Other events in Baltic States

Archaeologists have unearthed a prehistoric fisherman’s grave at the Stone Age site of Rinnukalns near the River Salaca’s outlet from Lake Burtnieks in northern Latvia, Valdis Berzins, a lead researcher at the University of Latvia’s Institute of History of Latvia, informed LETA.

Examination of the burial site has revealed that the deceased man was buried along with a fish meal, judging from a layer of fishbones around his skull. The area is known to have been a very good place for fishing and gathering freshwater mussels, as Stone Age settlements there abound with fishbones and freshwater mussel shells.

The fact that the fish meal has been placed in the prehistoric man’s grave suggests of the important role fishing played in the ancient people’s rituals and worldview, researchers believe.

The Rinnukalns site is a unique North European Stone Age settlement and a rich source of information about ancient people’s food and life around 4,000 years B.C. when crop and livestock farming was still undeveloped in Europe.

The archeological excavations at the Rinnukalns settlement are carried out by a team of researchers from the Centre for Baltic and Scandinavian Archeology and the University of Latvia together with students from the University of Kiel.

The archeological digs will continue also next year.

The project is led by German researcher Harald Luebke and financed by the German Research Foundation.