Studies into the Balts’ Sacred Places

Description

The sacred places of the Balts of Lithuania take the form of sites and monuments that are shrouded in myths and legends. This study is based on an analysis of 1200 examples and, although very few have been investigated archaeologically, Vykintas Vaitkevičius looks at the historical, linguistic, ethnological and folklore data associated with them. The places are classified according to type, whether sacred hills, islands, hillforts/temples, fields, forests and groves, oak trees, stones, sacred waters or caves, and studied for the information they contain about Balts religion and society. With much of the evidence dating from the mid-1st millennium to early 2nd millennium AD, such data is then compared to contemporary neighbours including Slavs, Germans and Finno-Ugrians. A lengthy list of sites, an index of mythological and religious terms and lots of maps are provided at the back of the volume. 1. Introduction 11 1.1. Terms and definitions 1 1.2. Sources 2 1.3. Review of investigations 4 2. Alka, Alkas (general meanings) 7 2.1. Linguistic data 7 2.2. Historic data 7 2.3. Folklore data 8 2.4. Archaeological data 8 3. Classification of monuments 9 3.1. Hills 9 3.2. Fields 15 3.3. Forests, groves 16 3.4. Stones 21 3.5. Waters 37 3.6. Hollows 46 3.7. Caves 47 4. Links between sacred places 48 5. The status of sacred places 49 6. Sacred places and the cult of the dead 56 7. The traditions of sacred places: chronology and distribution 58 8. Conclusions 61 References 62 Maps 71 Appendix A. The Balts in the late 1st - early 2nd millennium AD 104 Appendix B. The Balts' tribes in the investigated area in the late 1st - early 2nd millennium AD 105 Appendix C. Administrative map of the investigated area 106 Appendix D. Sites cited and analysed in the monograph 108 Index. Mythological and religious terms 118