Archaeological Traces of Hunter-gatherer Seasonal Occupation in Western Coastal Estonia from the Second Half of the 6th Millennium to the End of the 3rd Millennium BC

Abstract

Results of archaeological surveys of paleocoastlines in the Western Estonian Lowland are discussed with paleogeographic reconstructions. Mapped sites and stray finds can be dated to the period between the end of the Pre-Pottery Mesolithic and the end of the Neolithic (roughly 5300–2000 cal BC). Uniquely for Estonia and neighbouring countries in this time frame, the overwhelming majority of the sites are aceramic (and the rest feature very few pottery finds) and the find diversity is otherwise low, too. The findings are interpreted as traces of seasonal occupation and mobility, for the first time demonstrated in the Eastern Baltics on such a large scale.