The Bronze and Early Iron Ages in Estonia

Front matter

ESTONIAN ARCHAEOLOGY 3

VALTER LANG

Estonian Archaeology 3

Chapter 1. Prerequisites for the Development of an Agrarian Society

the Early Bronze Age 1.1. Settlement and economy 1.1.1. Settlement sites 1.1.2. Late stone axes 1.1.3. Pollen diagrams 1.1.4. The first landnam 1.2. Society and culture 1.2.1. ‘Epineolithic culturelessness’ 1.2.2. Exchange of prestige items The earliest metal artefacts The social context of imported items 1.3. Centre - periphery relations

Chapter 2. Settlement Sites and Settlement in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages

2.1. Open settlement sites 2.2. Enclosed settlement sites 2.2.1. Fortified settlements

Iru

11 14 15 17

49 55 57 57

Asva 60 Ridala 63 Joaorg at Narva 66 Fortified settlements and their context 67

2.2.2. Hilltop settlements 71 2.2.3. Early ring forts 74 Kaali 75 Võhma and Pidula 77 Massu, Päälda, and Lipa 78

2.2.4. Early promontory hill forts 81 2.3. Developmental trends in settlement throughout Estonia 85 2.3.1. North-western Estonia 83 2.3.2. North-eastern Estonia 85 2.3.3. Central Estonia 86 2.3.4. South-eastern Estonia 87 2.3.5. South-western Estonia 89 2.3.6. The islands and western Estonia go 2.4. Conclusion 93

Chapter 3. Agriculture and Handicraft in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages

3.1. Land cultivation and cattle rearing 95 3.1.1. Land use systems 96 Clearance cairn fields 96 Block-shaped fields 98 Baltic fields 98

Celtic fields 103

3.1.2. Agricultural tools 105 Ards 105

CONTENTS

Sickles Grinding stones 3.1.3. Cattle rearing and grain growing 3.1.4. Land use systems and society 3.2. Metal work 3.2.1. Bronze work Tha start of local bronze production The bronze trade network in the Late Bronze Age Bronze work in the Pre-Roman and Roman Iron Ages 3.2.2. Iron work The first iron items The first iron-smelting sites and the development of local products Iron and the society 3.3. Ceramics 3.3.1. Pottery making 3.3.2. Styles of pottery 3.4. Other forms of handicraft 3.4.1. Textiles Cloth making based on Textile Ceramics Tools used for cloth making 3.4.2. Woodworking 3.4.3. Bone working

Chapter 4. Graves and Burial Customs in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages

4.1. Stone-cist graves 4.1.1 Distribution of stone-cist graves 4.1.2. Structure of stone-cist graves

Circular walls

108 109

147 147 149 149

Cist 151

The area between the cist and the circular wall 152

4.1.3. Burial in stone-cist graves 153 4.1.4. Grave goods 155 Ornaments 155

Tools and everyday items 159 Weapons 160 Stone items 160 Ceramics 160

4.1.5. The age and origin of the stone-cist graves 161 4.2. Ship graves 164 4.3. Cairn graves 166 4.3.1. Cairn graves without circular walls 166 4.3.2. Cairn graves with circular walls 167 4.3.3. The age, distribution, and origin of cairn graves 168 4.4. Early tarand-graves 170 4.4.1. Kurevere-type graves 170 4.4.2. Kömsi-type graves 172 4.4.3. Poanse-type graves 174 4.4.4. Early single-tarand-graves 177 4.4.5. Burials in early tarand-graves 178 Inhumations 178 Cremations 180

4.4.6. Grave goods 180 Ornaments 181

Tools and everyday items 186 Weapons 187 Ceramics 187

4.4.7. The age and origin of the early tarand-graves 188 4.5. Typical tarand-graves 191

CONTENTS

4.5.1. North-eastern Estonia 4.5.2. North-western Estonia 4.5.3. Central Estonia 4.5.4. South-eastern Estonia 4.5.5. south-western Estonia 4.5.6. Western Estonia and the islands 4.5.7. Typical tarand-graves: conclusion 4.6. Single-tarand-graves 4.7. Grave goods from typical and single-tarand-graves Fibulae Decorative pins Neck-rings Bracelets Finger-rings Tools, parts of belts and weapons Ceramics 4.8. Bauta-stone graves 4.9. Pit graves

Chapter 5. People, Society, and Culture in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages

5.1. People and society based on settlement and grave finds 5.1.1. Individual 5.1.2. Community 5.1.3. Social structure of the settlement pattern 5.2. Society and culture 5.2.1. Ceramic styles 5.2.2. Ornament styles

5.2.3. Style groups and social groups

5.3. Society and religion 5.3.1. Sites associated with religion Stone graves and their surroundings Cup-marked stones Enclosed cult sites Hoards 5.3.2. Main features of religion 5.4. Trade and cultural contacts 5.4.1. Vehicles 5.4.2. The direction and nature of contacts Late Bronze Age Pre-Roman Iron Age Roman Iron Age 5.4.3. Trade and society 5.5. Centre - periphery relations: structural changes in the society 5.5.1. Late Bronze Age 5.5.2. Pre-Roman Iron Age 5.5.3. Roman Iron Age

Epilogue

References Manuscripts

Published sources

Abbreviations

269 269 269

The aim of the book is to analyse social, economic, and cultural processes during the Bronze and Early Iron Ages (18* century BC - 5^ century AD) in what is today Estonia. The above period between the Stone Age (ca. 9000-1800 BC) and the Middle Iron Age (AD 450-800) was an era of significant and crucial developmental processes. The final transition from a foraging to a farming economy occurred during that time and resulted in an extensive settlement shift from suitable hunting and fishing places to agricultural lands. In relation to the above processes, the general settlement pattern changed, and the agricultural household as the main settlement unit became prevalent. Social relations also changed, which contributed to the development of stratified societies, at first mainly in coastal Estonia and later throughout continental Estonia. Significant developments took place both in material and intellectual culture. By the end of the period the Estonian areas had changed beyond recognition compared to what they had been at the beginning of the period.

European background

As noted, the present study analyses the societies of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages in what is the present territory of Estonia (Figs. 1-2). Thus, the geographical borders of the study are artificial, created by contemporary political powers. Nevertheless, Estonia, like any other country, has always been just a corner in the wide world, linked to other similar places by hundreds of stronger or weaker threads. While focusing on a small specific region, one cannot therefore ignore its relations with the wider surrounding world. However, the definition of the ^wider world' is problematic in the philosophical sense because it is impossible to say where it started or ended. In the case of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages on the Estonian territory, Europe presents an appropriate background, and in most cases northern and north-eastern Europe will do.

Copper and gold were the first metals introduced to Europe in the second half of the fifth and in the fourth millennia BC. In the Copper Age (ca. 4500-2500 BC) the Balkans, the Iberian Peninsula, and the Ural region in eastern Europe were the most important metal-processing regions. At the same time, Neolithic cultural traditions (Typical and Late Combed Ware, Corded Ware, and Early Textile Ceramics) spread in Estonia.

The Bronze Age witnessed major restructuring in the economy, ethnic and social relations, religious beliefs, etc. In various regions of Europe the Bronze Age is differently dated. It generally spans from 2500 to 800 BC (Harding 2000, 1 ff.) or from 2300 to 500 BC (e.g. Kristiansen 1998, fig. 13). A significant developmental trend of the era was the establishment of closer contacts between different regions and societies, which meant that technological innovations made in one place spread increasingly rapidly all over Europe. In addition to the spread of technologies and materials, often non-material phenomena, such as common lifestyles, customs, ideology, and religious ideas became widely disseminated. That is why increasingly more such phenomena occurred,

E s

Danube)

Fig. 1. Map of Europe.

which to a greater or lesser extent united the whole of Europe and at the same time distinguished it from the rest of the world, although the continent as a whole remained rather heterogeneous and colourful with regard to ethnicity, culture, society, and economy.

Researchers explain the economic and cultural cohesion of this broad region by two intertwined phenomena - dynamism of the centre-periphery-margin system, and the Bronze Age ‘world system’ (see Sherratt 1993; Kristiansen 1998; Lang 2000a, 27 ff.). Both phenomena were based on a well-organized network of contacts, which gradually spread all over Europe. The extensive network of contacts explains the striking intercontinental similarity of bronze artefacts, one of the most outstanding elements of the material culture. These contacts spread mainly along larger rivers and the sea coast. The rivers Weser and Rhine linked northern Europe with central

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> vORL 3 and southern Europe from the west, the Elbe, the Oder, and the Vistula from the centre, and the Dnieper and the Dniester from the east, whereas the most important artery on the east-west axis was the Danube. These are the routes that are usu-

Fig. 2. Landscape regions (after Arold 2005) and counties in Estonia. I — accumulative uplands (1-1 Haanja, I-2 Otepää, I-3 Karula, I-4 Vooremaa), II — abraded uplands (Il-1 Pandivere, II-2 Sakala), III — depressions between uplands (IIl-1 Valga, II-2 Võru-Hargla), IV — plateaus (IV-1 Harju, IV-2 Viru, IV-3 central Estonia, IV-4 Ugandi, IV-5 Palumaa, IV-6 Irboska), V — islands and coastal plains (V-1 North-Estonian coastal plain, V-2 West-Estonian lowland, V-3 Pürnu lowland, V-4 Saaremaa, V-5 Hiiumaa), VI — inland lowlands (VI-1 Alutaguse, VI-2 Peipsi, VI-3 Võrtsjärv, VI-4 Kõrvemaa, VI-5 Soomaa, VI-6 Metsepole).

ally mentioned in the general treatments of the European Bronze Age (e.g. Kristiansen 1998, 27 f.); however, one should not neglect other routes that may be of less importance in the broader regional context but that are significant for the areas on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. One of them, the so-called ‘northern route’ ran from to the Urals and the Volga—Oka region in eastern Europe to Karelia and northern Scandinavia, with one of its branches reaching the southern shore of the Gulf of Finland. The water highway of the Daugava (Western Dvina) River that runs through the eastern Baltic region was definitely noteworthy; the numerous Bronze and Iron Age settlement sites on its shores support the above claim.

The spread of bronze in Europe after the middle of the third millennium BC resulted in more rapid regional specialization, which was in harmony with the concomitant developments in manufacturing, consumption, and trade (see Sherratt 1993). The use of bronze as the standard medium of exchange played an important role here. In the past, participation in more extensive trade systems depended on the ‘common cultural code’, i.e. the contacts were established within large cultural blocks, such as Combed Ware, Corded Ware, Bell Beaker cultures, etc., which were characterized by their own specific value systems. During the third millennium BC the possibility for cross-regional trade contacts which depended on the possession of metals rather than a common culture became increasingly possible. Thus, large-scale cultural units split up into smaller groups. The latter often differed from each other in regard to certain types of material culture (pottery, bone artefacts, etc.), which were produced in numerous locations throughout the region, allowing for a greater degree of differentiation. However, their style of bronze artefacts remained similar, based on fewer central locations of production and the influence of the metal processing centres.

The introduction and extensive spread of iron was accompanied by new and highly significant changes in social, economic, and cultural relations. The technological skills necessary to produce iron reached south-eastern Europe through

Asia Minor at the end of the second millennium BC and spread rather quickly, within a few centuries, until they reached the Nordic region (see Snodgrass 1989; Bouzek 1989; Harke 1989; Buck 1989; Hjàrtner-Holdar 1993). Nevertheless, it took centuries until the societies of central and northern Europe completed their changeover to an economy based on the production of iron. The process was greatly influenced by the collapse of the so-called Bronze Age world system, which took place in central and western Europe around the 8" century BC (see e.g. Bouzek 1989). The northern part of Europe witnessed it only in the middle of the first millennium BC. The above collapse was usually accompanied by the dispersion of settlements (gradual desertion of the previous centres), disappearance of and decreases in grave goods (or at least their change), as well as several other changes in the material culture. No doubt the common reason for the development of these trends was the fact that iron could be produced almost everywhere, and therefore the need for the communication and trade networks characteristic of the Bronze Age disappeared. Thus, the acceptance of iron was not only economically of major significance, but it also played an important role in the restructuring of social relations.

A new powerful factor in the history of the peoples of both central and northern Europe was the expansion of the Roman Empire to the Rhine and Danube Rivers at the beginning of the first millennium AD. Profound social, economic, and cultural changes affected not only the societies protected by the limes but also communities behind it, in the so-called Free Germania and even further, all over the Barbaricum (see e.g. Randsborg 1991). Direct contacts with the provinces of Rome, which to a greater or lesser extent resulted in certain structural changes in the local societies, can be rather well observed in the archaeological record as far as southern Scandinavia and the southern and south-eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. The evidence of the contacts becomes increasingly sporadic when moving further to the north. The social unrests of the early Migration Period, which changed the sociopolitical systems of central and western Europe beyond recognition, but had no direct impact on the northern peoples, ended the stable economic and cultural development of the Roman Iron Age. Nevertheless, even the northern peoples did not remain completely unaffected by the indirect influences and consequences of those processes.

Chronology of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages in Estonia

The period covered by this book spans from ca. 1800 BC to AD 450." The above period of 2250 years is divided into shorter sub-periods based on a previously developed periodization and chronology.” The currently accepted treatment divides the Bronze Age in Estonia into two periods - Early and Late Bronze Age. The time frames of the periods are ca. 1800-1100 and 1100-500 BC, respectively, and they correspond to the periodization of the Nordic Bronze Age (i.e. periods I-III and IV-VI). The Early and Late Bronze Age can be distinguished very clearly; the former is characterized by few findings and the latter by rich and versatile material. At the same time, recent years in particular have witnessed new evidence suggesting that the social, economic, and cultural development towards the society characteristic of the Late Bronze Age might have begun several hundred years earlier than previously thought. It might serve as ground in the future to single

1 The radiocarbon dates are calibrated in solar years (1 sigma), if not stated otherwise, using the calibration program OxCal v. 3.10 (Bronk Ramsay 2005).

? About the reasoning of the periodization and chronology of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages in Estonia see more Lang & Kriiska 2001.

out the period of Middle Bronze Age in Estonia for research. In the case of triple classification the sub-periods of the Bronze Age would be as follows: Early (1800-1300 BC), Middle (1300-900 BC), and Late Bronze Age (900-500 BC). The structure of the present treatment is still based on an earlier periodization; however, the above triple classification with the respective names is also used where necessary.

The Early Iron Age is divided into two periods; each of them has two sub-periods. The Pre-Roman Iron Age (500 BC — AD 50) is comprised of the Early and Late Pre-Roman Iron Age. Although the archaeological material of the above sub-periods is clearly different, the line between them is not fixed as yet; the existing data suggest that it would be most appropriate to date it sometime in the middle of the 3” century BC. Nevertheless, one cannot rule out the possibility that in the future new and more precise dates will shift the above line to a somewhat later date. The Roman Iron Age (AD 50-450) is also divided into two periods - Early and Late Roman Iron Age with the line of demarcation at ca. AD 200. The above date is rather tentative due to the custom of collective burials characteristic of the Roman Iron Age graves, where single burials can not be distinguished nor dated precisely. The end of the period is somewhat better defined by the change in both grave forms and material culture.

About the book in general

As noted, the structure of the book is based on the currently accepted periodization, according to which the Early Bronze Age is an era in its own right characterized by few finds. Thus, the first chapter treats this period separately as an introduction to the developments that prevailed starting with the Late Bronze Age. On the other hand, the next archaeological periods are viewed uniformly from the perspective of social, settlement-historical, economic, and cultural processes. We are dealing with an early agrarian society that is characterized by many more commonalities than differences throughout the Late Bronze Age, the Pre-Roman and Roman Iron Ages, but which, on the other hand, can be clearly distinguished from both the preceding and succeeding social formations. The developments in settlement history, economy, grave building, social relations, culture, and religion, which transcend the above periods, are analysed separately in chapters 2 to 5.

The study does not refer to the previous research because the first volume of the series Estonian Archaeology dealt with it at great length (Lang 2006). However, the earlier studies (e.g. Jaanits et al. 1982; Kriiska & Tvauri 2002) have given rise to a number of problems that will be addressed below in more detail. The main questions are the following:

(1) As shown by the previous research and revealed in the present study, the transition from hunting and fishing to farming was extremely protracted both in Estonia and in all the other regions on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. What were the reasons for and consequences of this slow change?

(2) The number of sites and finds from the Early Bronze Age, especially metal artefacts, is still very small. Is this due to an economic, trade, or social characteristics of prehistoric societies or a shortcoming of archaeological research?

(3) Most information concerning the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages is still obtained from the monumental above-ground stone graves. Putting aside the issues related to the one-sidedness and bias of such data, it is important to discuss the essence of the monuments, the possible reasons for building them, and their effect against the background of more general social relations. Are they just ordinary burial places (as was generally assumed not long ago), a social manifestation of the elite, or cult buildings and mediators for ritual communication? What role did the attempt to control the past and social memory play in construction of such monuments?

(4) There are striking differences in the distribution and characteristics of coastal sites and inland sites in Estonia in the Late Bronze and Pre-Roman Iron Ages. What did the differences in the material culture mean from the viewpoint of culture, economy, social relations, and settlement? If the coast and the inland used to be two completely different worlds, then what was the origin of and possible reasons for the discrepancy between them? Or can commonalities between the two regions also be highlighted?

(5) Finally, how can the manifestations in Estonian archaeological record, which had occurred in a rather similar manner already much earlier in other regions, be interpreted? Are there any general stages and regularities that the societies experience in certain conditions that leave behind rather similar traces, and if so, what is their essence? Or should one explain similar phenomena in the material of different regions and times in each case by specific ad hoc reasons?

There are of course a number of other problems and questions, and they will be treated below in the relevant sections. Because several questions and issues need to be approached in new ways or in greater detail than in previous studies, they will be dealt with at more length here. Such an approach might seem inapt from the perspective of the structure and homogeneity of the text, which is intended as a general treatment. However, it is unavoidable considering the current state of research. Thus, the book is an independent study of the issues, some of which have and some of which have not been previously analysed at length, rather than a synthesis in the traditional sense.

The common peculiarity of the general treatments of prehistory and history is that they present a general view, the ‘grand narrative’ about the distant past of a nation and/or people, typically from the most ancient past until the present, based on tens and hundreds of single articles and books that differ radically with regard to their essence, volume, and theoretical-methodological approach. This is especially true of general historical treatments. The ‘general archaeologies’ of northern Europe usually include the era following the melting of the last ice sheet until the era enlightened by written records from the Middle Ages. In other words, in addition to a fixed starting point one also knows the final outcome - the point where society enters the stage of ‘history’ (or appears as it is today). The task of the author in the compilation of such general treatments is, on the one hand, to study the earlier single studies based on his or her own views and understandings — his or her narrative about the past — and, on the other hand, to fill in the existing gaps (as each answered question gives rise to fresh unsolved problems, the result being more questions and topics that are unstudied than studied). As for the unexplored issues, researchers apply inductive conclusions, constructions based on logic or analogy. All too often the assumptions are led by ‘iron logic’, “common sense’, or a teleological mentality. Thus, an archaeologist who is the author of a general treatment is sitting in two chairs at the same time — one of them is the high throne of a judge and the other the low bench of a storyteller.

The author of the present study does not desire either chair; he prefers a small mat in an open excavation pit. That is why I make an attempt to offer a glimpse of prehistory from the level of sites and excavations. Thus, this study, as in anthropology, focuses on single objects (or groups of single objects) and their specific characteristics. The aim, however, is to make generalizations about past human experience. When dealing with one or another site, group of sites, artefact or a group of artefacts, the analysis will posit what one could conclude about the way the prehistoric people and society understood themselves and what we can thereby comprehend about the social order, historical change, or the functioning of the mind in general (Geertz 2003, 35).

An open excavation area or the whole of archaeological record cannot be compared to an open book; at least it is not a completed book with a fixed beginning, clear development of the theme, and a fixed end. Following the example of Peeter Torop (2005), who compared culture to a draft, any site or layer of an excavation area could be compared to a page in the first draft rather than a completed book. No site has survived in the form in which prehistoric people initially planned it; besides their original ideas and realizations, the sites often include something that is occasional, unintentional and unnecessary, evidence of experimentation with certain ideas, creation of both the preceding and succeeding generations, and what was added and destroyed by site formation processes. The most important fact is that all the layers are present in the site, on the draft page (cf. Torop 2005). When exploring the sites, an archaeologist can find already completely uncovered and neatly cleaned out features in any layer of the excavation area, but it might also contain some details of the structures located in the next layer, a number of single finds unrelated to the structures, and also traces of the features located higher and removed during the course of the excavations. What is important again is that all the features, no matter how complete or fragmented, are present on the given page. The same picture of the draft finally unfolds when we visualize our present understanding of prehistory. Some of it has been long known and ‘elementary’, much is still in the form of a sketch or even a vague presentiment, and again what matters is that they do exist. Thus, the present text should be treated as another sketch or draft of the Grand Book of Prehistory, ignoring the fact that it can never be completed.

Ex ra

Acknowledgements

The majority of this book was written in 2004 and 2005, first using a sabbatical given by the University of Tartu, and afterwards using my free evenings, weekends and holidays. The translation of the text into English was done by Mariko Veldi and Enn Veldi in 2006. Language editing was completed by Julie Raymond-Yakoubian in 2007. During this time I also prepared all illustrations with the assistance of Mirja Ots, Kristiina Johanson, Ants Kraut, Ulle Tamla, Uwe Sperling, and Kristel Külljastinen who also designed the layout of the book. Many people have read the original manuscript and made numerous valuable corrections and comments. I would especially like to thank Professor Mika Lavento from Helsinki, Professor Andrejs Vasks from Riga, and Associate Professor Algimantas Merkevicius from Vilnius. I am also grateful to my colleagues from the University of Tartu, Professor Aivar Kriiska, Senior Research Fellow Andres Tvauri, Marge Konsa and Margot Laneman. The latter has also put much effort to the careful editing of this book.

The preparation of this book was financed in the framework of the target-financed research theme of the Ministry of Education and Research of Estonia (Social, Economical and Cultural Processes in Prehistoric and Medieval Estonia), carried out at the University of Tartu. Publication of the book is funded by the state program Estonian Language and National Memory (in the project The Publication of ‘Estonian Archaeology’ 1-6). The original text in Estonian, without illustrations, is accessible in the Internet, at the web page of the Department of Archaeology of the University of Tartu (www.arheo.ut.ee).

Chapter 1

Prerequisites for the Development of an Agrarian Society: the Early Bronze Age

The Early Bronze Age has typically been regarded as the prehistoric period with the fewest number of sites and as a result has been largely neglected by researchers. Why this is the case is not so clear if we look soley at the quantity of sites and finds. However, in terms of the quality of the material culture, the number and significance of the different artefact types and the amount of archaeological research, the Early Bronze Age definitely pales in comparison with other prehistoric periods. Moreover, in contrast with some other archaeological periods, the past twenty-five years since the publication of the last overall review of prehistory in Estonia (Jaanits et al. 1982) have not witnessed any considerable increases in knowledge regarding the Early Broze Age. But it is important, in the framework of a general treatment of Estonian prehistory, to understand the significance of the Early Bronze Age in regard to the developments in economy, settlement, and society of the following period, the Late Bronze Age. This is because the Late Bronze Age contrasts sharply with the Neolithic in all aspects, at least in northern and western Estonia. The aim of this chapter is to understand the development mechanisms, the driving forces behind the processes, and all of the changes that resulted in the transformation of the Neolithic foraging society (which to some extent already had characteristics of a primitive farming economy in certain regions) into an advanced Late Bronze Age agrarian society in coastal Estonia. Another aspect of the problem at hand is why coastal and inland regions of Estonia failed to reach the same development stage at the same time.

1.1. SETTLEMENT AND ECONOMY

1.1.1. Settlement sites

A small number of settlements constitute the main presently known sites dating to the Early Bronze Age? no burials or hoards dated to the period have been recorded. Our limited knowledge of the material culture of the period, including pottery, stone and bone artefacts, hinders considerably the identification of settlement sites. It has been assumed that in the second millennium BC people made and used the same ceramics, flint, quartz, bone, and horn items as they did

? Recent research has revealed that the first field systems, and maybe even stone graves, evolved at the end of the Early Bronze Age; they will be dealt with below, in the context of the Late Bronze Age.

in the Late Neolithic. Thus, the categorization into a particular time period of such artefacts or sites containing them is rather difficult (Jaanits et al. 1982, 130). However, the style of one artefact type - the shaft-hole stone axe - changed considerably during the Late Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age.

The above observation regarding the conservatism of some of the material culture during the second millennium BC seems to be relatively well founded. In the Late Neolithic (3200/3000-1800 BC) three pottery styles - Late Combed Ware, Corded Ware, and Early Textile Ceramics with influences from both — were manufactured in what is today Estonia (Kriiska & Tvauri 2002, 86). At present it is unclear whether some other form of Corded Ware, developed later in time, was still used in the north-eastern Baltics during the second millennium BC. Some sherds have been unearthed from the Kivutkalns Early Bronze Age flat cemetery on the lower reaches of the Daugava River (Denisova et al. 1985, fig. 34: 9- 10), but their origination in an earlier settlement site cannot be ruled out. A bronze sickle from the beginning of the Bronze Age has also been found in the Kivisaare Corded Ware settlement site (see Lang & Kriiska 2001). Hille Jaanusson (1985, 46 f.) claims that Late Corded Ware, in her terminology 'Villa-type ceramics', spanned the periods I and II of the Bronze Age. The earliest AMS dates show that a basic form of Textile Ceramics had already emerged by the second quarter of the third millennium BC;^ however, textile impressions were used to finish pottery in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, suggesting that this