New Radiocarbon Dates for Two Stone-Cist Graves at Muuksi, Northern Estonia

Abstract

In the surroundings of Lake Kahala in northern Estonia, which is the richest area in Estonia in terms of Bronze Age stone graves, over twenty graves have been archaeologically excavated in different decades of the 20th century. Only five of them, however, have been excavated in their entirety with proper documentation. Human skeletal remains from two such stonecist graves, Nos 5 and 70 at Sondlamägi, Muuksi, were recently radiocarbon-dated as part of a research programme for studying the chronology and mortuary practices of stone-cist graves. Altogether 13 AMS dates comprise most of the burials in the mentioned graves. The results reveal that the graves were built before 1100 and 800 BC, respectively, and are thus slightly older than previously thought, which necessitates the reconsideration of the dating of such graves. In both graves the inhumations outside of stone cists are of a Bronze Age date and are roughly contemporary with the inhumations inside the cists. This is notable since in some stone-cist grave burials of the outside inhumations are much later insertions to the grave. The burnt bones of grave 5, however, may date from the Roman Iron Age, and cremation(s) remains of an Iron Age date may also have been present in grave 70. The comparison of radiocarbon dates and artefact finds suggests that in the mid-Pre-Roman Iron Age grave 70 was used for some (ritual) practices in which burial was of secondary importance if practised at all. Along with these outlined topics, the article discusses a few details concerning the graves' structure, the burial practices (primary versus secondary) and the find assemblage.

The transition from foraging to farming (7000–500 cal BC) in the SE Baltic: A re-evaluation of chronological and palaeodietary evidence from human remains

“…A subsistence economy including millet is also found later, in Roman or even Medieval Poland (Reitsema et al 2010), although it is absent in Estonia and Latvia during the Late Bronze Age (Fig. 5;Laneman, 2012;Laneman and Lang, 2013). This suggests that the northern boundary between millet-cultivating and non-millet cultivating peoples ran somewhere through northern Lithuania or southern Latvia around 1000 cal BC and may define environmental limits for production of this crop.…”

“…The data for expected inland fish consumers' area, Latvian stable isotope data from the Subneolithic Ri ukalns site, was adapted from Schmölcke et al (2015), while the other animal data was taken from Lithuanian Subneolithic-Bronze Age sites (see Table 4). (Fischer et al, 2007;Eriksson, 2004;Piličiauskas et al, 2017b;Tõrv and Meadows, 2015;Antanaitis-Jacobs et al, 2009;Eriksson et al, 2003;Meadows et al, 2016;Reitsema, 2012;Pospieszny et al, 2015;Eriksson and Howcroft, 2014;Laneman, 2012;Laneman and Lang, 2013;Fornander, 2013;Reitsema et al, 2010). 1-4 year old children are excluded in order to avoid data distortion due to breastfeeding.…”

Tracing Prehistoric Migration: Isotope Analysis of Bronze and Pre-Roman Iron Age Coastal Burials in Estonia

“…The Hundikangrud group is situated on the north-western shore of Lake Kahala not far from the northern-Estonian limestone cliff escarpment in the area of thin rendzina soils on limestone bedrock. Seventeen graves have been excavated either partially or completely during the 20th century (see Laneman & Lang 2013b, 93 and the literature cited). All of these graves were built mainly of limestones, but also granite stones were used.…”

“…Anthropological determination showed that there was a minimum of 11 persons buried (Friedenthal 1931;Kalman 1997). Bones of eight individuals have been radiocarbon-dated recently (Laneman & Lang 2013b), and these formed the basis for the selection of material for this study. In the central cist (cist I), a man about 50-60 years and a woman of 20-25 years old were buried.…”

Fortified Settlements in the Eastern Baltic: From Earlier Research to New Interpretations

“…To sum up, the research history of more than a century has resulted in the identification of the main area of the distribution of fortified settlements (although it gradually becomes more advanced due to the finding of new sites), the main chronology in the Late Bronze and Pre-Roman Iron Ages (despite many new questions), and the general cultural and economic character -that is, scarcity of metal artefacts (although they have often cast bronze), abundance of bone and antler artefacts, the small role of field cultivation but importance of cattle rearing, hunting and fishing, and absence of known cemeteries. Although there have been contemporaneous stone-3 A project for the dating of burials in Estonian stone-cist graves by the AMS method has pushed them even more back in time; today these graves are dated from ca 1200 to 400 BC (Laneman, 2012;Laneman & Lang, 2013;Laneman et al, 2015). cist graves in coastal Estonia (at Iru, for instance), it is not self-evident that both the fortified sites and stone-cist graves belonged to the same community because they originated in different cultural backgrounds (see below).…”