The archaeological exposition “Lithuania’s Prehistory” is a 12,000-year journey beginning with the oldest event – when, following the melting of the ice field, the first humans appeared – until the Iron Age, when the Baltic tribes formed in Lithuania and became the basis on which the state was later established.

On the first floor, the visitor is introduced to the oldest pieces in the exhibition – local Stone Age tools and weapons. These archaeological finds related to hunting, household work, fishing, early agriculture, art, and religious beliefs reveal the worldviews of the people who lived in prehistoric Lithuania. The now expanded exhibition, which presents replicas of the seven most important Stone Age finds, offers visitors a unique opportunity to have contact with the kinds of objects created by early peoples.

On the second floor, the exposition “Lithuania Before State Formation” covers a period of more than 1,000 years following the birth of Jesus Christ. The evolution of human daily activities and lifestyles from the 1st to the 13th centuries is presented through different themes: barter and trading, agriculture, metallurgy, weaponry, the knight and his steed, spinning and weaving, and ceramics. The Lithuanian nation’s ethnic history is presented through that of separate Baltic tribes, through archaeological finds and shifts in burial customs of the Lithuanians, the Yotvingians–Sudovians, the Highlanders, the Selians, the Semigallians, the Samogitians and the Curonians.