Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)
Rusių Rago pilkapynas
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Overview
About this site
Overview
Rusių Rago pilkapynas (also called Prancūzkapiai) is a barrow cemetery in Lithuania, in Širvintos district, Čiobiškis elderate, 1 km west of Čiobiškis, near the village of Rusių Rago. It lies on the right side of the Neris valley, in the Čiobiškis forest, and is an archaeological monument of national importance.
Cremation graves of the fifth to sixth centuries were found, together with burnt and unburnt horse remains.
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Article
Rusių Rago pilkapynas
DescriptionSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Lithuanian): Rusių Rago pilkapynasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Lithuanian): Rusių Rago pilkapynasCC BY-SA 4.0
The cemetery consists of 3 clusters: about 28 mounds on the bank of the Neris near the boundary of the villages of Rusių Rago and Žvagakalnis; 20 mounds north of Rusių Rago; and 12 mounds by the road to Čiobiškis. The mounds are 8–15 m in diameter and 1–2 m high. Many are damaged, and they are ringed with wreaths of stones.
The finds include cremation graves of the fifth to sixth centuries, remains of burnt and inhumed horses, and ornaments, weapons and tools.
FindsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Lithuanian): Rusių Rago pilkapynasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Lithuanian): Rusių Rago pilkapynasCC BY-SA 4.0
The finds include cremation graves of the fifth to sixth centuries, remains of burnt and inhumed horses, and ornaments, weapons and tools. It is supposed that warriors were buried in the third group and their horses in the second group. The finds are kept in the National Museum of Lithuania.
ExcavationsSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Lithuanian): Rusių Rago pilkapynasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Lithuanian): Rusių Rago pilkapynasCC BY-SA 4.0
The cemetery was investigated in 1963–1964 by archaeologists led by Regina Kulikauskienė.
ContextSources for this section
- Wikipedia (Lithuanian): Rusių Rago pilkapynasCC BY-SA 4.0
Sources for this section
- Wikipedia (Lithuanian): Rusių Rago pilkapynasCC BY-SA 4.0
Along the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic, burial mounds mark the territories of the Baltic peoples. In Lithuanian they are called pilkapiai. Lithuanian records of this kind are mostly cemeteries of small mounds recorded in national registers; they are barrow cemeteries and not megaliths.
Tradition and region
About this kind of monument
Baltic barrow cemeteries
Along the southern and eastern shores of the Baltic, burial mounds mark the territories of the Baltic peoples. In Lithuanian they are called pilkapiai, and the Atlas's Lithuanian and Belarusian records are mostly cemeteries of small mounds recorded in national registers. They are barrow cemeteries and not megaliths.
The deepest root of the tradition is the West Baltic barrow culture of the early Iron Age, from which most of the Western Baltic culture arose. That culture, of the Bronze Age and Iron Age along the southern coast of the Baltic, was ethnically Baltic and shared similar monuments and funeral rites; its tribes included the Old Prussians, Galindians, Yotvingians and Skalvians. Further north, the Curonians, a medieval Baltic tribe of the fifth to sixteenth centuries CE, lived on the coast of what are now western Latvia and Lithuania, and their neighbours the Samogitians lived inland to the east. Mounds of the broader barrow tradition, the kurgans, had spread into eastern and northern Europe as early as the third millennium BCE.
Because a cemetery is made up of many small mounds, it records an ordinary community and not a single ruler. Many of these mounds have not been excavated, so the Atlas gives them a broad range and does not claim a date.
When visiting, look for a group of small round mounds under trees or on a river terrace, and note how the mounds are laid out along the terrace or ridge.
Paraphrased from Wikipedia: Western Baltic culture, Wikipedia: Curonians, Wikipedia: Samogitians, Wikipedia: Kurgan, Wikipedia: Tumulus · CC BY-SA 4.0
From the article
Dated moments in the story
- 1963
Rusių Rago pilkapyną 1963–1964 m. tyrė Reginos Kulikauskienės vadovaujami archeologai.
Source
See it in 3D
An interpretive reconstruction of the monument, standing on the real ground at its exact point, under the sun for that place and season. Drag to look around it.
The reconstruction is ours, not a survey: it shows what a monument of this type looks like, at the size the record gives for this one.
Where it stands
Lithuania
The pin marks the monument itself — its exact point.
- Coordinates
- 54°57′31″ N, 24°38′49″ EFor a GPS or map app: 54.95861, 24.64694
Access is as our sources describe it; we have not visited the site to check.
Nearby
The closest sites in the Atlas, by straight line.
Čiobiškio pilkapynas- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Dailidžių-Ardiškio pilkapynai
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Kernavės pilkapynas
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Ardiškių pilkapynas ir gyvenvietė
- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Alinkos pilkapynas
Grabijolų pilkapynas- Megalithic mound (tumulus with integral stones)Skarulių pilkapiai
Maisiejūnų pilkapiai
Sources
Every record behind this page, with the link it came from.
1 source behind this page
- 01Wikidata Q20503746wikidata.org
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Around this place
The ten nearest sites, by compass
- Čiobiškio pilkapynas0.6 km E
- Dailidžių-Ardiškio pilkapynai10 km SE
- Kernavės pilkapynas14 km SE
- Ardiškių pilkapynas ir gyvenvietė14 km SE
- Alinkos pilkapynas20 km S
- Grabijolų pilkapynas21 km SE
- Skarulių pilkapiai25 km NW
- Maisiejūnų pilkapiai29 km SW
- Kapitoniškių pilkapynas32 km SW
- Migliniškių pilkapynas37 km S
Credit
Text, licence and sources
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Rusių Rago pilkapynas" (Lithuanian), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0; authors are listed in the page history. Reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikipedia · Edit history and authors