He was the first scientifically trained archaeologist of Lithuania and he laid the foundations, including some of the basic terminology and periodization, for future archaeological studies.
[2] After graduating from Ukmergė Gymnasium [lt], with the help of Steponas Kairys, he was accepted to the University of Lithuania.
[3] As a university student, Puzinas became a secretary of Antanas Smetona, President of Lithuania, and helped him edit and organize his correspondence and other paperwork.
[2] With Smetona's help, he received a scholarship of 20,000 litas from the Ministry of Education that enabled him to continue his studies in a Western university.
[1] The thesis shows minor influence of the budding school of thought that material remains can be equated to ethnicity (Kossinna's law) that formed the basis for Nazi archaeology.
[4] Lectures were often accompanied by field trips to museum or historical sites, even experiments (for example, recreating control of fire by early humans).
[2] In 1939, he became privatdozent for his seminal work and habilitation thesis Naujausių proistorinių tyrinėjimų duomenys (Findings of the Most Recent Archaeological Explorations).
[2] Puzinas aggregated, summarized, and interpreted data from different excavations in 1928–38 and created a chronological outline of the prehistory of Lithuania.
[5] The work featured a large number of new scientific terms in Lithuanian language that Puzinas created in collaboration with linguist Antanas Salys [lt].
[7] To that end Puzinas created a card index file with archaeological terms in various languages (Lithuanian, Polish, German, Russian).
[2][8] While in Germany, Puzinas published five articles on archaeological topics based on data he brought from Lithuania.
A German-language article on fibula, dedicated to Puzinas' former mentor Ernst Wahle, was well received and cited by German and Polish archaeologists.
[1] Back in Lithuania, Puzinas' published works were marginalized and his name censored as his biography did not fit Soviet needs.