Ceremonial rod

This oak rod with an ornamented head was found during archaeological research of the exterior of the south gate at the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania in a layer of black peat formed along the abutment foundations of the pre-Gothic wall M 25. Not all of the head ornament has survived, part of it has burned away. Rods with heads were usually made from oak, using the part where the trunk and a branch connected: the head would be carved from the lump formed in the trunk, while the shaft would be made from the branch itself. There is also thought to have been another production technique where rods would be made from two parts – a pear-shaped head from a thicker piece of wood, into which a hole would be drilled to accommodate a shaft. These artefacts were widespread in the Baltic, northern Slavic and certain other early Ruthenian lands in the 10th–15th centuries. They have been found in Novgorod, Polotsk, Vitebsk, Brest, Pskov, Riga and Koknese. In Lithuania, we are most familiar with such artefacts from research of the Vilnius Lower Castle and Kernavė territories. The greatest concentration of these kinds of artefacts is found in cultural layers dating to the 14th century. Most of the rods found in our country are not ornamented, even though some are decorated with geometric patterns. In neighbouring Baltic and Slavic lands, the heads on these rods are rather varied. There are round and pear-shaped heads, irregular heads, as well as figures of people, birds, animal heads and human hands depicted on the ends. The purpose of these artefacts still arouses discussions. Some say that the rods could have been used as a weapon in a duel, as drum-sticks, flag poles, children's toys or daily use objects. They could have also been a version of the krivūlė, a pagan symbolic staff informing people to gather for a meeting. However, the chronology of the artefacts, their rapid disappearance (the tradition of using ceremonial rods ended immediately after the Christianisation of Lithuania), the type of wood (almost all were made of oak which was of particular significance in Baltic mythology) and the context indicated by archaeological and ethnographic data suggests these artefacts can be associated with pre-Christian religious attributes. Taking into account the evidence that they were used fairly often, it can be presumed that these rods could have been used in both universal and cult-related rituals or in games, which were a part of daily life and had the features of a religious ritual or rite.