Content:
Kukuliškiai hilltop settlement (Klaipėda district) is the only single layered (883–403 cal BC) Late Bronze Age settlement in the Lithuanian maritime landscape, located closest to the Baltic Sea. Systematic investigation is being conducted since 2017: 130 boreholes were drilled, around 3,5 hectares scanned with GPR and 68 sq. meters excavated. The main goal of investigations is to determine paleo-environment, inner settlement’s structure, possible fortifications, economic technologies and diet. The investigation strategy was based on combination of non-invasive methods (GPR and drilling) with testing pits and excavation plots due to very complex and challenging landscape of this settlement. This strategy enabled to reconstruct primary landscape, main traits of community’s subsistence economy. It is important to collect data for macrobotanical, zooarchaeological, palinological material, samples for AMS C14 dating, inorganic and organic phosphorus and geomorphological analyses. The presentation is focused on benefits of this complex investigations, limitations and challenges encountered during 4 years’ experience in research of this Late Bronze Age site.
Keywords:
hilltop settlement, Lithuania, Late Bronze Age, non-invasive methods, investigation strategy