More Than Just Zvejnieki: An Overview of Latvian Stone Age Burials

Abstract

The well-known Zvejnieki cemetery, with 330 burials, is one of the largest hunter-gatherer cemeteries in northern Europe, overshadowing the more than 115 other Stone Age burials from over ten sites in Latvia. This article is a first overview of these other burials, summarizing their research history, characteristics, and assemblages. The authors discuss the problematic chronology of Latvian Stone Age burials and place them in a wider regional context. Most of the burials are hunter-gatherer burials, and a few are Corded Ware graves. This overview broadens our understanding of Latvian Stone Age burials and brings to light the diversity of hunter-fisher-gatherer mortuary practices in the eastern Baltic region.

A large fifth-millennium BC cemetery in the subarctic north of the Baltic Sea?

“…Most of the graves from these sites (see OSM Table S3) are single inhumations in regular elongated pits with rounded ends, 1.6–2m in length, 0.4–0.7m in width and 0.3–0.7m in depth (see Tõrv 2016; Kashina et al . 2021; Macāne & Nordqvist 2021). With length-to-width ratios of 3:1 or even 4:1, these graves are mostly narrower than the pits at Tainiaro, where the ratio is closer to 2:1.…”

“…2022) and offered reviews of the burial evidence (Kashina et al . 2021; Macāne & Nordqvist 2021). The largest cemeteries contain hundreds of burials, mostly in the form of elongated pits, 0.3–0.7m deep, containing single supine inhumations.…”

“…Outside of these larger cemeteries, it is rare for mortuary sites to feature more than 20 burials, and most only contain a few (e.g. Grünberg 2016: 13; Tõrv 2016; Ahola 2019; Macāne & Nordqvist 2021). Graves were typically furnished with more organic than inorganic objects (see Zagorskis 2004; Mannermaa et al .…”

“…The inclusion of red ochre has often been considered to be a key characteristic associated with Stone Age burials but recent work underscores the diversity of practices, with many verified graves lacking red ochre entirely (e.g. Macāne & Nordqvist 2021). In northern Fennoscandia specifically, mortuary sites typically feature fewer than half a dozen burials.…”

Parallel worlds and mixed economies: multi-proxy analysis reveals complex subsistence systems at the dawn of early farming in the northeast Baltic

“…The arrival of farming in the east Baltic (nowadays Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland) has been directly related to the latter, i.e. arrival of Corded Ware cultural groups (CWC) in the 3rd millennium cal BCE [10][11][12][13][14][15][16], with their migratory steppe-related ancestry [17][18][19] and burial customs, as well as material culture differing from the local hunter-fisher-gatherer (HFG) populations [20][21][22][23]. Yet, the biological legacy and the aftermath of the arrival of early farming in the east Baltic, set in the context of local forager communities, northern climatic conditions with dense woodland and aquatic landscapes, abundant wild resources and missing indigenous species suitable for domestication, has remained ambiguous.…”