The stone axes of Šišponiškės

What if you could hold a tool used over three thousand years ago? The Šišponiškės hillfort might let you do exactly that. It sits in the Dusetų seniūnija municipality, east of Vainiūnai, tucked away in the fields between the Kiaulinys and Bevardžius streams.

This isn't just a random mound. It was a deliberate fortification built between the 1st millennium BC and the start of the 1st millennium AD. The site features a rectangular courtyard measuring 67 by 29 metres. The site includes a 25-metre-wide terrace on the southwest slope and a 15-metre-wide terrace on the west slope. The slopes have a medium height of 10 - 20 metres.

Archaeologists have pulled some pretty heavy history out of the dirt here. We are talking about stone axes with holes in the shafts, iron slag, and both smooth and rough ceramics. There is also a peculiar amount of decorated pottery and various bits of iron. Among the finds, eight stone axes were sent to the Dusetų muziejus, while others are held by the Vytauto Didžiojo karo muziejus, the Rokiškio krašto muziejus, and the Lithuanian National Museum.

The hillfort is covered in weeds and grass, looking very peaceful for a place that was once a site of strategic defense. It is an open archaeological site, so you can wander the slopes and imagine the people who lived here before the records even began.

Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons