Pages: 163-174

The article deals with the buckle with embossed decoration, originating from the burial Marvele, Central Lithuania. The buckle bears Mediterranean Crafts tradition. Almost all finds of buckles of this type come from the Black Sea, they are especially numerous in the South-West Crimea. Quite distinctive are buckles with oval panel, known only to the Crimea, and then there are more numerous buckles with rectangular panel, like in Marvele, presented on the Black Sea Coast and occasionally found in the middle basin of the Danube. According to findings in the Caucasian and Crimean burials, these buckles can be dated by the second half of the 5th — early first half of the 6th century. Their manufacturing seems to have centered in the North Pontic region, probably in the Crimea. For almost no other items of the Pontic origin are known in the Baltics, it can be assumed that the buckle tells about some contact between the Middle Danube and the Baltic region.

Keywords: Lithuania, Byzantium, Balts, buckle, migrations

Information about author:

Michel Kazanski (Paris, France). Doctor Habilitat. French National Center for Scientific Research, Centre for Studies in History and Civilization of Byzantium, Collège de France, Rue du Cardinal Lemoine, 52, Paris, 75005, France
E-mail: [email protected]