ABSTRACT. Archaeological, geological, and paleoecological investigations supported by radiocarbon dating enabled us to present a reconstruction of chronologically based paleoenvironmental and human activity changes in the Sventoji region, NW Lithuania, during the period 4000-800 cal BC. In addition, we describe the main stages of the Late Glacial and Holocene periods in the area. The Baltic Ice Lake regression was succeeded by a terrestrial period until the Littorina Sea maximal transgression at 5700-5400 cal BC. A marine bay with brackish water was transformed into a freshwater lagoon before the oldest archaeological evidence of human presence, i.e. 4000/3700 cal BC. However, the presence of Cerealia type and Plantago lanceolata pollen dating back to about 4400-4300 cal BC suggests earlier farming activities in the area. Pollen analyses show the minor but continuous role of cereal cultivation after 3250 cal BC. Due to the predominance of the boggy landscape in the immediate vicinity of the Sventoji sites, agricultural fields were situated further away from the sites themselves. Exploitation of remote areas of the freshwater basin by diverse fishing gear was proven by the discovery of a new fishing site, Sventoji 41 (2900-2600 cal BC). This finding together with data of previous research suggest a complex and elaborate coastal economy involving seal hunting and year-round freshwater fishing during the 3rd millennium cal BC. A decline in human activity is seen in the pollen diagram after 1800 cal BC, which could be due to significant environmental changes, including overgrowth of the freshwater lagoon basin with vegetation.

One of the unique places in Europe in both environmental and cultural terms is the Curonian Spit -a massive sandy barrier separating the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. Straddling both the Lithuanian and the Russian parts, the spit is included into the UNESCO list of cultural heritage monuments. From the geological point of view, it is still an "alive" environment dominated by aeolian deposits. With the help of modern geophysical and geochronological techniques (ground-penetrating radar [GPR] surveys, LIDAR data, and radiocarbon [ 14 C] dating), detailed investigations of paleosols were carried out in the Dead (Grey) Dunes massif located between Juodkrante and Pervalka settlements on the Lithuanian half of the Curonian Spit. Several soil-forming generations (phases) during 5800-4500, 3900-3100, 2600-2400, and from 1900 calendar years BP until the present have been distinguished. GPR surveys enabled a series of paleogeographic reconstructions of the massif for different time intervals of its evolutionary history.

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Contemporary Lithuania, an area of the Balt cultures, is the northernmost region where burials, dated from the late second to the late seventh century ad, have been found with selected parts or whole bodies of horses. This study presents new information about these burials based on a multidisciplinary—archaeological, zooarchaeological, and chronological—approach. Our aim is to reconstruct the funeral rites and the human-horse relationships in Lithuania from the late second to the late seventh centuries ad, to refine the chronology of the horse burials in the region, and to use the new zooarchaeological data for more detailed studies of mortuary practices.

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