Summary

Šeduva archaeological heritage and its investigations

Birutė Salatkienė

Keywords: site, mound, burial, archaeological findings, dating, museum collection.

The area of the Šeduva Neighbourhood contains Neolithic sites, a mound, one ancient settlement and three burial sites, as well as the sites of Šeduva old town, several villages and estate homesteads, all in all 12 sites including 6 ones being under the government protection. Of all archaeological sites, the Velžiai mound, Gimbogala burial site and the place of the Šeduva old town have been investigated. The Velžiai mound had been used at the start of the 1st–2nd millennia as a well-fortified system of ramparts and ditches. Three old burial sites–Gimbogala, Užuožeriai and Šeduva Užuovėja–in the area of Šeduva have survived, they are protected by the government and date as the second half of the 1st millennium. The investigations of the old town of Šeduva had been the longest and most productive. Its studies began in 1991 and are being continued now. The place of the former old town has been established, and the area has been included into the register of cultural values. The remnants of pavement, buildings and foundations, as well as a wooden bridge have been detected in the place of the old town. Its cultural layer is found to contain many and various artefacts, such as construction materials (bricks, plaster, fragments of pottery, slab tiles, window glass, and iron hinges) as well as fragments of household items (nails, ceramics, glassware and bottles, iron horseshoes, coins and clay pipes). The collections in Daugyvenė museum contain artefacts brought from the sites of old villages, estate homesteads and inns. These are the Baltoji site, fields of the Gimbogala village, Vėriškiai, Rokoniai; however these sites had not been studied yet.