Moškėnai Mound

The mound is located on a separate massive hill on the left bank of Laukupė. The site is almost quadrangular, surrounded by an embankment that is best preserved on the west side. The mound was surrounded on the slopes by two rings of ditches. The slopes are steep, 20-30 m high.

The mound was plowed. The mound was renovated from the project funds. The mound at the top of the mound has been arranged, there is a wooden staircase with handrails, and a parking lot with crushed stone at the foot.

The mound is also known as Laukupėnai.

On all the slopes of the mound, in the area of ​​5 ha, there is a foothill settlement, where a clay spindle, lined and roughened ceramics, slag, and animal bones were found.

1909 and 1911. L. Kšivickis examined a larger part of the site – mostly its edges, a total of 860 m2. The mound has been reconstructed at least once. Its original oval site was smaller, later it was expanded by leveling the ditch. Irregular stone pavements stacked twice were found at the edges of the site. Here, the cultural layer was up to 1 m thick. It contains 472 items: flint knife wreckage; stone: parts of axes, bores, sharpeners, grinders; clay: spindles, molds; bony: pins, needles, yokes, spears, cupboards, daggers; iron: knives, cutters, slotted spears and fragments thereof, yokes, hooks, pins, chisels, files; brass: pins, chain fragments, brooch parts, quotes, etc. During the research, a lot of molded ceramics, animal bones and clay plaster were collected in this way.

The mound dates back to the end of the 1st millennium BC – the 1st millennium

Moškėnai mound was famous for Pentecost in May. The celebration of Pentecost brought together the youth of the area, families with children. Staying over Pentecost on Moškėnai Hill seemed to “save” the grown-up girl. The people of Panemunėlis and the neighboring parishes associated the visit of Moškėnai Hill with the sign of a maturing girl – the appearance of breasts. It was said about Žiobiškis: “The girl is already with a breast (local dialect – kakom), it was already on Moškėnai hill.” And it was said about Skapiškis that on Moškėnai hill, girls can choose the breasts of the desired size.