Museum exposition

Stone and Bronze Ages  (Tenth to Mid-First Century BC)

Twelve thousand years ago a warm period began, floods engraved the hillsides, gullies were formed, and the newly formed hills later became mounds. Around 9500 to 8000 years ago, the first terrace over the flooded land near the Neris was formed, on which the first people settled. The first settlements were established on the southern and south-eastern side of the Pajauta Valley. The middle pan of the valley was the old bed of the Neris which was gradually turning into a bog.The first settlements in the neighbourhood of Kernave appeared as early as 9000 BC, in the Epipaleolithic period. It is believed that they appeared alongside the Neris from the south-west, from what is now Kaunas. On the banks of the Neris temporary camps of hunters, gatherers and fishermen were set up.

The camps of the first settlers - descendants of the Paleolithic culture - were found in the Pajauta Valley, near the Mitkiskiai farmstead, on the first terrace of the Neris, about a hundred meters from the present-day bank. Flint arrowheads, similar to leaf-shaped Palaeolithic arrowheads made of darnel, as well as very big, short and wide scrapers and wide cleavers were found here.  In the Middle Stone or Mesolithic Age (8000-5000 BC) the climate got warmer and the vegetation and fauna became more abundant. Besides hunting, fishing started to play a more important role.Since 8000 BC settlers have never left the Pajauta Valley. People lived on the left bank of the Neris, near the village of Mitkiskiai. Here, Mesolithic and Neolithic settlements of the Mesolithic Kunda and the Neolithic Nemunas cultures, and, at Mitkiskes, settlements of the culture of cord-marked pottery dating back to 2000 BC, were found.

The New Stone or Neolithic Age (4000-2000 BC) determined the further improvement of manufacture and the appearance of primitive forms of agriculture. Kernave, Neolithic settlements appeared in the Pajauta Valley, in file pine forest near the Neris, and in Semeniskes on both sides of the Kernave rivulet. Settlements we also established near Lake Pragarine and in other places. The Bronze Age (2000 - 1200 BC) in the Baltic lands began with the use of bronze, and short afterwards with the adoption of technologies for its production. At that time hunting, fishing, and gathering as the main sources of food were replaced by livestock rearing and agriculture. People started growing wheat and barley, and began keeping pigs, cattle, and horses.Interesting information on Bronze Age settlements was obtained in 1985 on the castle hill and in 1989 in the Pajauta Valley near the farmstead of Mitkiskiai.By 2000 BC in the Neris basin the first Eastern Baltic culture, that of incised ceramics, had started to develop.

Early Iron Age  (fifth to first century BC)

The Iron Age is one of the shortest periods in human prehistory. The dates of the Iron Age vary for different Baltic lands. It is believed that in Lithuania it lasted from the fifth century BC until the middle of the 13th century and the formation of the Lithuanian state. The early Iron Age is closely related to the preceding Bronze Age and to the culture of incised pottery. This was the most flourishing period of this culture.

Forte most part, information about the early Iron Age in the Eastern Baltic lands comes from excavations of mounds. Fortified settlements were usually built on mounds (Fire Hill in Kernave). Dwellings were pole constructions with a hearth inside the building. The role of agriculture was still insignificant. Cattle breeding was the dominant form of agriculture. Iron was only beginning to spread and only a limited number of iron tools were used. Archaeologists find many stone axes and bone objects from this period.

It was a time of formation of tribes, cultures, and dialects on the basis of a common Baltic culture. In about the fifth century BC the Baltic parent language began to split. Graves from this period were found in Kernave in the autumn of 1989.

The burial ground is flat, without traces of barrows. Graves of three types have been found. The burned bones of some of the deceased were put into simple pits, other burned bones were put into clearly arranged stone boxes, yet others were put in urns. The burial ground is on the right bank of the Neris, in the Pajauta Valley, about 90 metres north of the river. This is the site of a former island that was situated between the present-day Neris and the waterlogged old river bed. The burial ground was formed on the site of old Stone and Bronze Age settlements.Later, in the first centuries AD, when the place was no longer used for burial purposes, a settlement was again formed here. There were settlements here also in the 12th-14th centuries.

The Old Iron Age  (first to fourth centuries AD, of the Roman Period)

This was the Baltic "golden age". After people had learned how to make Iron from local ironstone, the material culture and every day life started to change. Iron ore obtained from local bogs was used for making arms and tools. Iron axes replaced stone and bronze axes. Bone tools were no longer important. Farming became the main occupation, livestock rearing was also developing. At that time people in Kernave settled the fertile Pajauta Valley and founded unfortified settlements close to highland. A settlement was established also on the former burial site with burnt graves. In the layer from the first centuries AD the remains of iron ovens, column-type buildings, and granulated pottery were found. Corded pottery was rare, it was replaced by rough pottery.

The mounds already had their first fortifications. They were connected to the settlement by a secret wooden road through a bog-a “medgrinda”. This is the oldest road in Lithuania with a hard surface.

Another settlement from the same period to the south-west from Castle Hill, in a field near the Neris, has survived better. In 1984, at a depth of 30-35 centimeters, decayed dwellings and farm buildings, pits, column pits, and remains of stoves for smelting iron from the third and fourth centuries were found. The area of this unfortified settlement was five to six hectares.The setlement often suffered in spring floods and by about the fifth century it was deserted.

The first to the fourth centuries are sometimes called the Roman Period. The first written data on our ancestors comes from this period. The Roman historian, Cornelius Tacitus, about 98 BC, in his monograph on Germany, mentions its neighbours the Aestii, who lived near the Baltic Sea. The Aestii were farmers and amber gatherers.Ever-strengthening trade relations with the Roman Empire and its provinces had their impact also on Kernave. In the Pajauta Valley fragments of imported glass from the second and third centuries AD, and a Marcus Aurelius silver denarius coin from 161-162 AD were found.

The Middle Iron Age  (fifth to eight century AD)

In the material culture of the Middle Iron Age no drastic changes occurred. Farming and cattle rearing were developing, iron tools became more advanced, and people wore more jewellery. From the end of the second century the Grooved Ware culture was rapidly disappearing. In the middle of the first millennium, in the era of great migrations due to complicated ethnocultural processes, the new East Lithuanian Mound Culture emerged.

Its people were direct ancestors of the Lithuanians. It was from them that in about the tenth century the Lithuanian nation developed. In about the middle of the first millennium the inhabitants of Kernave abandoned the Pajauta Valley and staffed to settle the mounds. This was prompted by the humid climate and frequent enemy attacks. Three-winged arrowheads, pierced by the nomadic people from the steppes, could still be found on Castle Hill.

In the fifth and sixth centuries, due to the increase in the number of people and stronger relations between communities, the Balts finally split into separate tribes. " Kernave became one of the tribal centers of eastern Lithuania that later, together with Vilnius and Trakai, formed in the Neris basin, the kernel from which the Lithuanian nation developed.

In about 1000 AD, in Lithuania and in neighbouring countries, further changes in socio-economic life leading to the formation of the feudal system took place. The Russian, Polish and Swedish states were established. The first attempts to Christianize the Baltic tribes were made, and in l009 the name Lithuania was mentioned for the first time. Wars with the neighbouring countries became more intense. Trade relations developed and manufacturing techniques became more advanced: the potter's wheel, the millstone, and the large iron axe were invented. Houses were built from logs interlocking at the corners, stoves were made of clay. Ploughshares and sickles came into use. In about the tenth or eleventh century rye started to spread, and later became the main crop.All these processes influenced the development of Kernave.At the foot of the mounds a settlement, a prototype of the city of the Middle Ages, started to grow. The fortifications were reinforced.

The Town of Kernave in the Middle Ages  (12th - 14th c.)

From the middle of the first millennium the Kernave settlement started to grow. The approaches to the mounds and the mounds of Mindaugas Throne, The Hearth, and Lizdeika are built up. At the end of the 13th century Kernave became an important feudal center with the characteristics of a city.

The domain of the grand duke was on Hearth Mound. It was protected by the fortifications on Mindaugas Throne and Lizdeika and by Kriveikiskiu Mound, which was used for observation purposes.

The biggest mound - Castle Hill, an artisan district protected by a defensive ditch - defended the duke's castle from the north and west. It was the upper part of the town, situated on the fourth terrace of the river.

The lower part of the town, in the Pajauta Valley, occupied an area of some hectares and had natural borders - swamps in the east and west and the Neris in the south.

After the fire of 1365 the fortifications on Castle Hill were strengthened, however, the final reinforcements were not finished before the last destruction of the castles in 1390. After the destruction of the castles the ancient medieval town also began to fall into decay. Thanks to high ground-water level deposits brought by river floods in spring the wooden structures, fences, wooden pavements, and household utensils, have been preserved. 

Unique horn seals for the ornamentation of birch bark were found (by way of experiment, the technology for processing birch bark has teen recreated). A characteristic feature of the pattern is precision and the absence of any unnecessary details. This shows that the craftsman was a man of artistic taste.

Almost 600 years passed, and in1986 the ancient Pompeii of Lithuania was discovered.The history of the ancient town of Kernave is presented in stands seven to 15.

Trade Relations  (from the 12th to the 14th c.)

Between the 12th and 14th centuries Kernave grew into an important medieval economic center, with highly developed handicrafts and trade relations. The city traded mostly with the lands of old Russia. From old Russia trade routes led to the countries of the Near East. The city had also trade links with neighbouring European countries.

Silver jewellery, glazed pottery and articles of glass were transported from old Russia. Many ornaments imported from old Russia were found in the Kernave Kriveikiskiai burial ground of the 13th and 14th centuries. Jewellery has also been found in mounds and in the territory of old Kernave.

The exhibition contains an impressive string of beads that was found in previously mentioned grave No 21 . It consists of 400 beads of different sizes, shapes, mass and colour, ten cowry shells and one bell. Thirteen cowry shells have been found in Kernave. In Lithuania these artifacts are very rare. They originate from the Maldive Islands in the Indian Ocean.

Kernave also traded with Western Europe, several items were even brought from the Near East. Most imported glassware comes from the Near East. Remains of glass have also been found (Aleppo, Damascus and Al Fustat. The finds are on display). These are luxury items characteristic of the court of the grand duke.We do not know all the trade links yet, they will be discovered during further archaeological investigations. By chance we have learned the names of two merchants from Kernave - Rameizis (1290) and Studile (1303) - who ran into debt and were included in the Riga Book of Debts.

Kernavė cemetery  (13th - 14th c.)

The town artisan and trader community represent the cemetery material, however this does not reflect the entire social composition. There are no graves of the feudal elite. Not one single weapon was found yet their placement in burials was still popular at that time. Consequently, members of the warrior elite are buried somewhere else.

No less than 1570 Kernavė town dwellers are buried here, according to the cemetery research data. The structural analysis of cemetery shows that families were buried together. It is clear the female, as potential child bearer, held great importance in the community for the continuation of the family. Burials of girls and women up to the age of 30 were markedly richer in grave goods than older females. 

The material culture of the Kernavė town community clearly stands out from the general context of archaeological sites in Lithuania during that time period. Peripheral burial site artifacts are of local jeweler craftsmanship.

There are few perceptible influences of neighbouring cultures. Meanwhile, the community of Kernavė was very open, not self-enclosed. The occupation specifics for artisans and traders, unlike fermers, required constant contact with the expanding market. We can see many ornaments characteristic to Slavs.

Many of the head decorations found in Kernave are gilded. The nearest place where they could have been made is Novgorod.
A portion of the discovered grave good types are very similar to Jatvingian burial site crafts. Historical sources mention that Jatvingians fled to Lithuania from the Russians and later from the Germans.The Medieval Kernavė complex of archaeological sites represents Lithuania’s town culture and community in the 13th-14th centuries. Structurally, this was a European context product. However, it was distinctive by its pagan world skirmishing with Christian culture and tradition.