The ancient burial place of Kunigiškės

Kunigiškės Ancient Monument is located in the north-eastern part of Palanga, on the eastern side of the Palanga-Liepoja road, behind Kunigiškės Street on the left, between the sand and gravel pits – on the territory of the former village of Kunigiškės. The area of the site is 2 170,00 m2. Today it is a small irregular circular hill of 30 x 40 m, surrounded by woods and forests. In the northern part of the mound there is a post with the inscription ‘In memory of the victims of the 18th century plague in Palanga 2009’. These old graves are called ‘markapiai’ by the aforementioned inhabitants of Palanga. They have enclosed them with a wicker fence. In 2012, during archaeological excavations in the area of the old burial mounds, burials were found. Kunigiškė’s old burial mound was included in the Register of Cultural Property for its valuable archaeological and memorial properties (unique object code 36652). The documents of the Register of Cultural Property state that during the archaeological explorations in 2010 and 2011, burials from the 17th-19th centuries were found in the old burial mound (possibly in the plague cemetery). It is probable that people were buried here from the end of the 14th century until the plague epidemic of the 18th century, and then the cemetery was moved to another place to protect it from the plague.The village of Kunigiškės belonged to the land of the Church of Palanga until the second half of the 19th century. The Register of Cultural Property states: „The location of the possible plague graves (the old cemetery) was determined by the Palanga Old People’s Community on the basis of the memories of the inhabitants and sporadic, unrecorded facts that bones had been found in the quarry while digging sand. […] When the described place was located in the cartography of the second half of the 19th century – first half of the 20th century, no cemetery markers were found […]. The 1862 plan of the estate of Juozapas Tiškevičius, south of the site of the described object, bears the inscription Pakapiai, but there is no indication of a cemetery. Archaeological research was carried out after no written or cartographic sources were found in the described area. In 2010 it was established that there was an ancient cemetery in the area. In 2011, the boundaries of the territory of the ancient cemetery were clarified. The archaeological explorations carried out in 2010 and 2011 on an area of 700 m2 of the territory showed that the visual border of the territory of the ancient cemetery corresponds to a wooded hill of 30 x 40 m, bordered by a ditch. It may have been dug as a protective barrier against the spread of the plague. The ditch is the only visual indication that the site may have been a plague cemetery. No other identifying features were found: the graves found on the hill and almost under the ditch were arranged in rows with a predominantly Christian orientation to the west. The archaeological research material indicates a rectangular area for the protection of the ancient burial mound, according to the coordinates given in the material.” https://zemaitiuzeme.lt/aktualijos/kunigiskiu-senkapis/