Zvejnieki (Northern Latvia) – Stone Age Cemetery

Description

Until this study, presented by Francis Zagorskis in the 1980s and here offered in English translation, Stone Age cemeteries were the least known and researched category of archaeological site in the East Baltic. Zvejnieki Cemetery, examined here, lies on the north shore of Lake Burtnieki, and two settlement sites have been discovered and excavated nearby. Zvejnieki is the largest of the Stone Age cemeteries known so far in Northern Europe, and covers a chronological span from the Late Mesolithic to the Late Neolithic. Based on the data obtained regarding the arrangement of the cemetery, the burial practices among the ancient inhabitants, the grave goods and the anthropological material, it has been possible to trace changes in material culture, the development of beliefs and customs, changes in social structure and the transformation of culture over a long period of the Stone Age.