Akmens kelias į Lietuvą

Abstract

The modern geological science has determined the glaciation centres in Fennoscandia from which the familiar boulders have travelled to Lithuania during at least 6 glaciations. This may cause a fallacy that Lithuania has not got its own boulder rocks. Actually they exist in the crystalline basement at a great depth (0.2-2.3 km) which can be reached only by drilling. The crystalline basement is composed of igneous and metamorphic rocks which in Fennoscandia are exposed on the surface of the earth. The intensive land reclamation and expansion of agrarian lands as well as different construction works and building of roads have considerably reduced natural areas. Timely attempts have been taken to preserve some natural boulder fields by giving them the status of reserves. The largest and most beautiful boulders as well as boulders with mysterious marks or boulders mentioned in various legends were given the status of geological monuments. The largest to be mentioned are: Puokė stone (Skuodas district), Puntukas stone (Anykščiai district), Kriaučius stone (Kelmė district) and others. The Puntukas stone is discussed in greater detail. The capacity of Puntukas is about 155-160 m3 and its weight is more than 400 t. Puntukas is a ternary monument: natural, archaeological and fine arts. It is assumed that the first inhabitants of Lithuania after glaciation might have seen the recessive glacier and avalanche, solifluction and glacial karst phenomena which were indirectly described in some stories. Boulders represent a natural part of Lithuanian identity. Stones as solid individual pieces of rock are the main subject matter of the present paper. Their origin on the surface of the earth has been discussed by European field scientists since long ago. According to one of the persistent hypotheses, boulders were scattered by the waters of deluge. In the course of time, a new hypothesis has developed. According to it, stones were scattered on the surface of the earth by icebergs. This hypothesis was proposed by a Scottish field scientist Ch. Lyell in 1830. Famous doctor and field scientist E. Eichwald (1830) also supported this point of view. He explained the appearance of boulders in the Vilnius region by iceberg activity. Some time later, exponents of the theory of glaciations took root in Europe. This opinion became popular in the Baltic countries in the second half of the 19th century (C. F. Schmidt, G. Berendt, A. Giedraitis, etc.). Yet only in 1911 a Finnish scientist J. Sederholm compiled and published a map demonstrating the cones (fans) of scattering of Fennoscandian indicator boulders in the northern part of Europe.