EASE PLACEMENT REPORT
LATVIA 2005
ALAN DALTON
We arrived at
When we arrived in Cesis we were taken to our home for the next six weeks, the Putninkrogs hotel, while the decor was uninspiring, the hotel catered for all our needs and would eventually become a genuine home from home. For our first evening in Cesis, Anda took us to a restaurant that overlooked a pleasant park with a pond and water fountain.
For our first
full day in Cesis we were taken on a tour of the historical sites of Cesis
by a tour guide, dressed in period costume. We were shown around the old town,
the first thought that struck me was the sense of decay in the various buildings
in the old town, the buildings were architecturally impressive but some had
clearly been severely neglected. Perhaps this is a combination of the political
and economic turmoil in the recent history of this ancient town and also the
harsh winters. We were also taken into the church that dominates the skyline
of Cesis,
In the afternoon
on our second day we were taken to the site of our excavations, the medieval
On our third day we were taken to Araisi Ezerpils, the reconstructed lake fortress settlement which last years EASE participants helped to maintain. Janis Apals, responsible for the excavations and the reconstruction of the settlement gave us a history of the site and the reconstruction. His talk on the methods of reconstruction was particularly interesting with regards to how much was based on archaeological evidence, trial and error and educated guesswork.
We began excavating our site on the afternoon of our third day and were introduced to Maris Zunde, a dendrochronologist, who would be supervising our excavation. The rest of the week would be spent excavating in the cellar of the West Block and the area above the cellar where sections of building were still extant. During this first week a cannonball was discovered, several pieces of metal – possibly segments of armour, Alex (one of my fellow English students) found a piece of decorated bone which bore a human head with angels wings behind the head and I found several pieces of an armour gauntlet. We were all initially surprised by the sheer quantity of animal bone we were finding, and it soon became obvious to us why these were never recorded, during the subsequent weeks we filled several shoe boxes with bone every day!
Our first weekend
was reasonably quiet; we went to Erglu (Eagle) Cliff, an impressive sandstone
cliff cut by the
The second week
was our first full week of digging; it was nice to be able to get into a regular
work routine but the heat made it extremely uncomfortable at times. The locals
commented on how unusual it was for it to be so hot for such a long period,
apparently the summer in
During the second
week we also went to Araisi where we were the guests at a barbecue arranged
by our hosts. It was a wonderful evening with traditional Latvian songs being
sung and it provided us with our first insight into the warmth and hospitality
of our hosts. We were given further evidence of this at the weekend when we
went back to Araisi for another barbecue followed by a sauna. The sauna was
an experience not to be missed and was a superb example of a traditional Baltic/Scandinavian
sauna, being able to swim in
During week three
the weather eventually started to change, it became cooler and more comfortable,
it even rained at one point and it was interesting to see how the site looked
after heavy rain. The rain certainly made it easier to show up the burnt layer
underlying all the building rubble and overlying the natural blue/grey clay
but made it a lot harder to spot coins, nails and small bones in the mud.
Jessica found a silver coin, other lower grade coins were found, also found
were arrowheads and pieces of armour. Curiously, three finds of gold thread
were found in three different locations all on the same day. We were also
taken on a tour of various archaeological sites in the area. We saw the Ungurmuizas
Manor House, the oldest surviving wooden house in
During the third
week we were given a demonstration by the local smith, Daumants Kalnins, responsible
for creating copies of metal artefacts and jewellery based upon actual finds.
Daumants was extremely friendly and enthusiastic as well as being highly skilled.
He let us all have a go at hammering a piece of hot metal and we minted our
own coins which we kept as souvenirs. The weekend saw another barbecue and
sauna at Araisi as well as a medieval festival in Cesis which was dampened
slightly by the rain. It was nevertheless a colourful experience with people
dressed in medieval costume and demonstrations of games, crafts, fighting,
archery and punishment! We also went to
Week four was
the most productive week in terms of finds, Jessica found a horse skull and
a tankard, Alex found a brooch that predates the stone castle and a necklace,
Primrose found a pieces of leg armour, I found a piece of chain mail and a
large stone was removed and it was discovered that it had a fine carving of
a flower on it, rather like a Tudor rose. It was also during this week that
I found a hoard of over 40 coins, almost all of them silver, including a very
rare square coin, similar to a klippe found at the castle during a
previous excavation. These coins had been minted in
On this weekend
we went to the Latvian Ethnographic Open-Air Museum, the home of an impressive
collection of wooden buildings rescued from various areas of the country and
rebuilt in this area of woodland just outside
By the fifth week we had removed almost the entire rubble layer and were down onto the burnt layer. Very few finds were forthcoming once we reached the burnt layer, mainly animal bones, so attention was turned to other areas of the site. Dan and Matt dug a test pit outside the western curtain wall of the West Block to try and find if a stone shaft discovered in the cellar led to the outside. It did and there is a possibility that this may have been for the disposal of refuse as the soil was organically very rich with a large quantity of animal bone in this area of the cellar. Alex and I extended the trench in the area above the cellar in order to see if a wall extended southwards. Further excavation also revealed a cobbled floor extended southwards as well. We also spent a day at Araisi during week five to do conservation work at the ruined castle in preparation for the German festival scheduled for the weekend. Some of the students had to move lots of logs and others had to clear away weeds and long grass to make some of the ruins more visible to the public.
On this weekend
we went to
Unfortunately, our last week was badly affected by the weather. It rained for almost the entire week and we lost a lot of digging time. The cold mud was in stark contrast to the extreme heat at the beginning of the dig. The week was enlivened by a photographer from the local newspaper taking our photograph as we stood in the cellar. We were all presented with copies of this paper at the end of the week. Alex and Dan opened up a new trench above the cellar area in order to find the staircase leading down into the cellar. Some building structure was discovered and it seemed likely that this was indeed the staircase although we would not be able to excavate this ourselves.
Our last day of
digging was finished off with a lovely party arranged by our hosts at the
museum. It was a very special evening in which we all let our hair down and
had a really good time with our hosts, who by now had also become our friends.
We hoped to arrange a return party for them by hiring a raft to go on the
The last day, Monday 15 August was a day of mixed emotions. We were all glad to be heading back home but we were also very sad to be saying goodbye to our friends. We spent the morning taking one last look at the site and saying goodbye and taking photographs of all the people involved on the dig.
I learned an enormous
amount during my six weeks and it was an invaluable experience for me. It
was interesting to compare Latvian methods with British methods. The health
and safety regulations are a lot more rigorous in the
I think the last
words of this report should go to the people who worked with us and who helped
us in