithuania, such cremation rites appeared in the 5th—6th centuries, though inhumations continued to dominate. In the 7th century, cremations came to dominate in central Lithuania. The Curonians, Scalvians and Lamalians in the north-west and south-west of Lithuania were familiar with cremation rites since the 7th century; however, for a long subsequent period, this region practised biritualism. Yet, the area inhabited by these ethnic groups during the Viking Age is comparatively quite rich in amber finds. Amber beads are especially numerous in the Lamatian lands and Skalva (both in the lower Nemunas legion), and the settlers from here had no access to the coast of the Baltic Sea. Only isolated cremation graves are known in the region inhabited by the Samogitians and Semi-gallians; cremation was not a custom with them. Samogitians and Semigallians used amber beads only as amulets. Amber beads are found in all the aforementioned regions of Lithuania where inhabitants cremated their dead.
Lithuanian coastal cemeteries somewhat longer necklaces strung of truncated biconical or flattened spherical amber beads are exceptional. In Lithuanian coastal cemeteries necklaces strung of glass and amber beads and bronze spirals are comparatively rare. Supposedly, in the Viking Age the custom of using amber became more ritualized and restricted, mostly by religious prohibitions. Not unlike the earliest periods, amber had an economic value in the Viking Age. Raw amber was sold not only on the domestic, but on the international market as well. Based on the material from Palanga (the Baltic Sea coast) settlements, it is obvious that drift amber was collected and accumulated in the Viking Age and early Medieval Times. A raw amber hoard was found in one of the Palanga settlements. However, the archaeological material from the eastern and south-eastern parts of the Baltic coast indicates that in the Viking Age the demand for amber was less than in earlier times. Still there were several amber-producing centres in the Viking Age at Kolobrzeg, Wolin, Gdansk (all in Poland), Haithabu (Germany), and Daugmale. Elsewhere in the region, the number of amber beads in the graves of the Viking Age is small. In the Swedish archaeological material, the small number of amber beads in the Viking Age is related to the spread of carnelian necklaces. Carnelian beads came into fashion and obviously replaced amber necklaces. The archaeological material of Birka, Helgo (Sweden), Kolobrzeg, Wolin, Gdansk, and Haithabu settlements, and items from Gotland (Sweden) show small numbers of amber beads, but a considerable diversity of other amber artifacts; besides amber beads, pendants of different shapes, large rings, spindles, gaming pieces, and buttons have been found there. With the spread of Christianity to the eastern and south-eastern Baltic coast, amber craftsmen started to produce amber crosses.
Extremely interesting traditions of placing amber artifacts into graves have been noticed in north-western Lithuania. Occassionally in southern Curonian lands, round plaques of 3.5-5.5 cm in diameter are found in the inhumations of rich women dated to the 8th—9th centuries. So far only twenty of such amber plaques have been found. They are found in the area of the deceased women’s head. They are sometimes perfectly polished, sometimes only roughly cut. Round amber plaques have no holes for suspension or attachment. These peculiarities of the finds indicate that the round plaques are artifacts with no practical allocation. angle. Rings of the former shape are thinner in comparison with the latter. The width of the margin of the ring is dependent on the diameter: the greater the diameter, the wider the margins..
Rings and discs, as indicated by a find from Piestina, were made at the same time. With the help of drilled perforations laid out in a circle, a smaller disc was separated from the shaped and ground semi-manufactured large disc, leaving the edges of the large disc for making the ring. ✎ ✎ ✎
