The lower reaches of the Pärnu River, around the mouth of the Reiu River, are the richest source of Stone Age finds in Estonia. Over more than a hundred years, a couple of thousand Stone Age artefacts – arrowheads, spearheads, fishhooks, harpoon heads and more – have been unearthed from the riverbanks and from gravel and sand excavated from the riverbed.
Assuming that these artefacts could have come from settlements located along the riverbank, several archaeological excavations were undertaken from 1905 onwards, led by history enthusiasts among the Baltic-German members of the Pärnu Antiquities Society. However, no settlements were located or identified until 1967, when the remains of a Stone Age settlement were discovered on the site of the former Pulli Farm, just above the Sindi dam.
It was here, in the mouth of the Reiu River, that a young history enthusiast, Lauri Mikkelsaar (1984-2001), collected chance finds from the riverbank in 2000. This led to test excavations, after which a layer of organic humus several centimetres thick was discovered beneath several metres of sediment, from which flint and bone fragments clearly indicated traces of human activity.
Over several summers starting in 2001, archaeologists conducted extensive excavations along the Pärnu River at Sindi-Lodja in the course of which multiple ancient settlements were identified.
Initially, it was assumed that the settlement sites might be as old as or even older than the Pulli settlement. This was suggested by a flint core with tool marks from an early Mesolithic flintstone collected by chance from the same riverbed. However, later analyses determined that these settlements dated to the middle Mesolithic period.
The earliest traces of settlement at the Sindi-Lodja I site date from 7100-6700 BCE. The inhabitants were forced to leave the area due to the rising sea level, which at its height reached as far as Sindi.
At the second discovered settlement site, Sindi-Lodja II, the layer that was rich in finds was only a few dozen centimetres thick but contained a large number of animal bones. According to archaeologist Aivar Kriiska, the seal bones found here are particularly interesting, as those found at this site and at Sindi-Lodja ll represent the oldest evidence of seal hunting in Estonia.
In addition, a third settlement site was discovered in 2001, which was dated as being younger than the previous two. It belonged to the era of Neolithic Corded Ware culture, around 4000-3200 BC. As a settlement site, it was named Sindi-Lodja III.
Prehistoric settlement history of the lower Pärnu River
After the ice sheet retreated around 12,500 years ago, a lake separated from the ocean formed in today’s Baltic Sea basin from meltwater trapped by glaciers, known as the Baltic Ice Lake. Its water level was significantly higher than today’s sea level: its coastline ran somewhere between Kilingi-Nõmme, Suure-Jaani and Rapla. Around 9700 BCE, as the lake overflowed due to the continued melting of ice, it broke through to today’s central Sweden and drained into the world ocean. As a result, the water level dropped at a catastrophic rate, by around 25 metres in total. The area around here was freed from water, and the shoreline receded to roughly the middle of present-day Pärnu Bay, forming what is now known as the Yoldia Sea in the area of today’s Baltic Sea.
Around 9000 BC, the connection between the sea and the ocean was cut off again, due to the rapid uplift of the Earth’s crust in Scandinavia freed from the ice sheet. This marked the beginning of the next stage in the formation of the Baltic Sea, known as the Ancylus Lake. In its early phase, around 9000-8550 BC, the oldest discovered settlement in Estonia – the Pulli settlement – was likely used as a seasonal campsite. As meltwater from glaciers continued to flow into the Ancylus Lake, the water level gradually rose, and it was probably for this reason that the inhabitants had to abandon the site. Over the centuries, the settlement became buried under several meters of sediment.
Around 8300-8200 BCE, the Antsylus Lake, which continued to collect meltwater from the Scandinavian glaciers, reached such a high level that it began to flow into the ocean across the Danish straits. This again led to a drop in the water level, moving the shoreline roughly to the area of the present-day mouth of the Reiu River. It was at this time, during the so-called Littorina Sea period, that settlements were established along the then coastline, now known as the Sindi-Lodja I site (in use around 7000-6700 BCE) and, about 400 meters upstream, the Sindi-Lodja II site (in use around 6900 BCE). As the slower land uplift in south-western Estonia was gradually submerged again due to rising sea levels, these two Mesolithic settlements became buried over the following millennia under sediments deposited by wind and water.
Seal hunters’ habitat
The Mesolithic settlements of Sindi-Lodja I and Sindi-Lodja II were probably year-round settlements, where inhabitants could hunt in the forests and fish in both the sea and along the river. The people who lived here would have looked similar to modern humans and probably had a developed spoken language and organised social structure.
Based on animal bones found in the settlement layers, it has been determined that the inhabitants hunted mainly wild boar, but also elk, aurochs, deer, hares, beavers and other game. They also caught birds and fished. It was likely during this period that humans first began hunting marine mammals: the oldest traces of seal hunting in the area come from these settlements.
The three settlement sites discovered so far along the riverbank here are almost certainly not the only ones in the area – there could be many more interesting things hidden beneath the ground. In 2024, archaeological investigations were carried out in preparation for the construction of a new bridge at the mouth of the Reiu River. Trial excavations revealed the presence of an archaeological cultural layer beneath more than four metres of sediment.
Both the settlement sites and the entire forest area between the road and the river are protected as an archaeological monument.
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