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Baltic and Baltic-Finnic artefacts in the collection of Turaida Museum Reserve Ligita Beitiņa
79 78
of the Gauja River – representatives of Baltic and Baltic-Finnic ethnic groups. During the time
period under discussion, the contact zone of Baltic and Baltic-Finnic cultures, with ethnically
mixed population, was located within the territory of the present-day Latgale and Vidzeme,
alongside the Daugava River till its upper reaches. Throughout the centuries, contacts between
both ethnic groups expanded, thus affecting the anthropological type, language, material and
spiritual culture of the inhabitants [7: 60–82, Fig. 10].
The territory of the lower reaches of the Gauja, where the artefacts represented in this
catalogue have been obtained, since ancient times has been located in the contact area of both
ethnic groups. Similarly to the cultural layers in archaeological monuments, the evidences of
antiquity have frequently overlapped, therefore it is difficult to distinguish their ethnic origin.
The most characteristic example is the Sigulda Hill of the Cross, where during archaeolo-
gical excavations both Baltic and Baltic-Finnic artefacts have been found, whereas the Krimulda
Liepenes II barrow burial field, which in the first centuries of our era was formed by Vidzeme
Semigallians belonging to the Balts, in the 10th–12th centuries was used by the Gauja Livs.
The catalogue does not list the artefacts that have been found in poor physical condition
and therefore unidentifiable, nor the single-finds – the 10th–13th century silver ornaments and
coins of Ragana hoard in Krimulda reviewed in the catalogue published in 2012, The Krimulda’s
Ragana Hoard.
The Catalogue Baltic and Baltic-Finnic Antiquities in the Collection of Turaida Museum
Reserve. The 3rd millenium BC – the 1 st half of the 13th century has been created in cooperation
with a number of specialists. The coins were identified by numismatic, Dr. hist. Tatjana Berga,
the mineral content of stone artefacts – by Sanita Lielbārde, senior mineralogist of the Nature
Museum, and dating of ceramic items was performed by the specialist of ancient pottery Baiba
Dumpe, researcher of the National History Museum of Latvia. To provide the descriptions of
artefacts, materials from the collection and archives of Turaida Museum Reserve were used by
Dr. habil. hist. Jānis Graudonis, Dr. hist. Guntis Zemītis, Jānis Ciglis, Head of the Department
of Archaeology of the National History Museum of Latvia, as well as by Maija Kreišmane,
Egils Jemeļjanovs, Ligita Beitiņa and other researchers. Images of ornaments and tiny parts of
artefacts were drawn by artists Ilze Siliņa, Austra Austriņa, Aina Lubgāne and Dzintra Zemīte.
Objects were photographed by Alberts Linarts and Nauris Dainis.
Artefacts have been systematized chronologically according to the population time and
the findspot. At first, the objects of Stone and EarlyMetal Ages (the 3rd millenniumBC – beginning
of the 1st century AC) have been catalogued. These are followed by the artefacts and single finds
found in archaeological monuments. The following information has been provided about
each catalogue item:
1. Object’s name, description, material, dating.
2. Size, also weight for some objects.
3. Information about the finding conditions (if not indicated in the description of the
archaeological site).
4. Inventory number of Turaida Museum Reserve collection.
References to the source or literature are given in brackets, where the first number denotes
the number in the List of Bibliography, followed by reference to the particular page and/or image.
Artefacts of Late Neolithic and Early Metal Age
(the 3rd millennium BC – beginning of the 1st century)
The earliest man-made artefact in the collection of Turaida Museum Reserve is a
stone chisel found at Turaida Hillfort. Jānis Graudonis, leader of the Turaida archaeological
expedition, wrote about this find that is atypical to the hillfort, “A stone chisel was found during
the excavations of Turaida Castle, which can be dated to the end of the 3rd millennium BC or, at
the latest, to the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. However, this object should be regarded as
having got there incidentally, since there are no other evidence of human life in the locality of
Turaida in such an early epoch” [19: 12–13 and Fig. 3: 3].
More finds have been obtained from the Bronze and Early Iron Age, when the area of
the lower reaches of the Gauja became populated. At least 18 single finds of axes are known in
the areas of Sigulda, Allaži, Inčukalns, Krimulda, Sēja, Lēdurga and Vidriži rural territories.
Ten of these are stored in the collection of Turaida Museum Reserve. The simplicity of procession
of their shape and surface as well as length (9.5 to 11.8 cm) correspond to the work axes
that have been widely distributed in the territory of Latvia beginning from 1500 BC till the
beginning of our era [50: 183].
Stone work axes in the area of the lower reaches of the Gauja were used in the Late Neo-
lithic and Early Metal Age. This period saw the appearance of the first bronze and iron tools,
although these were rare and expensive objects that mainly served as prestigious symbols. Stone
axes were still used for the purpose of woodland clearance. Their finding sites mark the first
areas cultivated by crop-growers. Possibly, some of the discovered stone axes had been left in
the fields intentionally, in order to promote fertility and prevent damages made by the natural
elements [50: 186–187]. Stone axes were called “thunder balls” in European folk mythology, and
these were used in special rituals [50: 186–187]. Thunder and lightning in Scandinavian myths
are deemed to be anger of Thor, the god of fertility and thunder. Thor’s symbol is a hammer or
an axe [37: 215]. Thunder is also a deity of the Balts, first mentioned in the Rhyme Chronicle in
the 13th century [5: 1436].
At the beginning of the Bronze Age, about 1500 BC, Turaida and its environs was situated
in the periphery of bronze processing centres of the Daugava basin. The most ancient known
bronze articles are two spearheads that were found on both banks of the Gauja – in Inčukalns
and near Murjāņi. Both of these are dated to the mid-10th century to the 8th century BC [19:
14 and Fig. 4]. At the beginning of our era the economic development and exchange of goods