Roman period grave inside the stone circle at the Sambian-Natangian Schlakalken-2 - Zaostrov'e-2 cemetery

The paper explores a cist grave of the Roman period made inside a stone circle at the Schlakalken-2-Zaostrov'e-2 cemetery ascribed to the Sambian-Natangian cultural tradition (Dollkeim-Kovrovo culture). Presumably, this grave reflects the impact of Germanic funerary rites on the Baltic peoples that lived in the Sambian peninsula suggesting that the Sambian-Natangian population groups also included Germanic people who belonged to the Wielbark culture or were born in Scandinavia. In this case, the Scandinavian influence seems to be more likely. However, in the Early Iron Age and in the Roman period the rite of arranging burials in stone cists enclosed by stone circles spread among the Balts and the Baltic Finns all across the circum-Baltic region, including the areas outside the Germanic world. For this reason, it is quite possible that the grave at the Schlakalken-2-Zaostrov'e-2 cemetery is somehow linked to this general Baltic tradition.