Geografijos metraštis, Nr. 54, 2021 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.5200/GM.2021.6
Filomena Kavoliutė
Vilniaus universiteto Chemijos ir geomokslų fakulteto Geomokslų instituto Geografijos ir kraštotvarkos katedra / Vilnius University, Faculty of Chemistry and Geosciences, Institute of Geosciences, Department of Geography and Land Management
Įvadas
2010 m. Tverų apylinkių ekspedicijoje dėmesį patraukė seniūnijoje esančių Vėlaičių kaimų vardai mįslingu bendrumu su žodžiu ,,vėlė“ ir nustebino sutapimu – abiejų netolimoje kaimynystėje (valandos kelio pėsčiomis atstumu) esančiais archeologiniais paminklais. Tuoj po to vienas jų buvo panaikintas, suteikiant vietovei gretimo kaimo vardą (Kavoliutė, 2019). Grįžti prie šių vietovardžių (jų rasti 5) ir pastebėtų sutapimų ragino ankstesni informatyvūs vietovių vardų žvalgymai, atskleidę rašytiniais šaltiniais patvirtintą kai kurių kaimų vardų senumą (Kavoliutė, 2014). Vietovių vardų ir gamtinės aplinkos sąsajų tyrimai taip pat atskleidė dalies jų galimą ryšį su seniausiu istoriniu laikotarpiu – ankstyvaisiais viduramžiais (Kavoliutė, 2020). Nepaisant vardų bendrumo su žodžiu ,,vėlė“, kaip ir žodžiu ,,vėlus“, bei neabejotinų sąsajų su istoriniu kontekstu, kuris priklauso istorijos mokslo tyrimų laukui, ryžtasi galimų kilmės priežasčių paieškoms, žvelgiant į tokius vardus turinčias vietoves iš kraštovaizdžio geografijos pozicijų. Buvo išsikelta hipotezė: jei Vėlaičių ir panašių vardų vietovės, jų bendruomenės būtų turėjusios sąsajų su vėlėmis – mirusiųjų pasauliu, tokie vardai, pavardės turėtų būti atėję dar iš ikikrikščioniškojo valstybės laikotarpio, o vietovėse ar jų apylinkėse turėtų būti kokių nors tą patvirtinančių objektų. Ši nuostata skatino pasidomėti archeologinių paminklų paplitimu, nes tai svarbūs kraštovaizdžio elementai – vietovių kultūrinio klodo dalis. Straipsniu siekiama nustatyti vietovių sąsajas su jais, patikrinant tai kaip vieną iš būtinų tokiai kilmei prielaidų. Su anapusiniu pasauliu susijęs ir žodis ,,dausos“, o panašūs vietovardžiai čia taip pat trumpai aptariami.
Abstract
The coincidence has long been of interest: the villages are called Vėlaičiai, and there are archeological monuments in their immediate vicinity (an hour’s walk away) (of Tverai, Rietavas district). In Lithuanian language the Vėlaičiai word shares the same root with: late – time of day, the end of a season and ghost – the spirit of a dead person. According to data from linguists, such place names are derived from personal names and are not associated with the word ghost.
Previous explorations of place names have revealed a written link between the names of some villages and the early Middle Ages (Kavoliutė, 2014, 2020). Among the old personal names of the Lithuanian nomenclature before the period of Christianity, the personal names „Veluti” are found. Written documents related to the pre-Christian period in Lithuania tell about the fireplaces in the sacred forests, which were distributed to the villages and where the dead were burned. The ghosts of the dead were then remembered in those places. Other documents of that period allude to the ability of the Aistians (Prussians) to embalm bodies; Lithuanians could have known that too. The question arises: perhaps the people who performed such services could be called vėlaičiai? Hypothesis made that if in the past the meaning of such communities or areas would be linked to a world of the dead, in or in the surrounding of them should be some objects from the pre-Christian period. The purpose of this article is to identify the links between such sites and the distribution of archaeological sites, the oldest cultural layer in the landscape. This is one of the preconditions for determining the period of origin of names.
At the beginning, 5 villages named Vėlaičiai were found, but when it was noticed that often the same names are spelled differently – the letters ė, e, i are changed, more names were included in the study. Their numbers rose to 23 and 36 locations. To determine the links between villages and archeological monuments, the surroundings are surveyed within a radius of 5-6 km – a 1-hour walk away.
The required data are taken from the Register of Immovable Cultural Property of the Department of Cultural Heritage. Illustrative schemes are provided for each location. Their scale is not uniform, so the surroundings of the areas are highlighted by a defined circle within a radius of 5 km; it is not marked if the illustration shows only an area with a radius of 5 km.
The analysis of 36 places revealed that the villages of Vėlaičiai and similar names are clearly connected with the cultural layer of the pre-Christian period, as only in the vicinity of 6 places no clearer tangible connection with the mounds or cemeteries was observed. Summarizing the distances separating the villages from the archeological sites in the area, it turned out that the absolute largest part of them – even 80% – is concentrated around 1-4 km away. These are the surrounding areas (Fig. 27, 28).
In terms of the abundance of the archaeological heritage, the areas and their surroundings are very different: in some it is rich, even abundant, in others it can be described as average, in others it is very modest. Such a different environment of Vėlaičiai and villages of similar names shows that some of them were in the old areas of the cultural landscape (cultural centers of the pre-Christian period) or on their outskirts, others – in sparsely populated peripheries. The visible remoteness of some villages compared to pre-Christian monuments distribution areas, which have better natural conditions for economic activity, indicates the exodus of communities to less-favored areas. This may be related to the persecution of old pagan traditions after the introduction of Christianity. With the extinction of paganism, such communities were able to maintain the old practice of honoring the dead for longer, resulting in ghost-named names.
The cultural layer of the environs of Vėlaičiai and other areas with similar names is usually dated to the 1st millennium AD – the beginning of the 2nd millennium (Table 1). It is more likely that Vėlaičiai and other similar village names may be associated with such communities than with the time of day or the end of the season. These coincidences suggest that the names of such places are very old, and that communities may have been associated with honoring the dead in the past, perhaps even cremating.
The place names Vėlaičiai and Velekiemis are used in the title of the article in a general sense to describe communities and their places of residence. Many of the areas mentioned in the 19th century documents could not be found on modern maps. This shows that there have been many more places with such names in the past. It has been observed that some of the analyzed communities reached the 20th century as very small communities, but there were also some very large ones; they are associated with the centers of the oldest cultural landscape (Fig. 6,19).