Remembering through place/Maletamine koha kaudu.

Vedru, Gurly

"...landscape is the work of mind. Its scenery is built up as much from

strata of memory as from layers of rock. " (Schama 1995, 7)

Introduction

People usually inhabit environs that contain traces of the lives and work of numerous past generations. Sometimes these traces are hidden, sometimes visible. Thus landscapes consist of intertwined and coalesced layers; those layers are altered, deepened and re-created daily. Those layers can be so intertwined that they cannot be distinguished at all and they form an inseparable unit, they are both material and mental. Still, one can say that some layers disappear and others emerge to replace them, some are preserved in people's memory, and that knowledge is transferred to others. Such processes are partly conscious and intended, and partly not, they materialise through our lives, activities, memories and recognition. The more a place is used, the more layers of meanings it has.

Places can be used in one purpose for a long time or they can be used for different purposes in different time periods. For example, an area of earlier settlement sites has later been used for burying; stone graves have been established on previously cultivated land, or fields have been cultivated in the surroundings of older graves. A former field was re-used for establishing a settlement site or vice versa. Processes that took place in one and the same site might also occur repeatedly. Such changes in the use of a place have occurred both in Estonia as well as in other places. It is not a universal rule, valid always and everywhere, but it occurs quite often. Are such developments and changes only accidental coincidences or deliberate choices of people?

Having been studying the settlement and the use of landscape in north Estonia during prehistory for a long time, it puzzled me why some sites have been used repeatedly. Do these places differ from the ones used only once and/or for a long time for one purpose? This led me back to the questions regarding people's use of landscape and their (cultural) choices that are made there. Searching answers to these questions might provide new data about the principles of selection for choosing locations for certain activities. Getting to know these principles helps to better understand past societies and settlement development. Do the repeatedly used sites differ from other places? It is said that sites are not equal, and that inequality is expressed in the way they are used. If these repeatedly used sites were considered as different from ordinary, then what was their rank in the hierarchy of sites?

The present article studies places used in different times, examples are given both of long-term use of a place for the same purpose, as well as of sites that were used for different purpose in different times. Hence both stability and instability of societies are analysed through landscape use. The reasons why some sites have been (repeatedly) re-used are discussed, and it is investigated whether those places have any special features that are still recognizable in the landscape. Why was a site used in different times for the same purpose (e.g. settlement site--settlement site), others for different aims (e.g. settlement site grave)? What made those places attractive? Did the same reasons make people use one site repeatedly for dwelling and re-use an earlier settlement site for establishing a grave? Or was the choice based on different phenomena? Have the settlement sites in places where graves of different periods co-exist, also been repeatedly used? Were people actually aware that the same sites had been used earlier, and if they were, then how did they know?

Answers will also be searched for questions concerning similarities in the physical appearance of the repeatedly used places. What was that special something that attracted people in different eras? Questions to be answered are numerous. Those questions lead to the diverse and many-sided phenomena of memory and remembering.

Memory of a landscape and landscape in memory

Social scientists studying how memory and remembering work in societies think that in addition to individual memory, collective or social memory also exists (cf. e.g. Connerton 2010a; 2010b). Paul Connerton finds that several acts of remembering are site-specific, but not always and not in similar ways everywhere. In general he divides them into two: memorial place and locus. For instance, place names and pilgrimages belong to the first, houses and streets to the second division. Both are bearers of cultural memory, they are differentiated mostly by a different attitude to the process of cultural forgetting (Connerton 2010a, 10-35).

Archaeologists and anthropologists have also studied issues connected with remembering (e.g. Van Dyke & Alcock 2003). Such studies are of different extent and can discuss, for example, the intentional re-use of spolia in new buildings in some time period (Papalexandrou 2003), the re-use of old tombs as later dwelling places (Blake 2003) or conversely (Meskell 2003, 51 f.). The topic of memory has been used both in artefact studies (e.g. Joyce 2003; Lillios 2003) as well as in studying the history of states and empires (e.g. Sinopoli 2003). The re-use of old artefacts and sites has also been discussed in several researches (cf. e.g. Wessman 2009; Vasks 2009).

The present work is centred on landscape, the way how people use and understand it. It is said that landscape is created by the human mind and therefore memory is as meaningful as layers of rocks (Schama 1995, 6 f.). Additionally, it is also said that the main function of memory is not to preserve the past, but to adapt it for enriching and manipulating the present (Lowenthal 2006, 210).

Subsequently a brief overview is given considering some relations between landscape and memory used in research. Landscape is often regarded as materialization of memory that confirms social and individual histories. Human mind rather constructs than restores and thus the past derives from the cultural memory, the latter is in turn constructed socially. The result of such a process maps both mythical and moral principles of a society as well as various reminders of the social past. Thus both the collective memory of a community and individual memories contain cosmological conceptions, folk tales of burial sites, get-together places etc., locating them in specific times and in historical contexts. Such conceptions of memories not only reflect the landscape, but also mirror the way how landscape was organized, used and how people lived there. It is assumed that memory accentuates continuity in landscape through its re-use, re-interpreting, restoring and reconstructing it. Landscape as a source and embodiment of memory is closely related to the identity of the people settling a place (Knapp & Ashmore 2000, 13 f. and references). It is also said that traces of earlier settlement, as well as natural objects can be locations of memory (cf. e.g. Brady & Ashmore 2000 and references). The latter is valid especially in those cases when previous settlement traces are clearly visible in landscape, thus being readable and interpretable centuries later. At the same time memory can preserve as a narrative, connected to a place and given from one generation to another in oral tradition that is interpreted either in a similar or a different way. New details might be added to it and old knowledge altered. Such imparting is connected with the creation of oral tradition or its interpretation.

Still, an activity or event that took place in the past can be viewed in a different manner, not by constructing it, but re-creating it--no matter if representing or re-acting it. For example, being in some concrete place and repeating an activity that took place there in the past, or re-creating it through a story. For re-creating past or for possible uniting of the past and the present, ceremonies may be carried out. Thus something may be added to the old, long known and existing, or it can be changed in some other way. Possibly one way of connecting with the past is the act of building stone graves in the same places after long intervals--erecting a new grave might have re-created the past in some way. That possible interpretation will be discussed in detail below.

But there are also other ways of remembering through and in the landscape. Richard Bradley asserts that all human culture is dependent on memory. Traditions are learned and assimilated in the course of everyday life and in traditional society the very process of living itself insinuates right forms of acting. They can be acquired in many different ways--for example through bodily practices (participating in rituals and ceremonies) and via material culture. Social memory is also developed through establishing monuments. Narratives are connected to them, but they change in the course of time, meaning that different generations reinterpret them (Bradley 2002, 11 ff.). That takes us back to the aforementioned supposition that narratives, whether connected with monuments or places altered or unaltered, connect people of different times with places and also with people who used the same sites earlier.

The importance of places is different; they have been perceived, acknowledged and used in different ways (Thomas 2000). Landscape always includes layers of the past, whether as physical objects or mental meanings. Such attitude has probably been characteristic also in the past. Archaeological objects have several layers of meaning as well ones that have been attached to them by the people of the past, and others by the people of the present. It is understandable that the meaning of places has changed in the course of time, but there are probably quite many that were continuously valued, and maybe because of that, used in similar purposes. In those cases the physical site and/or the traces of use found there are the bearers of continuity, as well as the possible story connected with it. In that case a reciprocal support is taking place--a place with everything in it gives a foundation to narrative(s) and the latter helps to maintain the meaning of the place in human memory.

The past is always present in landscape. Andrew Jones has argued that every landscape contains numerous traces of the settlement from different periods of (pre)history. According to his opinion, it should be analysed how these different settlement traces are interweaved and co-existing, not to take them as series of different elements, hidden under layers of history. He also adds that the critical aspect of human mind is created by imaginations and with them, and creation of every visible trace has effect upon the creation of the next trace. Thus places affect memory and draw people toward them or, on the contrary, push them away (Jones 2007, 193, 196). Using that approach, one can suppose that when adding new elements to a site used sometime in the past, they may be planned to create an association of similar values where events of the past and present are mixed in time and space, and with it the past was re-activated or re-created. Jones also emphasizes that memories are not only shared, but they are created and/or constructed through collective remembrance. Memories continuously pass through the process of renewing and reworking (Jones 2007, 41 and references). This brings us once again back to the problems of remembering, reinterpretation and re-creation. What does re-creating of memories really mean? It certainly is not only a mnemonic process; it is rather a continuous imparting, permanent improving and creating.

Monuments--as well as natural objects--help people to gather and collect memories (Bender 2011, 41). People of the past were aware that they settled landscapes that contained traces of previous settlement. Thus the same sites were used and re-settled from time to time. Such reusing was probably a meaningful act. People in the past observed and interpreted traces of more distant past for using them according to the needs of their time and interests (Van Dyke & Alcock 2003, 1). Van Dyke and Alcock stress the fact that people remember or forget according to their needs and thus the social memory is an active and always continuing process. Constructing it may include direct bounds with forefathers in the past that is still remembered, or it may be connected with the mythical past via general links. The latter is often based on re-interpreting of sites, monuments and landscapes (Van Dyke & Alcock 2003, 3 and references).

Such interpretations can doubtlessly be used while analysing archaeological objects of Estonia, and to some extent it has already been done (cf. e.g. Lang 1999; Vedru 2002; 2007; 2009). While studying a number of archaeological sites with several stages of use, attention has been paid to different periods of use, their mutual relations and backgrounds (e.g. Lang 2000a). Nevertheless, there are several unused possibilities, some of which will be employed in the present study of sites used in different periods. Both sites where similar objects of different times are known, as well as those that were used for different purposes, are analysed. The article will not discuss sites where one and the same type of graves were built during centuries, instead sites with different grave types are analysed.

What were the criteria for choosing such places? Do they have a common feature, like similar natural conditions? If we would consider only this statement, then it would reduce the repeated use of a site first of all into preferring some natural features. Yet, all possible nonphysical factors should also be considered. When analysing those places on the basis of memory, a question arises why other sites were not remembered or reinterpreted in a similar way. For finding answers to those questions, I will start with the introduction of sites and landscapes. The number of such reused places is much larger than discussed in the present article, but in Estonia they form quite a representative assemblage, that enables to draw conclusions that can be used for other places, used in a similar manner.

Archaeological objects discussed in this work originate from different eras; most of them are located in north Estonia, although parallels are taken from wider areas. The article is divided into subsections that analyse specific types of archaeological objects; a brief description of local natural environment is given in every case study. The dating of archaeological objects has been based on the works of archaeologists who studied these objects; descriptions of landscape are based on my own numerous field walks.

Settlement sites in different times

Settlement sites that were used for a long time and/or that were reused after some gap, are most numerous among reused sites. They are known all over Estonia and in other places in the world (e.g. Benes & Zvelebil 2011, 81). As an example, I have chosen three sites in north Estonia: Joelahtme, Ilumae II and Saka settlement sites (Fig. 1).

The settlement site of Joelahtme in Haiju County is located on the banks of the Joelahtme River, ca 2 km to the south from the klint edge. The cultural layer of the settlement site is detected on an area measuring approximately 6.4 hectares (Fig. 2). Some of it is located on thin alvar soil, but the part of the settlement located on the eastern shore of the Joelahtme River is on somewhat thicker soil. The settlement site is surrounded by alvars mostly, the natural limestone bedrock lying beneath a soil layer ca 10 cm thick. (1) Farther to the north-east and east-north-east of the settlement site, slightly damp areas are situated. In the karst region of Kostivere the Joelahtme River flows underground, but in the vicinity of the settlement site it reappears. There is not much water during dry summers, but it is completely waterless only in extreme cases. Hence local natural conditions were suitable for both agriculturalists using primitive tools, as well as for the cultivators of later periods. This is confirmed also by the settlement history of Joelahtme--the oldest finds from that settlement site are dated to the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The same site was inhabited also in the 5th-7th centuries and re-settled again in the Viking Age (Lougas 1997; Vedru 2008a). However, only very limited areas have been investigated in the course of rescue excavations (Lougas 1997; Vedru 2008a) and preliminary investigations (Vedru 2008b), therefore the possibility that the place was settled also in other periods cannot be completely excluded. Nevertheless, the investigations carried out in 2007 gave a good overview of the mentioned periods, and the data can be considered as sufficiently representative. In the vicinity of the settlement site numerous stone graves of the Bronze and Pre-Roman Iron Ages, as well as some cup-marked stones are located.

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Thus people have returned after some intervals to the same site on the banks of the river. Most certainly there were no visible marks from the settlement of the Pre-Roman Iron Age in the 5th century, as there was nothing left from the settlement of the 5th-7th centuries in the Viking Age. The site was still favourable for living and its surroundings for other activities, which were essential for life. On the basis of present data, the oldest settlement was located on the right bank of the Joelahtme River where the soil is rather thick and at times also damp to some degree. As a rule, such soils were not the earliest to be cultivated in north Estonia and maybe that was one of the criteria for choosing that place for living in Joelahtme. The surrounding thin soils were left for other activities, including cultivation and herding. The village of later periods comprised also the alvar area, but the techniques of cultivation had been improved by that time and permanent fields were ploughed on thicker soils.

Ilumae II settlement site is situated in Laane-Viru County. It is located on an area of slightly podzol soil that lowers northwards. A partly buried terraced klint edge is ca 80 m to north of it. A spring is located approximately 20 m to the north-west of the settlement site. That site was first settled in the time of the Corded Ware Culture in III millennium BC. After abandoning the settlement site, a field was ploughed in the same place. That can be explained with the fact that previous dwelling activities left refuse that made the soil in that spot more fertile than in its surroundings (Tim Ingold--to the author). A new settlement site was established there in the late Roman Iron Age. After that settlement, the same spot was once again a field. Valter Lang, who excavated the site, has dated these later plough marks to the (early) Middle Ages (Lang 2000a, 65 f., 173 ff., 241 f.). In the closest vicinity of that settlement site, other settlement sites and stone graves of different periods are located.

The settlement site of Saka was discovered in 2012 in the course of landscape inventory in the Ida-Viru County. It is located on the land of Tammiku farm, ca 1 km to the south from the klint edge. Gravelly soils are dominant in the settlement site and its closest vicinity, and mostly leached soils surround them, on a narrow area to the south also thin soils on limestone bedrock and thicker leached glei soils exist. At present, the area is open with views opening up for several kilometres. Two cup-marked stones are situated in the same area. One of them is ca 250 m to the north-west and the other 275 m to the south of the settlement site. Pieces of ceramic vessels were found on the surface of a present field. The oldest of them have striated surfaces and they date from the Bronze Age. The same site was re-inhabited in the last centuries of Estonian prehistory and since that time the site has been continuously settled.

Re-using a hill fort

Similarly to the settlement sites, several hill forts have been used repeatedly. The majority of them have been used for the same purpose, i.e. for living, protecting a harbour and/or sheltering a market place. Yet, a number of hill forts have been used for very different activities.

One of those is the promontory hill fort of Muuksi. It is situated on a triangular-shaped northern end of the klint ridge, at present it is about 700 metres from the sea. Previously the sea was much closer, probably reaching almost to the foot of the hill fort. First used in the Bronze Age as a hilltop settlement site, it was probably abandoned for a millennium or even more. It was re-used only in the last centuries of Estonian prehistory, when a rampart was erected. As there was no cultural layer of that time found on the plateau of the hill fort it is assumed that it was used as a market or trading place. Later, probably in the 19th-20th centuries, a field was ploughed on the plateau of the hill fort. That was witnessed by small-sized clearance cairns, some of which were excavated during the field work in 1998 (Vedru 1999, 58 ff.).

The hill fort of Varbola is located in a completely different natural settings. It is in inland and at least at present it is surrounded by forests. The place used for establishing a hill fort is the northern end of a ridge that rises 4-5 m above the surrounding terrain. The hill fort was surrounded by a rampart that is still 7-10 metres high on its outer side. On the plateau of the hill fort are remains of ca 90 stoves that most probably indicate small separate houses. The oldest finds belong to the 11th century, the majority to the 12th-13th century when it was an important centre. The same place was still in some use in the 14th century. From the 15th to the 17th centuries it was used as a village cemetery (Selirand & Tynisson 1978; Tamla & Tynisson 1983).

Use of sites before graves

A number of sites are known where later graves have been established on previous settlement sites. Also, a few cases have been recorded when a stone grave has been erected on previously cultivated land. As a rule, such use of a site has taken place after a long time interval--in several occasions the excavations of stone (cist) graves have unearthed artefacts and pieces of ceramic vessels referring to a Stone Age settlement. One of such places is a ridge called Tandemagi at Vohma in Laane-Viru County. While excavating stone graves on that ridge, a large amount of pieces of quartz that bear traces of treatment were unearthed (Moora 1998; Lang 2000a, 55; Saluaar 2000). Since this site was used for graves of different periods, it will be discussed in more detail below.

Two pieces of Corded Ware vessels and numerous animal bones were found from the soil layer beneath the grave I of the Lastekangrud burial group in Rebala. In addition, the whole soil under the grave was mixed with charcoal; its amount was especially large under the eastern part of the grave (Lang et al. 2001, 39). Lastekangrud are located on a rather flat terrain, there are no prominent rises or slopes. Still, the land drops toward the south and the two northernmost graves are located ca 1 m higher than the other graves. Grave I, under which the remains of a Stone Age settlement were found, is the southernmost in the group and is situated at a distance of ca 140 m to the south-south-east of the northernmost graves. The closest grave is located only ca 15 m to the north-west from grave I, but no traces of a Stone Age settlement were found beneath it.

Beneath the Vohma X tarand grave, which is dated to the early Pre-Roman Iron Age, numerous pieces of Corded Ware pottery were revealed. That grave is located on low grassland (Lang 2000a, 66 f.). According to Mirja Ots who excavated the grave, the terrain is flat and the site of the grave does not stand out in it (Mirja Ots--to the author 22.10.2013). The ridge of Tandemagi in the west is visible from it, but because of the distance of ca 600 m the graves on the ridge remain invisible.

In Kasekula in the Laane County, a stone grave used in the Bronze and PreRoman Iron Ages was erected on top of a settlement site of Late Combed Ware Culture. It is possible that the same site was for some time also settled by people who made Corded Ware (Kriiska et al. 1998). The place used in different periods was on the northern end of a natural beach ridge, rising 1-1.5 m above the surrounding terrain (Mandel 1975a; 1975b, 2) thus being quite well recognizable.

Of the 17 stone graves, belonging to the group of stone graves of Lagedi, 16 graves were partly excavated at the beginning of the 20th century (Spreckelsen 1912; 1927; Lang 1996, 211-232). According to Valter Lang, five of them contained traces of Stone Age settlement. Of those five, graves II and III were located on a higher spot of the local terrain. Those graves were established in the Late Bronze Age and in the middle of the Pre-Roman Iron Age respectively, but burials to those graves took place also much later. The Stone Age settlement is indicated by a flint scraper found at the excavations of grave II and a rim shard of a Corded Ware vessel found from grave III. The other graves that included Stone Age artefacts were located at some distance. Grave V that was also established in the Pre-Roman Iron Age was located ca 300 m to the east from the graves II and III, on a lower terrain. Grave XIII was located also on a flat land ca 200 m from the latter. It was built in the Roman Iron Age and was used for a long period, but with intervals. Grave XIV was situated ca 120 m to the south-east of the V grave, on a north-western end of a higher ridge. That burial place was built in the 3rd century and with intervals it was used for burying until the 7th century. Grave XV was located on the same ridge, in a short distance to the north-east of grave V. It was established at the turn of the 3rd-4th centuries and it was used for burials until the 7th -8th century (Lang 1996, 211-232). Thus Stone Age material has been gathered beneath the graves of different periods and different places: some of them are on ridges and others on flat land. As an addition to the finds of the Stone Age, also traces of the Bronze Age settlement have been found beneath stone graves. For example, Late Bronze Age artefacts were found in the excavations of the graves B and D of Pahklimagi at Saha, established in the Early Roman Iron Age. This Late Bronze Age settlement site was possibly either on the same place or somewhere in the vicinity. Those graves are located on a low ridge rising only slightly above damp grassland surrounding it (Lang 1996, 239 ff.). Bronze Age pottery has been found at the excavations of the tarand-grave I of Viimsi, erected in the 4th century (Lang 1993, 50, fig. 18, 6; 1996, 241). That grave was also situated on a ridge rising above its surroundings (Lang 1993, 6 f.).

A number of other places where later graves have been built on previous dwelling sites or in their close vicinity are known. One of those is Tuulingumagi at Tonija, where beneath a tarand-grave that was probably established at the end of the Pre-Roman Iron Age was a Late Neolithic or Bronze Age settlement site (Magi-Lougas 1997, 37). Similar re-use of place has been recorded from Nurmsi, Loona and other sites (Jonuks 2009, 202).

Some graves have been built on top of an earlier burial place. Such use of places has been documented in fewer cases than the previously described use when earlier settlement sites were later utilized for building a grave. Although a number of sites where cremated burials have been found in the vicinity of stone graves are known, it has been supposed that these may be of the same age as the grave burials. One of the sites where burials beneath the stone grave are older is Polgaste in south-eastern Estonia. The Polgaste stone grave was used in the 3rd-5th centuries; one of its tarands was built on top of the Bronze Age cremation burial covered with earth. After the 5th century people continued to bury their dead in the same place--not into the stone grave, but into earthen mounds. One of those mounds was heaped on the edge of the stone grave. The grave complex of Polgaste was located on the high southern bank of the primeval valley of the Ahja River (Laul 2001, 27, 40 ff.).

Grave III of Ilmandu was built on the gravel hillock that rose above the surrounding area. Cremated bones were unearthed from the hillock beneath the early tarand-grave. The radiocarbon analysis of the charcoal pieces connected with the bones is dated to the 12th-9th century BC. Inhumation burials in the stone grave were dated to the 5th century BC (Laneman & Lang 2013, 112), thus being much younger from the first burials made on that site. The same place was used for burying in the Late Roman Iron Age (Lang 1995, 434; 2007, 173, 217).

Eleven stone-cist graves are known in Vehendi on the eastern shore of Lake Vortsjarv. They are located in a 1 km long row along the lakeshore. The southernmost grave (XI) has been scientifically investigated. The grave was built directly to the shore; water has slightly flushed its western edge. The cremated burials found beneath the stone grave were dated to the end of the Bronze Age and the first half of the Pre-Roman Iron Age by using 14C method. The stone graves remained undated because of the absence of grave goods. Silvia Laul, who excavated the grave, suggested on the basis of the fact that it did not contain any grave goods or a central cist and had an irregular ring that the grave might be dated to the final period of the tradition of stone-cist graves, which means that the grave was built around the time of the birth of Christ (Laul 2001, 29 ff.). It is thought that no new stone-cist graves were built in the Late Pre-Roman Iron Age; the only exceptions were probably some peripheral areas (Lang 2007, 162). Therefore the graves in Vehendi may also be older than supposed.

Another similar example of landscape use in different time periods can be found from Tsiistre in south-eastern Estonia. There is a higher ridge that is partly surrounded by a damp area on one side and a lake and a bog on the other. The oldest human activities at this site are dated to the Late Mesolithic when people lived there. It is likely that the place was used for some kind of activities also in the Bronze Age and/or the Pre-Roman Iron Age. Because finds are absent from these periods, it is not possible to make any certain conclusions about the use of the place. Marge Konsa, who conducted archaeological excavations at the site, assumed that the place was similarly to Vehendi and Polgaste used for burying cremated bones, but there is no evidence to this effect. A stone grave was erected at the same site probably at the end of the Roman Iron Age or in the Migration Period. The site was used for the last time in the Viking Age (Konsa 2003).

Traces indicating land cultivation have been found beneath stone graves in rare cases only. Ard marks were found beneath the grave in Harmi, Harju County. Due to the insufficient amount of charcoal they remained undated (Tamla 2002). The investigations carried out by Tanel Moora in the village of Muuksi in the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s suggest that those alvar areas were used for cultivation before erecting stone graves. That opinion is confirmed first and foremost by the existence of subsoil gravel in the upper soil horizon just beneath the stone graves (Moora 1972, 663). Whether it indicates ordinary field cultivation or ritual ploughing before the graves were erected is not known.

From field to settlement site and from grave field to field

Places where a settlement site was established on a previous field are not very numerous. It is possible that later intensive human activities have destroyed traces of earlier land cultivation. A few such sites are still known.

Ard marks have been unearthed beneath the cultural layer of the Ilumae II settlement site; they must date from an earlier period than the 4th-5th centuries when people already lived at the site (Lang 2000a, 178 ff, 183). Ard marks were also found while excavating the Ilumae IV settlement site. They are of later date than the Corded Ware Culture settlement site that existed in the same place, and probably originate from the end of the Bronze Age and/or first half of the PreRoman Iron Age (Lang 2000a, 184 f.). The excavations of the Joesuu hill fort in Jagala discovered that sometime after the settlement site of the Late Bronze Age--Early Pre-Roman Iron Age was abandoned, a field was cultivated on the same site. Cultivation was followed by a phase of dwelling. That settlement site is dated to the end of the Pre-Roman Iron Age and Early Roman Iron Age (Kriiska et al. 2009). Plough marks have been found beneath the archaeological sites dated to the end of Estonian prehistory and/or mediaeval period in Olustvere, Viljandi and Tallinn (Lang 2007, 107).

Many more sites are known where fields were cultivated in the surroundings of older stone graves. A change in the attitude of people towards earlier stonegraves that found its expression also in the use of landscape, took place probably in the Viking Age. It was the time when fields were established in the neighbourhood of earlier stone graves--the clearance cairns of that period are known in the vicinity of earlier graves in many places. One of such places is Muuksi where the clearance cairns, located in the surroundings and between the stone-cist graves, have been dated to the 11th-14th centuries (Vedru 1996, 435 f.). A group of fossil field remains with both the clearance cairns and baulks is located in the neighbourhood of the grave group of Tougu. One of the clearance cairns dates from the 8th-10th centuries and one baulk from the 11th-12th centuries (Lang 1994, 384; 1996, 424; 2000a, 226 ff.). Archaeologists have also studied the systems of clearance cairns and baulks located rather close to stone graves at Vohma, a neighbouring village of Tougu. One of the excavated clearance cairns was radiocarbon dated to the 7th-10th centuries (Lang 1995, 420; 2000a, 235); the baulk originated from the 7th-8th centuries (Lang 1996, 424; 2000a, 236). Approximately similar results have been gained from the excavations of other fossil fields situated near stone graves. The fossil fields of Uuskula reached in some places the walls of a tarand-grave. Four excavations plots were opened and it appeared that the fields had been established in the 10th-12th centuries at the latest, and they had been used throughout the Middle and Modern Ages (Lang 2000a, 238 ff.). It is likely that excavations of other fossil fields that are located near stone graves could yield similar results. The only exception known at present is the stone-cist grave group of Lastekangrud in the village of Rebala, which was established at the beginning of the first millennium BC. In the vicinity of the group, fields were ploughed at the end of the Pre-Roman Iron Age (Lang et al. 2001). Rebala is thus an exception with regard to absolute dating, but not in the general principle of temporal distance--the fields of that place were ploughed for 500-1000 years after the graves had been built (cf. also Vedru 2011, 58 f.).

From grave to grave--graves from different periods in one place

Sites where graves of different time periods coexist are quite numerous. I have selected some examples that might represent a more common and wider tendency.

The grave field of Proosa is situated in Joelahtme parish, Harju County (Figs 3 and 4). A stone-cist grave, a tarand-grave and a grave-field without inner constructions with cremated burials are located together in a rather restricted area (Deemant 1975; 1980; 1981; 1982; 1983; 1985; Lang 1996, 175-208). The graves were established on the north-western part of a limestone ridge, rising approximately 0.8-2 m above the surrounding terrain. The length of the ridge is ca 120 m in the north-west-south-east direction and its width is ca 50 m. The oldest grave of the complex, the stone-cist grave in the north-westernmost part was erected in the Late Bronze Age; the tarand-grave of the 4th and 5th centuries is situated to the south-east of it, and the grave-field without inner constructions with cremation burials of the 5th-6th and 11th-12th centuries (about dating cf. Lang 1996, 177, 183 f., 196, 206 f.) was located to the south. Additionally three other stone-cist graves can be found not very far, but on a lower terrain. The only cup-marked stone of the area is also located on the lower flat land. Those graves and the cup-marked stone are not connected with the grave field; they are farther from it and in a different spatial situation.

[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]

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The Pirita River is running approximately 500 m to the south-west of the grave field. Thus the natural environment surrounding the grave field of Proosa is rather laconic and typical to north Estonia. The only higher place in that area was used for building graves; its surrounding is flat and without any even smaller risings and slopes of the earth. As the graves are situated close to the edge of the ridge, wide views open up over the surrounding areas. Land drops to the east 1-1.5 m, the terrace being quite steep and concrete. In the south-east and south directions the lowering of the ridge is not clearly detectable since it is built up with various constructions. Still, it is evident that in these directions the ridge lowers smoothly and slowly, blending into the surrounding terrain. To the west, resp toward the river, the edge of the ridge is analogous to its eastern side. The fact that the land between the ridge and the river stays more or less on the same level for ca 300 m, and then slopes down towards the river, seems to indicate that the river was not visible from the graves. Thus visual connection between graves and the river was not of prime importance for people who built those graves.

The most impressive view from the graves opens to the north-west and north and while approaching from those directions, the ridge comes most prominently to the fore. In those directions land drops ca 2 m. There is no direct evidence about settlement sites contemporary to the graves. In the Middle Ages a hamlet was established ca 200 m to the north-west of the grave field, close to the river and a spring. Supposedly the earlier settlement site was located somewhere near that site.

Another example of graves of different periods located in a restricted area comes from Laane-Viru County. Tandemagi ridge is located in the village of Vohma (Fig. 5). Its long axis spreads out in the north-west-south-east direction, its length is ca 300 and width 20-30 m and it is the highest point in the whole area. The majority of the graves are located on the south-eastern part of the ridge, where three stone-cist graves dating from the end of the Bronze Age-Early PreRoman Iron Age, and a tarand-grave, built and used both in the Early Pre-Roman Iron Age and Late Pre-Roman Iron Age, are co-existing (Lang 2000a, 126 ff.). While excavating the stone graves, some finds indicating the existence of a cemetery of the end of Estonian prehistory and the Early Middle Ages have been discovered (Lang 2000a, 265).

Compared with Proosa, the ridge of Tandemagi is higher. Also the spatial use of the ridge is different--graves have been built in a manner that in some places they occupy the whole width of the ridge. The tarand-grave is located on the south-easternmost end, further to that direction the contour of the ridge remains still visible but its edges are lower and gently sloping. The ridge continues and lowers slightly to the north-west direction, ca 200 m from the described graves another stone grave is situated. Wide views open up to the southern directions and to the west, towards the north the wider view is closed by the rises and droppings of the terrain further away. The ridge with graves is most imposing from the north and south directions. According to Tanel Moora, who excavated the graves, the present view of the surrounding landscape is of a rather late date: the area to the south-west of the ridge was drained only after World War I (Moora 1973, 3 f.).

[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]

Tandemagi was first used in the Stone Age when quartz was worked there. Researchers have different opinions about the dating of the site and thus different periods of the Stone Age have been mentioned (cf. Moora 1998, 16 f.; Saluaar 2000).

A peculiar repeated use of a site took place in the village of Tougu in LaaneViru County. A group of graves is located not far from the low, partly buried klint edge. Graves were established on a terrain that slightly rises toward north where the klint edge is located (Figs 6 and 7). The distance between the graves and the escarpment is ca 100 m. The land also drops to the west of the graves. Tougu II grave that locates in the western part of the group has been excavated. It was found out that it contained parts built in different time periods. The first grave built here was a stone-cist grave of the Bronze Age. Next to it, a tarandgrave consisting of five tarands was established and a single tarand-grave was built on top of the stone-cist grave in the Pre-Roman Iron Age (Lang 2000a, 94-124). Although it represents a somewhat different development, it still is a proof about remembering a site by later inhabitants.

[FIGURE 6 OMITTED]

[FIGURE 7 OMITTED]

Stone graves that were used during long periods

As an addition to sites that have been re-used for erecting new graves in different times, graves that were used for burials in different periods also exist. One of those is the stone-cist grave of Kasekula, already mentioned in the context of graves erected on older settlement sites. That grave was built and first used in the Bronze Age, and it was intensively used also in the Pre-Roman Iron Age, although not continuously. The same grave was re-used for burying in the Late Iron Age when several infants were interred (Laneman 2012).

Another similar case is known from the abovementioned Rebala, northern Estonia. One of the stone-cist graves of Lastekangrud group, built before 800 BC contained burials of infants who lived in the 15th-17th centuries AD (Laneman 2012, 110). As most of such burials may have been interred without any grave goods, there may be more such re-use of old stone graves. Only the recent AMS dates give evidence of such ritual behaviour (cf. Laneman 2012).

Discussion: use of site, remembering, ritual and time

The brief overview showed that suitable sites with favourable natural conditions were used repeatedly. Sometimes it was for one and the same purpose, sometimes for a different use (Fig. 8). Nevertheless, in both cases it shows the persistence of settlement. As already mentioned in the introduction, it is easy to explain the reasons why a site was repeatedly used for dwelling. When the demands for (natural) environment were fulfilled, then a site might have been used for living for a long time, or alternatively, people could return to the same place after an interval. All three settlement sites discussed: Joelahtme, Ilumae II and Saka were settled in several times by people who practised farming economy. Although there are gaps in the settlement history, meaning that people have temporarily lived in other places, it can still be supposed that the settlement unit was located somewhere near. The move or shifting of settlement units in those places may resemble the one that took place in the village of Valkla in Harju County. There is a vast area on the banks of the Valkla River where small-sized settlement sites of different time periods are known. A larger unit was formed by a village established in the Viking Age and is continuously lived in to nowadays. The village of the Viking Age covers all previous small settlement patches.

The settlement sites of Joelahtme and Saka have been used in different periods of prehistory, but although the settlement has not been continuous, those sites have not been used for other purposes between different phases of dwelling. The site known to us as Ilumae II settlement site was used as a field after the first dwelling phase that took place in the Neolithic. Probably the settlement site contemporary with the fields was somewhere near. The same place was resettled some 2000 years later when settlement returned there.

The reasons for using the same site for building graves in different periods was probably different and cannot be explained only with favourable natural conditions. In Polgaste graves of different time periods were built on top of one other; the same site was continuously used for funerals although tarand-graves were not considered the only option anymore--and yet the place preserved its significance. The temporal distance between the two first periods of burials was very long, more than 1000 years, and there is no reason to assume that oral tradition preserved for that long. Rather, it is seen as connection through place. The location of graves in landscape is significant and liminal in some aspect, and the landscape situation might have been decisive while establishing the burial ground. And yet, one cannot help but wonder how these and a number of other graves in other places happened to be built exactly on top of one another. It is possible that earlier graves had been marked somehow and that the marks were destroyed only when new graves were built. However, as evidence is absent, this view remains speculative (cf. also Vedru 2011, 51).

[FIGURE 8 OMITTED]

Also in the case of the graves of Vehendi, several interpretations are possible. First, the graves, including grave XI, need not have originated from a much later period compared to the burials beneath the graves. Burials in the immediate vicinity of stone graves may be of the same age as the stone graves themselves, as has been assumed in the case of Tougu II stone grave, where, concurrently with the construction of the stone grave or only a little later, cremated bones were buried at a distance of few metres (Lang 2000a, 123). In a similar way also the cremation burials found at Vehendi may be almost contemporary with at least some graves of that group. It also seems that throughout the whole Late Bronze Age and the Pre-Roman Iron Age the constructions of stone graves might have varied. Thus, an irregular inner construction does not necessarily mean that such a grave is of a later date. Similar graves with only a few grave goods and an irregular inner structure are known, for example, in the cemetery of Pukuli in Latvia, where they have been dated to the first half of the Bronze Age (Vasks 2000, 105). This cemetery is exceptional in the Latvian context, but it was dated by using the [sup.14]C method as well as an artefact find.

Rather, Vehendi XI might have been a cairn grave, similar to Ussimatas of Muhu, for example. The latter had no grave goods either, and the grave remained undated (cf. Lougas 1986). Cairn graves were constructed in different time periods, the oldest belonging to the first half of the Pre-Roman Iron Age and the youngest to the period in the middle of the first millennium until the 11th century (Lang 2000b, 14 ff.). Thus, the type and the age of the Vehendi grave are uncertain. Nor do we know the temporal distance between the two different forms of burial (cf. Vedru 2011, 51 f.). But again--in Vehendi, Polgaste as in several other places, the sites with different grave types are in some sense liminal, the graves are located in the close vicinity of water bodies in an area creating a border zone.

The above-mentioned examples and their analogues that have not been discussed in the present paper suggest that through history people have been aware of earlier settlement and traces left behind in the landscape, even if they were not clearly visible. It is highly improbable that the Stone Age settlement sites might have been recognizable in the landscape and, thus, known to the people in the Bronze Age. On the other hand, there are so many sites where stone graves have been built on top of Stone Age settlement sites that it is hard to believe that all these matches are coincidental. At the same time such a position of objects of different periods may result from something else, such as the significance of a landscape feature for humans (cf. Vedru 2011, 59). The settlement sites of the Stone Age, especially of the Mesolithic, were as a rule concentrated near bodies of water; the same places reveal a large number of stone graves. Therefore, it has been suggested that in many places the existence or closeness of some water body was decisive when choosing a place for establishing a grave. For example, water played an important role in ancient Scandinavian religion. It has been supposed that in Sweden ancestors were connected with bodies of water; the connection of the sea with the dead, in particular, has been emphasized (Tilley 2004, 202). It is possible that these beliefs were also common among the inhabitants of the area of present-day Estonia. Not only the sea but also other water bodies were important. It is proved by making sacrifices to different water bodies: rivers, lakes, and wellsprings. There are also numerous graves in the vicinity of water and this is the case not only in Estonia. Stone graves were directed at some water body in Finland in the Bronze Age and in the Iron Age (Huurre 1990, 106, 125; Salo 1995, fig. 1), in Sweden in the Neolithic (Tilley 1993, 56, fig. 2.3) and the Bronze Age (Ericson Lageras 2002, fig. 11.2; Tilley 2004, 186, figs 4.24 and 4.28), and in England in the Neolithic (Tilley 1994, 93, 94, 120, figs 3.6, 3.9 and 3.15; Cummings 2002, 109, fig. 7.2; Scarre 2002, 84) and in France (Scarre 2002, 84, fig. 6.1). Thus, it is not a local phenomenon in Estonia, but a custom that was common in much broader areas. As the territory of present-day Estonia remained under the Scandinavian influence, the graves near water might be connected with the religious background of the time. Oral tradition about the mythical deeds of ancestors/heroes/gods probably helped to maintain the connection between ancestors and the bodies of water (cf. also Vedru 2011, 60). Additionally, one should remember that several places considered meaningful by agricultural societies may actually be derived from earlier times and may have been important for the subsistence of hunters-gatherers (Nash & Chippindale 2002, 9 and references; Vedru 2009, 22). Thus significant sites might have bounded earlier dwelling sites and why not also graves with stone graves of later periods. Tonno Jonuks has assumed that earlier settlement sites were discovered accidentally by the builders of stone graves. It might have happened in the course of agricultural activities--when ploughing a field people might have noticed anomalous areas with quartz and flint objects, for example. As quartz and flint are not very common in Estonia, the place may have been considered as different and special, and the site was used accordingly (Jonuks 2009, 202). From one aspect I agree with this: quartz probably possessed some ritual importance and it has been deposited also in the stone graves (Vedru 2010 and references). Thus the discovery of worked quartz might have been considered as an indicator of a special site. From the other aspect it should be remembered that some such places were on ridges (e.g. Lagedi, Saha), where establishing a field seems rather improbable. Some other ways of remembering and acknowledging should be considered, part of which were probably connected with the activities carried out in landscape and others with recognizing suitable and special places. The special places were rather sites in local nature that might have been connected with the deeds of ancestors. I agree with the supposition that the purpose of such a repeated use of places was to confirm the bounds between the living society and dead ancestors (Jonuks 2009, 203).

Sites where (stone) graves of different periods co-exist should probably be treated separately. There are both similarities as well as differences in the nature of Proosa and Tandemagi. Both of them are located on ridges that are one of the most impressive elements of North-Estonian nature. As an addition, one can say that building a stone grave on a ridge was quite common in Estonia, places like Rebala, Kasekula, Jabara, Rummu, Tougu, Kunda are only few examples of them. There is a river not very far from the graves of Proosa but it was not visible from them and thus not decisive while choosing a site for burials, what was important was the higher point in the landscape. Otherwise also those graves would have been built on a flat area near the river where some graves also exist.

What was the reason that the same site was used for graves during hundreds and thousands of years? From one aspect, those sites are characterized by the fact that they are outstanding natural objects in their microenvironment--ridges that differ from their surroundings and wide views open up from them over the lower flat areas. Going to such a ridge might have been seen as some kind of a ritual, a journey from ordinary landscape or environment to a special and different space. Standing with your back towards the world of the living, people were directed towards a site where they met their ancestors and their past; and also their own future.

Although differences in heights are not very big in the case of the sites under discussion, going to the ridge was and still is a remarkable journey when the sight is directed forward and in some phase of the journey only the ridge is visible. The areas on the other side of the ridge come into view only when a certain height is reached, sometimes only on the top of the ridge. Thus while approaching Tandemagi from the south or north directions only the ridge is visible and not what lies on the other side of it. In Proosa such effect works when approached from the north, west and east. When on the top of the ridge, both the graves on the ridge as well as the lower terrain are visible; and upon turning around the graves are left behind and the landscapes of the living are in front. It is a common metaphor that future opens up in front of a walking person and the past is left behind him (Tuan 2005, 40). Used in the context of walking towards the graves, it can be interpreted in many ways. Moving towards graves, resp. ancestors, one moves to the past. A different comprehension of time makes us comprehend the future differently, but also the past and the present. Therefore the understanding of the past and the future was also very different from our present understanding. Future might be comprehended not as abstract time not yet existing, but it might have been considered as re-creating the past (Connerton 2010a, 63). Repeating the past for re-creating it is characteristic to different societies and times and it plays an important role in the shaping of communal memory (Connerton 2010a, 61 and following). Thus time is considered as cyclic--it, as well as the world, re-news and repeats in a cyclical manner (Eliade 1987, 73 ff.; Lang 1999, 67 ff.). According to this assumption graves of different periods built in one and the same place could be interpreted as expressing the re-creation of the past by people. The past is re-created in its original place, and the place itself ties the present with the (re)emerging. Communal narrative is supplemented, and the same place bounds people's memory in the course of a long time and turns their attention both to the eternal and the changing. A place helps to remember, and if necessary also to restore memory. In other words--objects help to anchor time (Tuan 2005, 187). An object can be both the place where a grave was built, as well as the grave itself and most probably their symbiosis.

Why were places with earlier graves chosen? Clearly visible and well understandable previous use of a place created a firm fixed point in time and space that helped to connect a later settlement with it. The connectivity with the place was useful even in cases when there was no direct link between the earlier and the later inhabitants. More than that, in those cases creating such a connection might have been especially useful. Re-using previously used places is a widespread and conscious procedure in the whole world and at different times. In Crete, for example, parts of the Bronze Age palaces have been used for ritual purposes in later periods. It has often been done by invaders, thus increasing their demands of power (Prent 2003). To re-use such a place meant also that new meanings were added to it; and the meaning(s) of places are always created by people who have more power than others (Cresswell 2008, 27, 37, 85 and references).

That interpretation enables to assume that when new settlers arrived in an area or a new important/central household emerged, new graves were built in close vicinity of the old ones, thus affirming their pretensions. On the other hand, reusing old graves has been connected with the legitimization of power--the authority of the dominant community reaches back to the past and power is legitimized through tradition. Repeated use of graves shows that the past exists also in present and ceremonial activities carried out regularly are analogous to cyclical repetition of seasons (Tilley 1984, 140; Ligi 1995, 206 f.; Cooney 2011, 59).

Doubtlessly, building new graves next to old ones was an activity that was directed to the public, but it might hide various messages in it that were interpreted in different ways by different members of the society. Nevertheless, as Lowenthal has put it: the earliest common use of the past was to validate the present (Lowenthal 2006, 369). Bounding settlements of different time periods connected people more intimately with a specific site. At the same time, a higher ridge with graves on it was a landmark, and separation from ordinary space emphasized its singularity even more.

All the places discussed are outstanding in their environment and hence were attractive to the builders of the graves. Assuming that stone graves were built only by the elite, then the first and a simpler conclusion might be that graves built in such locations belong to the most important households of the area. If its importance was maintained, then graves of later period(s), built in the same sites might continuously belong to the same household, or to new claimants. This way new bound may have been created and the burial site was included in stories about earlier and present people.

Sometimes in the vicinity of such remarkable sites that assembled graves of different time periods, burials were also conducted in late prehistory or in the Middle and Early Modern Ages. In addition to Tandemagi at Vohma, such associations are known in Lahepere (Selirand 1974, 65 f.; Jaanits et al. 1982, 347) and Kobratu in Tartu County (Selirand 1974, 65), Mallavere near Raasiku in Haiju County (Selirand 1974, 67), Moigu Peetri close to Lake Ulemiste (Tamla 1977, 60); and in many other places. That also indicates continuity and remembrance of the site. The same is probably expressed through burying some dead into an old stone grave centuries or even millennia after establishing the grave.

The settlement of later periods largely avoided the immediate vicinity of stone graves. They were remembered as special places and treated differently from ordinary places. A change of attitudes took place probably in the Viking Age and at the end of prehistory. It was in the Viking Age when fields were established in the neighbourhood of earlier stone graves. So it seems that the areas in the immediate vicinity of stone graves were taken into secular use only after several centuries had passed. Although these sites were still remembered, the attitude towards them had changed.

Conclusion

A large number of sites have been used in different periods or during a long time. Some sites were inhabited only by agrarian communities; others were settled also earlier--provided the natural conditions were favourable. It seems that in these cases it was not so much remembering a place, but rather a natural choice since people preferred to dwell in the best site possible. The same can be said considering the use and re-use of hill forts. When the natural, economic, and social conditions were fulfilled, the site was used or re-used.

When graves of different periods were erected on the same site, it can be interpreted as connectedness through place. Those sites often differ from the so-called ordinary places and can be considered as liminal: ridges, riverbanks, lakeshores or close to damp areas. Earlier stone graves were visible and their use understandable for the inhabitants of later periods, using the same place helped to create connections between the later settlement and the earlier one. Such connectivity with the place was useful even (or especially?) in cases when there was no direct link between the earlier and the later inhabitants. Re-using the same site or even the same grave after gaps was also a powerful act signalling others the power of persons who dared to do it.

If a stone grave was established on top of an earlier settlement site, it might also come from the meaning of the place: the Stone Age settlement was waterbounded, and water was important in Scandinavian Bronze Age religion. In these cases it can also be considered as connectedness through place that could be either incidental or conscious.

The use of a site, like building edifices or graves, influenced landscape; the stories of the people and/or community were connected with the stories of the place, thus creating memory places. Several narratives were associated with memory places; stories were modified and passed to others. It does not mean that places that were not changed did not have such stories and connections, rather, it may be that visible objects were directed to the whole community; stories and possible rituals connected with unaltered places might have been known to some selected persons only. A site used repeatedly might have a higher rank in the hierarchy of sites, but also the opposite is possible--the most important sites might have been left intact. Still, when a site was repeatedly used for burials, it probably had a higher importance than sites not used in such a manner.

Using a place for many times means repeated returning to the same site. It does not have to be the only site suitable for a certain activity, but there has to be a reason why some specific place is or was chosen. For example, places with favourable natural conditions were used for dwelling in different periods; the surrounding landscape enabled several activities for their settlers. Some of those sites were connected with subsistence strategies; others were suitable for building graves. Higher places, visible from the distance caught the eye and also anchored the memory of local people. When stone graves were established in such sites then memory was made visual and material, visible to everyone and meant for lasting.

All these uses and re-uses created new meanings or changed and added to previous ones and indicates that people were aware of the past inhabitants on their landscapes. When the same spot was used, no matter if it was used for the same purpose as in an earlier period or not, it was still a continuation of settlement, thus forming a part in the history of a place, its biography.

doi: 10.3176/arch.2015.1.02

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Heidi Luik and Valter Lang who commented on the earlier drafts of this article. I am also thankful to Tim Ingold for his comments. The writing of this article was supported by the grant ETF9027.

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(1) Estonian Land Boards digital soil map 09.08.2012. http://xgis.maaamet.ee/xGIS/XGis

Gurly Vedru, Institute of History, Tallinn University, 6 Ruutli St., 10130 Tallinn, Estonia; gurli11@mail.ee