PDF file (4 MB) - Arheoloogia Tartu Ülikoolis

Period, four probable areas of households can be seen. The number can be deduced
from the location and number of stove remains and the dispersion of the artifacts. These
households seem to have had houses (and, possibly, other buildings) that lacked any
stone foundations. Everyday activities seem to have centered around the stoves, which
has also been pointed out in ethnographical literature from later periods.
Two house sites with stone foundations were discovered during the archaeological
excavations of the settlement site. The first of them was a pit-house that had been dug
into the ground within the full range of its ground area. It could be dated to the Late
Mediaeval or Early Modern Period. The probable area of the house and its surroundings
were especially rich in the number of artifacts collected. Near the pit-house, a site of a
probable summer kitchen was discovered. One of the aforementioned probable
households was situated directly to the south from the pit-house. If one were to draw an
imaginary line in the east-west direction through both of the households, it could be
seen that contemporary households in the village are situated on the same line. This
certainly shows a remarkable continuity in the settlement’s history.
The second house site had been situated on a slope, and only a part of it had been dug
into the ground. The part dug into the ground was the one that had the stone foundation.
The house was situated near the lowest part of the valley, quite far away from all the
other probable buildings and households. From this building, considerably fewer
artifacts were collected. It is notable that almost all pieces of iron slag gathered from the
settlement site were found from the nearby area of the building, therefore the building
may have been used as a dwelling of a poor family, as a sauna, or as a smithy. The
building may also have been used for all of the functions when necessary; one of them
does not exclude the others.
The bulk of the ornaments and weapons found from the settlement site date from the
Late Iron or Early Mediaeval Period (52% of the ornaments and 62% of the weapons).
This may be related with the ban for the peasants to bear any weapons or show that the
material culture of the villagers was getting somewhat poorer during the postcolonization
centuries. It might also be a question of the formation of the material, but
the possible reason remains unknown. Contrary to the described tendencies, the bulk
(60%) of the ceramics collected from the settlement site can be dated into the Early
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