Recurrent Mesolithic–Neolithic occupation at Sise (western Latvia) and shoreline displacement in the Baltic Sea Basin

Abstract

A major assemblage of Mesolithic and Neolithic wooden artefacts has been recovered from the bed of the River Užava at Sise, in the coastal belt of western Latvia. New archaeological investigation has also produced wooden remains and other evidence of occupation on the riverbank. On the basis of multi-proxy environmental data and radiocarbon dating, this article offers a first attempt to place the human activity in a palaeolandscape context. The earliest evidence of human presence is provided by wooden artefacts dated to c. 10,500–9700 cal. BP, during the Ancylus Lake transgression. These remains are thought to reflect fishing activities in the shallows of the Ventspils Bay, which existed during the transgression. The regression that followed brought a return to river-valley conditions at the site, and the next recorded period of human activity, evidenced by ¹⁴C-dated antler tool finds, is associated with the beginning of the Littorina Sea transgression, culminating c. 7500 cal. BP. With the formation of a new Ventspils Bay/Lagoon, the Sise site, at or near the river mouth, would have regained its status as an advantageous fishing location. Archaeological finds indicate continued human activity c. 6000–4000 cal. BP, even though the sea level was now lower and this was no longer a river-mouth location. Such a pattern of recurrent human occupation during the early to middle Holocene, associated with repeated shifts of the shoreline, appears to be characteristic of the central region of the Baltic Sea Basin.

Keywords

Ancylus Lake Littorina Sea Mesolithic Neolithic settlement pattern shoreline displacement

Introduction

Background

In the course of the Holocene, the northern and southern regions of the Baltic Sea Basin have experienced dramatically contrasting patterns of shoreline displacement. In the north, rapid land uplift after the melting of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet has resulted in almost continuous regression, whereas transgression has prevailed in the south, under the impact of crustal subsidence and rising water levels (Andrén et al., 2011; Harff and Meyer, 2011). Meanwhile, in the intermediately located region at the eastern margin of the basin (present-day western Latvia and south-western Estonia), corresponding to the periphery of the isostatic uplift zone, postglacial rebound has been comparable in magnitude to Holocene water-level changes in the Baltic Sea Basin. Accordingly, this intermediate region experienced a series of transgressions and regressions, in the course of which the relative water level repeatedly rose above and fell below present sea level. Over the millennia, the waters successively advanced and retreated across a wide belt of flat terrain, bringing dramatic changes to the coastal landscape and necessitating the relocation of Stone Age hunter-fisher settlements.

These shifts are revealed through research at Sise on the River Užava, a site that was close to the mouth of the river, flowing into the ancient Ventspils Bay/Lagoon, during the Ancylus Lake transgression and once again at the Littorina Sea transgression maximum (see water-level curve, Figure 1a).

Figure 1.

(a) Tentative shoreline displacement curve for the Sise study area, based on research in the area of the former Ventspils Lagoon (Dzhinoridze et al., 1967; Straume et al., 1970; Veinbergs, 1979), using dating evidence from the Sise site and from research in neighbouring regions (Berglund et al., 2005; Rosentau et al., 2013; Saarse et al., 2003; Veski et al., 2005); Baltic Sea Basin stages after Andrén et al. (2011). (b) Map of the central part of the Baltic Sea region with apparent land uplift isobases (after Ekman, 1996). (c) Map of the study area showing archaeological trenches and test-pits excavated in 2012 (trenches not to scale; numbered trenches are mentioned in text) and the stretch of the River Užava where bone and antler artefacts have been recovered.

The Sise site

The archaeological site of Sise (57°07′29″ N, 21°32′57″ E), in the Coastal Lowlands of western Latvia (Figure 1), is known primarily for the large collection of Mesolithic and Neolithic antler and bone tools recovered from the bed of the River Užava. Finds were made before the Second World War and in the 1960s (Loze, 2000; Vankina, 1984), but the largest corpus of material has been collected in recent years by amateur archaeologist Aivars Priedoliņš.¹ This assemblage significantly augments the Stone Age bone and antler artefactual material from the East Baltic region, presenting a range of classic forms along with rare and unique pieces (including objects with sculpted or incised decoration).

The most recent geological survey (Murniece et al., 1999; Podgurskiy et al., 1985) places the highest Littorina Sea shoreline at the Sise site itself, with Baltic Ice Lake deposits above this limit, whereas earlier maps (Latvijas kvartāra nogulumu karte, 1981; Straume et al., 1970) show the highest shorelines of both the Ancylus Lake and the Littorina Sea at higher elevation. However, no stratigraphic study of Holocene deposits incorporating biostratigraphic methods has previously been undertaken near the site itself.

Since 2010, Sise has become the focus of interdisciplinary investigation aimed at locating the primary source of the artefacts recovered from the riverbed, tracing the pattern of Stone Age occupation and placing the human habitation in a palaeolandscape context.

Materials and methods

Archaeological investigation

Archaeological fieldwork at Sise commenced with underwater prospection in 2010, supplemented with examination of riverbank exposures and followed by surface survey along the riverbanks. Trial excavation was conducted in 2012, excavating 19 test trenches and a larger area covering 46 m² (Figure 1c).

Geological studies

The geological data discussed in this paper were obtained in the course of fieldwork in 2012, which involved lithostratigraphic observations in the archaeological trenches, along with collection of bulk samples (~2 L) for plant macrofossil and mollusc analysis in Trenches 8 and 18. A set of stratigraphic monoliths (100 × 3.5 × 7.5 cm) was obtained from the wall of Trench 8, the sequence extended by coring in the base of this trench using a 7-cm-diameter Russian corer (Core 1).

Organic matter content was quantified by loss-on-ignition (LOI) analysis at 550°C. Carbonate content was estimated from the difference between LOI at 950°C and 550°C multiplied by 1.36 (Heiri et al., 2001). Ignition residue was estimated as mineral matter content. Measurements were performed on continuous 1-cm-thick subsamples.

Plant macrofossil analysis

Samples for analysis of macroscopic plant remains were taken in conjunction with sampling for other studies. The monoliths were sliced into 5 cm sections. Samples averaging 50–200 mL in volume were soaked in water and wet-sieved with a mesh size of 0.25 mm. Remains were identified using an extensive reference collection and publications (Bojnanský and Fargašová, 2007; Cappers et al., 2006; Katz et al., 1965; Velichkevich and Zastawniak, 2006, 2008).

Pollen analysis

Sediment samples from the Trench 8/Core 1 sequence were prepared for pollen analysis in accordance with Bennett and Willis (2001). At least 700 pollen grains were counted per sample (except aquatic plant pollen and spores). The basic sum (100%) for pollen percentage calculations includes all pollen, except aquatic plant pollen (Berglund and Ralska-Jasiewiczowa, 1986).

TILIA 1.7.16 software (Grimm, 2012) was used for processing pollen and macrofossil data and preparing diagrams.

Mollusc analysis

Mollusc shells were identified under a binocular microscope at 4.8× and 16× magnification, using the reference collection of the Museum of Zoology, University of Latvia, along with keys and atlases (Glöer and Meier-Brook, 1998; Jagnow and Gosselck, 1987; Kerney et al., 1983; Rudzīte, 1999; Rudzīte et al., 2010).

Age determination

Seventeen radiocarbon samples have been dated: four by liquid scintillation counting at the Tallinn laboratory and the rest by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) at Lund and the Leibniz-Laboratory in Kiel (Figure 2). All samples consisted of fully terrestrial species, and each sample was a single organism, so calibration of the radiocarbon results using the IntCal13 calibration data (Reimer et al., 2013; Figure 2) gives an accurate estimate of when each sample was alive.

Figure 2.

Radiocarbon dates from Sise: Stone Age artefacts and macrofossils from Trench/Core 8. Conventional radiocarbon ages have been calibrated using the IntCal13 atmospheric curve (Reimer et al., 2013) curve and OxCal v4.2.3 (Bronk Ramsey, 2009).

Results and interpretation

Finds from the riverbed

The oldest dated objects from Sise are two unworked timbers from c. 10,700–10,250 cal. BP, brought up from the riverbed during underwater prospection (Figure 2, samples 29, 30). It is tentatively suggested that they derive from the coastal forest inundated during the Ancylus transgression (cf. Björck and Dennegård, 1988; Björck et al., 2008; Hartz et al., 2014; Lübke et al., 2011; Žulkus and Girininkas, 2014).

Among the many antler and bone artefacts from the river, the five ¹⁴C-dated pieces are all much later, spanning c. 8000–6000 cal. BP, which falls within the Littorina Sea stage (Late Mesolithic–Early Neolithic). On the basis of archaeological typology, the majority of undated antler axes, mattocks and hammers may be assigned to the same period. Three Kunda-type (Clark, 1936) barbed fish spears, reflecting the later development of this form, are probably Late Mesolithic; the style of incised decoration on a bone dagger likewise suggests a Late Mesolithic date. Two bone arrowheads represent Early Neolithic forms.

Also among the finds from the riverbed are several sherds of Neolithic pottery, some datable by ornamentation to c. 6000–5000 and others to c. 5000–4000 cal. BP (Middle and Late Neolithic, respectively), as well as two large grinding stones. Both kinds of material are indicative of settlement on the riverbank at Sise itself – the former being too friable and the latter too heavy to have been transported any great distance downstream.

Evidence of riverbank settlement

The surface finds of worked flint were supplemented with similar material from the test-pits on the left bank of the Užava, indicating human activity in the Stone Age along a stretch of the riverbank at least 600 m long, although a preserved occupation layer has not been discovered. Excavation area 2/3, at the southern end of the site (6.6–7.6 m a.s.l.), showed a relatively high concentration of worked flint in the ploughsoil, including two Mesolithic blade cores.

Trench 18

Discovered in Trench 18 (Figure 1c) was a pile or post of hazel wood in vertical position, driven into a sand layer overlain by a sequence of organic-rich silts and sands, which in turn was covered by 1 m of fine sand. A lateral arm from an eel clamp, similar to those mainly represented in the Ertebølle Culture of the south-western Baltic (Klooss, 2015: 232), as well as a tool handle, both made of hazel, were found at the same depth, along with a quantity of wood debris. The three objects are broadly contemporaneous (Figure 2), c. 10,500–9700 cal. BP (early Middle Mesolithic in the East Baltic chronology), and are in fact the oldest dated wooden artefacts from the East Baltic region.

The artefact dates correspond to the time of the Ancylus transgression, estimated as reaching an elevation of 12 m a.s.l. (Figures 1a and 2), but the objects, stratified in subaqueous deposits and evidently reflecting human activities in shallow water, lie at only c. 4.4 m a.s.l. Certainly, at the time the pile was driven in, the water level could not have exceeded c. 6 m a.s.l. There are estimates for the date of the Ancylus transgression peak from the region of the Baltic Sea Basin experiencing a comparable rate of land uplift. Thus, studies in Ingermanland, Russia, place this event within the interval 10,900–9500 cal. BP, estimated as occurring at 10,200 cal. BP (Rosentau et al., 2013: 6); 10,200 cal. BP is likewise the estimate obtained for Pärnu in south-western Estonia (Veski et al., 2005: 83); research in Blekinge, Sweden, assigns it to the interval c. 10,600–10,300 cal. BP (Berglund et al., 2005: Table 5). At present, we cannot say unequivocally, on stratigraphic or chronological grounds, whether the evidence of human activities from Sise Trench 18 pre- or post-dates the transgression peak.

The aquatic plant remains from the layers with the artefacts (Figure 3a; Supplemental Table S2, available online) consist predominantly of common club-rush (Scirpus lacustris) and white water lily (Nymphaea alba), indicating the shore zone of a lake. The prevalence of Orthotrichia caddisfly larvae also corresponds to standing water (Bennike and Wiberg-Larsen, 2002), as do the diagnostic species of aquatic molluscs: Bithynia leachii leachii, Acroloxus lacustris, Pisidium and Sphaerium sp. (Figure 3a; Supplemental Table S1, available online). On the strength of this evidence, the fishing activities evidenced by the artefacts were taking place in the shallows of the Ventspils Bay of the Ancylus Lake.

Figure 3.

Plant macrofossil and mollusc finds from the Sise site. (a) Trench 18; (b) Trench 8/Core 1. Plant macrofossils shown in the figure were calculated to 200 mL volume.

The plant macrofossil assemblage indicates birch forest with pine on the lakeshore. The frequent remains of wet meadow plants, marsh marigold (Caltha palustris) and hemp-agrimony (Eupatorium cannabinum), along with shells of terrestrial snail species Succinea putris and Oxyloma elegans, reflect a wet shore environment.

Core 1/Trench 8

The sand and silty gyttja layers at the base of the Core 1/Trench 8 sequence (1.7–2.2 m a.s.l.) have been dated to c. 8400–7600 cal. BP (Figure 2, KIA-48969, KIA-48961 and KIA-48962; Figures 3b and 4). These sediments infill a deep river channel presumed to have been carved during the regression that followed the peak level of the Ancylus Lake. Channel-infilling at this time is thought to be connected with renewed transgression in this part of the Baltic Sea Basin and consequent rise of the river’s base level (Figure 1a; see Rosentau et al., 2013: 5–6; Veski et al., 2005: Figure 2). Nevertheless, flow conditions in the river were still relatively fast, the presence of terrestrial fungi (Supplemental Table S2, available online) indicating bank erosion. Organic matter content is very low; carbonate content reaches 10% (Supplemental Figure S1, available online).

Figure 4.

Pollen diagram, Trench 8/Core 1.

We may note that the three oldest dates for the stray finds of antler tools (Figure 2: LuA-5396, KIA-43699 and KIA-43698) correspond to the age of the lower strata of the core sequence. The artefacts have evidently been washed out of sediments accumulating at this time.

These strata are overlain by a thick deposit of gyttja with fluctuating proportions of mineral and organic matter (Supplemental Figure S1, available online). The plant and animal remains from the gyttja (Figure 3b; Supplemental Table 2, available online), which include white water lily and other aquatic plants, snails such as Bithynia tentaculata, along with Pisidium species bivalves, ostracods, fish and caddisfly Ithytrichia and Orthotrichia larval case remains, clearly point to slow-velocity aquatic conditions (Bennike and Wiberg-Larsen, 2002).

In contrast to the previous dominance of birch in the riverbank forest (Trench 18), the macrofossils from Core 1/Trench 8 indicate that black alder (Alnus glutinosa) was a major component of the local vegetation in the time of the Littorina Sea, with hazel (Corylus avellana) nut shells present in the interval 4.60–4.25 m a.s.l.

The conditions of the Holocene Climatic Optimum are reflected by the presence of broadleaved trees in the pollen composition from 8000 to 5800 cal. BP (Figure 4). The fluctuation of broadleaved pollen curves and high frequency of microscopic charcoal in the pollen samples from this time onwards, along with pollen of ruderal plants, indicate human disturbance of the vegetation.

This sequence spans the time of the maximum level of the Littorina Sea, which, based on studies in the nearby region of south-western Estonia, has been placed at c. 7500 cal. BP (Veski et al., 2005: 83; cf. Rosentau et al., 2013: 6; Sandgren et al., 2004: 377). However, no marine mollusc remains have been found in this sequence, nor are there other indicators of marine conditions.² This is explicable in terms of the environmental setting: namely, this was a location of freshwater inflow into the Ventspils Lagoon.

The pollen and macrofossils from the upper part of the series of organic strata demonstrate a transition to standing water conditions and terrestrialization. In the interval 3.60–4.32 m a.s.l., mineral matter content is lowest, while the proportion of organic matter reaches maximum levels (Supplemental Figure S1, available online). Macroremains of bird cherry (Padus racemosa) and alder buckthorn (Frangula alnus) appear. The frequency of aquatic plant remains falls significantly, concomitant with an increase in the quantity of remains from wet-ground plants. In conjunction with the change in sediment composition, this indicates the channel was gradually silting up and overgrowing, having been cut off from the main river channel.

The top of this sequence of organic deposits is dated to approximately 6300–6000 cal. BP (Figure 2: KIA-48964, KIA-48965 and KIA-48966). Slightly later than this is the youngest of the dated antler artefacts from the present riverbed (Figure 2, KIA-50030). Some Cerealia pollen grains, the earliest appearing c. 6000 cal. BP (Figure 4), provide tentative evidence of early agriculture.

Discussion and conclusion

Setting the archaeological and palaeoenvironmental evidence from the Sise site in the context of the developmental history of the Baltic Sea Basin, we may offer a first account of the changing early to middle Holocene landscape and the pattern of human settlement.

In the north-western part of the Kurzeme Peninsula, the rapid Ancylus transgression after c. 10,500 cal. BP flooded a broad coastland that had been exposed during the Yoldia Sea stage, along with the River Užava valley, forming the Ventspils Bay/Lagoon (Veinbergs, 1979).

At the transgression maximum, the whole area around Sise is thought to have been submerged. The evidence from Trench 18 indicates that shortly before or after this, c. 10,500–10,000 cal. BP, people were fishing in the shallows of the bay and would presumably have been living on nearby higher ground, close to the river mouth.

Because of continued rapid land uplift, in this central region of the Baltic Sea Basin, the Ancylus transgression was succeeded by an equally dramatic regression (Berglund et al., 2005: Figure 13; Rosentau et al., 2013: Figure 4; Saarse et al., 2003). Research in the former Ventspils Bay (Dzhinoridze et al., 1967: 55–56) indicates that the water level fell as low as 13 m b.s.l. during the later part of the Ancylus Lake stage, which meant re-exposure of the coastal plain and a return to river-valley conditions at Sise, and the Užava carving a deep channel through the Ancylus sediments. Now located far upstream from the river mouth, Sise could potentially still have been an advantageous fishing location (although there is so far no dated evidence of human occupation during this period).

Relative water-level rise is once again observed in the east-central region of the Baltic Sea Basin starting c. 8500 cal. BP (Rosentau et al., 2013: 7) and culminating in the Littorina Sea transgression peak at c. 7500 cal. BP. At Sise, the deeply incised river channel was infilled. Since three of the five dates obtained from artefacts fall in this period, it seems also to have been a time of intensive occupation. Logically, with the formation of a new Ventspils Bay/Lagoon during the Littorina Sea stage, this locality, at or near the Užava mouth, would have regained its special status as a prime fishing location.

During the later part of the Littorina stage, the sea level was lower, with evidence of fluctuating levels (transgressions L4–L5 in Blekinge after Berglund et al., 2005: Figure 13; for the Latvian coast a second, lower Littorina transgression, Lit_b, has been identified: see Veinbergs, 1979). Although Sise was no longer a river-mouth location, continued human activity in the period c. 6000–4000 cal. BP is indicated by pottery finds, a ¹⁴C-dated antler axe (KIA-50030) and typologically dated bone and antler objects.

In light of the research undertaken thus far, the long record of human activities at Sise can be explained as relating to the repeated transgression and regression across this area of flat terrain. This recurrently created attractive conditions for hunter-fisher settlement, notably during certain phases of high relative water level in the Ancylus Lake and Littorina Sea stages, when Sise would have become a focal river-mouth fishing location, with good access to aquatic and terrestrial food resources in a wider area. Such a pattern of recurrent occupation at key sites, associated with repeated shifts of the shoreline, appears to have been characteristic for this region of the Baltic Sea Basin (cf. Rosentau et al., 2013; Veski et al., 2005), differing markedly from the picture of shoreline displacement and coastal settlement in the northern and southern parts of the basin.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The authors are particularly indebted to Aivars Priedoliņš for his dedicated prospecting work and invaluable practical assistance. We thank all the members of the archaeological and earth science field teams, and Alar Rosentau, who provided on-site consultation.

Funding

The research was funded by the Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archaeology (Schleswig, Germany), the Wenner-Gren Foundation (Post-PhD Research Grant 8288) and the Science Council of Latvia (Research Project 276/2012).

Notes

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Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

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