The role of the Globular Amphora Culture in the development of the Upper Neman communities

The paper discusses the problems of the Globular Amphora Culture (hereinafter the GAC) in the Upper Neman region. According to the proposition of M. Shmyt the sources related to the GAC have been divided in two groups. The first group is made up of the so-called pure sources i.e. the materials directly related to the GAC although hypothetically at times. It includes cemeteries, flint mines and workshops as well as finds of the quadrangular ground flint axes and chisels. The second group comprises so-called syncretic sources associated with the broad understood GAC traditions. The traits genetically linked to the GAC could be identified in materials of the Neman Culture as well as the local groups of the Corded Ware cultures Range. The presence of the GAC people and traditions in the area in question is dated to the second quarter III - first quarter II BC. Two main forms of transfer the GAC traditions have been distinguished. Firstly, the Upper Neman region was the territory of the direct contacts between the GAC people and the local populations. Secondly, the GAC elements had been distributed in the synthesized forms. The major source of the synthesized GAC traits was the Rzucewo Culture as well as the Middle Dnieper Culture. The prospects of the archaeological research are discussed. On the current stage of the research, the issue of the chronology of the GAC traditions spreading in the area in question requires a more detailed study. Top priority should also be given to a thorough investigation of the GAC role in the socio-economic transformation of the Upper Neman population in the III - the beginning II mill. BC.