TARTU ÜLIKOOL FILOSOOFIATEADUSKOND AJALOO JA ...

SUMMARY
A comparative study of destroyed buildings on Dunkri Street, Tallinn
based on archaeological excavations of 1982 and historical sources
A total area of 2700 m² was dug up during the excavations that were carried out in 1982
in a medieval block in the western part of the Old Town of Tallinn on the southern side of
Dunkri Street. More than half of the 36th quarter, where the excavations were carried out,
had been destroyed during the II World War. Said excavations were the first larger city
excavations that were carried out in Estonia - a total of 7 plots and 3 courtyards of the
said plots were studied. The excavations uncovered an intrinsically thick cultural layer,
characteristic to Tallinn's city centre; much important information was gathered which
until now hasn't yet been thoroughly analyzed.
The aim of this thesis is to look at urban housing based on excavation reports that until
now haven't been thoroughly worked through. Archives offer many excavation reports,
which haven't found much use by archaeologists despite that they may offer many
important and currently unknown aspects. The excavations offer an important insight into
the quarter's history. This thesis tries to interpret the objects described in the excavation
report, some work has been devoted to analyzing the excavation report itself.
Due to the high amount of information gathered during the excavations, some
generalisations and limitations regarding the amount of information analyzed have been
made. This work studies seven different plots in the quarter: Dunkri 17, Dunkri 15,
Dunkri 13, Dunkri 11, Dunkri 9, Dunkri 7 and Dunkri 5. The focus is aimed at the stone
buildings that were located on the plot, but the courtyards and the smaller structures
found there have been left out. The main attention focuses on the building's cellars, which
offer the most information about different construction stages, because nothing of the
upper floors had been preserved by the time of excavations.
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