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Baltic and Baltic-Finnic artefacts in the collection of Turaida Museum Reserve Ligita Beitiņa
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Household objects
Combs. Of the archaeologically investigated Gauja Liv dwelling sites combs were found
at Turaida Hillfort. The Daugava Livs interred combs as a part of grave goods [54: 208], whereas
in the burials of the Gauja Livs they were rarely registered. Therefore, the finds at Turaida Hillfort
are a significant evidence of this artefact group in the lower reaches of the Gauja in the 11th –13th
centuries. The total of ten bilateral bone combs or their fragments were found. Archaeologist
Jānis Graudonis refer them to the period of Liv population, i.e. the 11th–13th centuries [20: 13].
Turaida combs are both ordinary and composite, some of them have ornamentations of suns
or slanting crosses. Separate comb hoops decorated with suns were also found at the hillfort, of
which one was included in the catalogue (SM 11777).
Keys in the catalogue are represented by the 11th–13th century finds at Turaida and Satesele
hillforts. For the most part, these are key-shaped pendants of padlocks characteristic of the
Northern Europe, which women wore attached to the chain or belt. Symbolically, keys are asso-
ciated with manifestation of wealth and power. Since these were worn also as ornaments, often
their handles had incrustations of another metal or a pattern of marked concentric lines, as it
can be seen on the two keys found at Turaida Hillfort (TMR 16853; TMR 15817). The locking
part of one of the Turaida keys (TMR 15824) is ornamented with a pressed-in pattern of suns.
Non-decorated keys are also encountered, especially the specimens of late 12th / early 13th centuries.
Such keys with a figuratively bent handle and a suspension hole at the end were found at Turaida
(SM 9831; TMR 17211) and Satesele (TMR 23891) hillforts.
Fire getting tools included in the catalogue are flints, strike-a-lights, and fire steels. Since
there are no flint deposits in Latvia, all of these must be imported. Turaida Museum Reserve
collection encompasses more than a hundred of flint articles. These include several cores – raw
material for production of flint articles, as well as flint flakes obtained in dwelling sites, mainly
at Turaida Hillfort. Possibly, the most ancient flint article was found at the Hill of the Cross
(TMR 25335), however, like the flint flakes from Turaida and Satesele, it cannot be dated
precisely. Striking a lump of flint against a stone is one of the most ancient methods of getting fire.
Of the stones encountered in Latvia, pyrite is the most suitable for this purpose – when an iron
object or flint is struck against it, sparks jump out. This is how the mineral has acquired its
name, which is based on the Greek piros meaning ‘fire’. Quartzite was the source material for
oval strike-a-lights (TMR 17174; TMR 17175) that were a part of the 5th –6th century grave goods
of the barrow at Liepenes I ancient burial ground. The Gauja Liv 11th–13th century fire steels
are represented in the catalogue by the so-called lyre-shaped fire steels (SM 792), which in the
10th–12th centuries were widespread throughout a large region of Europe – in Novgorod, Baltic
and Liv lands, and elsewhere in Eastern Europe [54: 212].
Whetstones are the finds characteristic of dwelling sites, however, they have been obtained
also as part of grave goods, for example, in Grave 24 (23) at Turaida Pūteļi and Grave 10 Sigulda
Saksukalns [46: 72, 82]. It was an important object of people’s belongings, which together with
fire steel, flint and other articles were carried about, fastened to a man’s belt [54: 214]. About 200
lumps of crude slate (shale) and pieces split off from it and processed were obtained during the
archaeological investigation of Turaida Hillfort. Of these, only the specimens typical of the local
peoples, with the characteristic suspension hole (SM 11197; TMR plg 4148), were catalogued.
Due to the mingled cultural layer, the rest of whetstones cannot be separated from medieval and
newer-time finds. Whetstones were made on the spot from the grey shale that was imported from
Scandinavia [31: 238]. Their production at Turaida Hillfort is testified to by finds of bigger and
smaller lumps of shale.
Tradesmen’s accessories, coins
Fragments of weighing scales, bronze weights, and the 12th and 13th century coins obtained
at Turaida and Satesele indicate the presence of tradesmen in both most significant dwelling
sites of the Gauja Livs. It cannot be excluded that the name of Kaupo, the ruler of Turaida
Castle (Caupo – quasi rex et senior Livonum de Thoreida; ?–1217), originated from the Finnish
word ‘kauppa’ which means ‘to trade, a tradesman, trade’.
Fragments of weighing scales. Equal-arm scales were used in the 10th–12th centuries
for weighing silver and coins, with a horizontal bar for balancing and two scales. Several fully
preserved specimens were found in the burial fields, the territory of Latvia [31: 267–268], but
most often – and also at Turaida Hillfort – separate fragments of scales were obtained during the
archaeological excavations. Two balance bars of weighing scales were found there, which could
not be dated more precisely by the findspot. At least one of them (SM 10096) can be referred to
the period of Liv population in the 11th–13th centuries, but the other one is newer.
Spring-balance and two iron weights that are part of the 11 th century blacksmith’s hoard
at Rauši of Dole, are the most ancient find of this kind in the territory of Latvia. It is unknown
whether these are articles made by Dole blacksmith or imported items. A similar spring-
balance from the Viking Age (793–1066), with a single weight, was found in 1936 in Gottland,
in Mastermyr hoard, among blacksmith’s and woodworking tools.
Coins. One of the 190 coins that were found at Turaida Castle refers to the Roman Em-
peror Hadrian (117–138) or Antoninus Pius (138–161), two – to the Liv population in the 12th
and the early 13th century. They belong to the German dinars that have been widespread in the
territory of Latvia at that time. One of these (SM 7743) has been used as a pendant, which is
shown by a hole made in one of its edges, whereas the other coin (TMR 17330) is a duplication
of a German dinar. Also, during the archaeological investigation of Satesele Hillfort, a German
(Saxon) silver dinar (TMR 23346) was found, which had been coined in Magdeburg or Halle
(Saale) around 1010–1020 [62]. Finds of coins is another evidence of the fact that in the middle
and second half of the 12th century trading relations with German countries became active at
the coast of the Gulf of Riga.