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under the forest, probably still contain their full quota of stone circles. A barrow
revealed during the 1940 excavations in Kurmai%0Å„iai in western Lithuania, dating
from the sixth fifth centuries B.C., also shows the popular use of concentric stone
circles. The innermost stone ring, 5 m. in diameter, surrounded a round platform
paved with stones on which were found an inhumed woman s grave furnished
with temple ornaments and spirals that originally were attached to a knitted woolen
cap and six urn burials.
Around the end of the seventh and in the sixth centuries B.C., in eastern
Pomerania and East Prussia the stone cists were enlarged: leading into the central
one was a corridor-like structure which had an entrance in the side of the barrow,
enabling all successive family urns to be placed under the same roof.
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With the increase of commercial activities, cult influences also appeared. The
emergence of house-urns is peculiar to the Elbe-Saale region of central Germany,
Bohemia, Pomerania, Schleswig-Holstein, Denmark, and southern Sweden. The
Pomeranian urns were rectangular and stood on poles, probably in imitation of real
houses. Engraved horizontal lines on the front wall may have portrayed the logs of
timber houses. The idea of the house-shape very likely stems from Italy, where
such urns are known from the eighth century B.C. The central European,
Germanic, and Baltic house urns, which had their own characteristic features, date
from a later period, no earlier than the seventh century B.C. In Pomerania the
house-urns were not numerous and did not supersede the local type of pear shaped
urns.15
Around 600 B.C. there was a new development which also could have come
from the south to the north via the amber route, and which had a much more lasting
effect on the Baltic
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culture. This was the appearance of human features on the cover or neck of pear-
shaped urns. The portrayal of the human face became so characteristic a trait of the
branch distributed over eastern Pomerania and along the lower Vistula in the sixth
and fifth centuries, that it gave its name to the Face-Urn culture.16
At first the human features were only vaguely marked: two small holes on
the neck or cover of the urn to suggest the eyes and a lump between the holes for
the nose, with another hole below it for the mouth. The objects found with the
urns, particularly swan-neck pins, indicate that they were coeval with the Hallstatt
C period (c. 650 525 B.C.) in central Europe. These early face-urns, pear-shaped
and with a cylindrical neck, were undoubtedly of local manufacture; they are found
in typically western Baltic stone cists which housed urns of many members of a
family or kin.17 During the fifth century B.C. face-urns attained a classical shape.
The face itself had finely worked features while ornaments, weapons, and symbolic
scenes were incised over the neck and belly. Their artistic interest apart, the face
urns have incised upon them many perishable objects that are not found among the
archaeological remains. These are
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important in reconstructing women s and men s dress, wooden weapons such as
shields and spears, wooden wagons, etc., and particularly religious symbols and
ritual scenes.
Some of the urns had earrings, made of bronze spirals or of rings on which
were suspended glass or amber beads. These were attached to the ears small
handles, with perforations, on each side of the pot s neck. Necklaces were very
frequently represented on female urns by joining horizontal and vertical lines, and
in the back joint by a fretwork ornament. These were imitations of broad collar-
shaped necklaces which are found in graves of Pomerania and East Prussia.
Around the neck the urns sometimes had incised points or an incised ridge which
represented an amber or glass bead necklace. On the belly were depicted large pins
whose heads were made up of concentric circles. It was also quite usual to show a
comb on the left or right side of the belly. No doubt those urns richly decorated
with ornaments and combs served for female burials.
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The symbolic scenes were chiefly confined to the male urns. All urns had lids in
the shape of caps which had a hole in the top and which almost always were
decorated with a solar emblem.
The engravings on face-urns can be clearly divided into two groups. To the
first belong the almost naturalistic representations of ornaments; to the second,
schematized men, horses, wagons, shields, spears, sun discs raised on stelae, fir-
tree motifs, semicircles, and other geometric figures. The most interesting
symbolic scenes are found on urns from eastern Pomerania and particularly from
the area of Gdańsk (Danzig). Their art is of a peculiar local style as is their
symbolic script ; most likely they were a product of one tribal unit. Face-urns in
the peninsula of Samland and in western Masuria were most frequently decorated
only with geometric patterns and symbolic scenes, without representations of
ornaments.
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The general character of the symbolism on face-urns is related to that of the Late
Bronze-Early Iron Age rock engravings of southern Scandinavia and of the
Camonica Valley in northern Italy, as well as to that on bronze vessels, razors,
weapons, and clay figures of that period in the area between Italy and northern
Europe.
The most frequent motifs are suns represented in many variations on the lids,
or raised high on stelae and accompanied
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by horses; huge oval shields decorated with lines and dots like the radiating sun
and which usually take the central position among other figures; human beings
who hold spears and ride horses or four-wheeled wagons drawn by two horses; and
two spears separately portrayed. The best examples are on urns from Grabowo and
Starogard west of the lower Vistula. Probably the figures pertain to sky and sun
deities and their associates, horses, horned animals, axes and spears. The
engravings are certainly not realistic representations of hunting scenes or funeral
rites.
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The portrayed figures always took the form of line drawings accompanied
by dotted lines or diagonal striations. Humans and animals were highly
schematized. The men on the Grabowo urn look like gingerbread cookies with
outstretched legs and arms, and their heads are circles filled with dots. The men
holding spears are elongated beings with long necks, their arms hardly showing;
those on horseback or on a wagon usually have no legs, but they are shown with
outstretched arms. Although some of the figures look like nothing more than
children s drawings, others are charmingly graceful. Urns for distinguished persons
were probably decorated by the most eminent artists.
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Face urns express very well the ancient belief that the deceased continues in his
exact image and retains all his characteristics. In the art of face urns we never find
a repetition of the same human features, ornaments, or symbols; no two urns are
alike. They were made individually according to the dead person s sex, personal
qualities, and social status. This last was a matter of great concern; for example,
the urn from Grabowo is exceptional and probably belonged to a chieftain, while
others were left undecorated.
Another feature of the Grabowo urn is that the symbolic scenes occupy only
about the upper third of the urn, the rest being covered with long vertical lines
going down from around the neck and linked with from four to nine diagonal lines.
These lines may represent the stitches of an animal-skin cloak. From this and other
urns we may guess that chieftains and other distinguished persons wore well-sewn
cloaks, and symbolic scenes could have been stitched on to them.
The existence of skin cloaks and coats is confirmed by actual finds,
preserved in bog burials. From the face-urn period the well-preserved body of a
girl of twelve to fourteen years was discovered in 1939 at Dröbnitz, near Ostróda
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