The sessions of the project’s conference will be held on December 1, 2014 in the conference hall of “Dvor Podznoyeva” hotel, located in Nekrasova Street 3В and on December 2-3, 2014 in the conference room of the Archaeological Center of the Pskov Region, in Gertsena Street 1/1.

The closing conference is dedicated to the results of the implementation of the project, which was started on May 1, 2012 and will be completed on December 31, 2014. The project focuses on the preservation of archaeological heritage in the cross-border region, on developing cross-border cooperation in this field and on raising awareness of people about archaeological heritage.

“The project: “Archaeology, Authority and Community: cooperation to protect archaeological heritage” unites under the supervision of The University of Tartu (Estonia) nine partner organizations from three countries: Estonia – National Heritage Board; (Non-Profit Association) Archaeological Centre; Latvia – Institute of Latvian History; Ludza Municipality; Alūksne Municipality; Russia – The Archaeological Centre of the Pskov Region; The Independent non-profit organization “Pskov Archaeological Centre”; Pskov State Historical-Architectural and Fine Arts Museum-Reserve.

Three more associated organizations are involved in the project on the Russian side: State Committee of the Pskov Region on the Preservation of Objects of Cultural Heritage, Institute for the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Gdov Local Lore Museum.

Final reports on the project’s results in Estonia, Latvia and Russia will be made on the first conference day. On this day a press-conference will be held and an exhibition-presentation of materials which visualize the project will be organized. It will also be announced about the beginning of the work of “Cross-border Archaeological Heritage Protection Network”.

On the second conference day reports will be made, dedicated to the main activities of the project: the results of the rescue excavations and archaeological field inventories of border areas of Estonia, Latvia and Russia; the results of the evaluation of the condition of archaeological collections and a lot more.

The third conference day will be dedicated to planning the main events in the framework of Cross-border Archaeological Heritage Protection Network activities and to the questions of regulatory support in the sphere of archaeological heritage preservation.

At the end of the conference excursions for the project partners from Estonia and Latvia will be orginized.

The aim of the trip was to get a survey about the character of archaeological monuments in the area populated by the people originating from Setomaa, as well as to get information about their fate. Already during the trip of Kallas the Finnic population had greatly lost their identity, being melt among the Russians.

1. Visiting Vel’e medieval stronghold

2. Grave stones of Old Believers on Lukino villag cemetery

After crossing the border, monuments of Izborsk were visited first. On the way to the southern part of Pskov oblast we also visited Vel’e medieval stronghold. In Krasnogorodsk area, first, cemetery with possible medieval grave stones was studied in Platishino village. Next we attended the villages of Mehovo and Lukino. New information was gained about the cemeteries and grave stones of the Old Believers of the region. It appears that simple grave stones with engraved cross marks which can be found on local cemeteries are not of medieval origin, as suggested before, but that they represent the local Old Believers’ tradition. Simple gravestones were home-made by the Old Believers up to the 1930s. Close to Lukino a hill fort that was considered to be perished by gravel digging, turned out to be still existing.

3. Boris Harlashov studies a grave stone

4. Rampart of Krasnogorodsk stronghold

5. Old farm at Shutovo (Sülätüvä) village

In Krasnogorodsk area, in addition to the district centre, the villages of Ivantsevo/Ivatsova, Shutovo /Süllätüvä, Gorbunovo, Podsadnitsa and Poddubnaja, once inhabited by the “Chuhny” (or relatives of the Seto) were visited. It appeared that during earlier fieldwork no data about prehistoric or medieval cemeteries had been collected from the area. Also during the field trip no additional information about cemeteries at the villages of the Kraasna maarahvas (or “Seto”) population was gained. This enables to suggest that the south Estonian population of Krasnogorodsk area were rather late immigrants, and not descendants of the native Finno-Ugric substrate population. Most unexpectedly, however, information about a hill where the „Chuhny“, i.e. non-Russians used to gather and pray was gained from a local inhabitant at Rumuli. During the visit no descendants of Kraasna maarahvas were found in the formerly big villages that had become greatly or fully empty now. The household where the last descendants of the “Chuhny” had lived in Ivantsevo village had perished in fire this spring.

6. The sacred hill at Rumuli village

7. Poddubnaya – empty village

8. On Sebesh hill fort

The third day was dedicated to the Sebezh region where the medieval stronghold, two hill forts and three groups of barrows, representing their so-called Smolensk group were visited. The famous barrows of Prihaby were heavily plundered by local grave looters. On the way back we visited the excavation site of this year where grave of a Viking Age woman was still open. The shallow grave of an 11^th-century woman with a Latgallian type headband was cut into the limestone bedrock.

9. Plundered barrow at Prihaby

10.Viking Age grave pit at Izborsk

Thanks to a lucky chance, also the caves of the Pechory Monastery could be visited on the way back to Tartu.

Aerial reconnaissance supplemented well the previous day-long search in the brushwood. We ascertained that at least eleven graves had been preserved rather intact and we were also able to identify several graves with the ones depicted on early plans. Unfortunately, not all of the imaged graves have been preserved; some stone heaps had been toted apart and in some fortunate cases, merely the bases of the former mounds were observable. Several previously found mounds were visible from the air and in addition to being an exciting experience the plane inspection was very helpful, especially in determining the grave-field borders and understanding the landscape.

The grave-field appeared definitely larger than we first thought and deserves both national protection and archaeological investigations. During aerial reconnaissance expert Tanel Moora turned our attention to some other areas nearby where the grave-field might extend and should be inspected. Further results may prove that Naistevälja grave-field covers an area larger than previously known.

PP 2

The smaller grave (registry no 12907) was covered with brushwood. The area was cleared with a brushcutter and cleaned to make the small stony heap a little bit more visible. This is a smaller tarand-grave which has not been excavated yet and is presented just the way one and a half millennia have preserved it.

The larger grave (registry no 12908) is one of the best known tarand –graves in Estonia. The volunteers cut down several large bushes and small trees to prevent them from destroying the grave construction or blocking the view. The old information stand was re-erected, but soon there will be a brand new display both in Estonian and English.

The smaller tarand-grave, almost cleaned.

After the first half hour, the pickup was full of cut branches and brushwood.

The locals were well equipped and enthusiastic!

We even had time for a small presentation and talk.

Tarand-graves became inherent to Estonia 8^th century BC, but the grave type started spreading in southern Estonia only in 2^nd– 3^rd centuries AD, during the peak of Roman Empire. These conjoined stone rectangles served as the final resting place until 5^th century. 

The larger grave has been fully excavated: already in 1887, archaeologists from St. Petersburg, Pavel Viskovatov and Georg Loeschke conducted excavations on the grave. Some years later, in 1933-1935 and 1938, Estonian archaeologists Harri Moora, Artur Vassar and Erna Ariste excavated the whole grave. The grave consisted of ten conjoined tarands and their building had probably begun from the west as older objects were in the western and newer artefacts spread more in the eastern part of the grave. The tarands were filled with smaller stones, the finds and cremated bones were scattered in between the fill. Some bones had been preserved in pits into which they had been deposited.

This is how we left the larger grave – nice and cleaned…

…and the board well visible from the road!

Anu Kivirüüt

National Heritage Board

On April 4, 2014 the first meeting of the series of meetings, dedicated to the popularization of archaeological heritage among young people of Pskov took place in Pskov Municipal Youth Center in the framework of the project «ARCHAEOLOGY, AUTHORITY & COMMUNITY: cooperation to protect archaeological heritage». The series of meetings, according to the organizers from the “Archaeological center of the Pskov region” should consist of not only lectures and discussions, but also one-day guided tours to the sites which contain archaeological monuments. Young Pskov people, who are interested in history, local lore, archaeology took part in the meeting.
The first meeting was called “10 discoveries of Pskov archaeology”. For most people archaeology means searching for treasures and rear artifacts, as well as significant discoveries and sensations. Our goal was to show what archaeology studies in reality, how scientific discoveries are made on the basis of seemingly insignificant traces of the past in the ground and featureless objects.
As an example we chose 10 significant for Pskov archaeology discoveries made in the second half of the XX century – the beginning of the XXI century. Among them are the discoveries of the churches of Dovmont’s town in Pskov Kremlin and of the state archive of Pskov Veche republic, the archaeological excavations in the Ancient Russian necropolis by the old market place, studying the remains of medieval shops of the Old and New market places, the discoveries of the birch bark manuscripts in Pskov and of the 10th century burial grounds, with chamber tombs belonging to Scandinavian cultural tradition and other discoveries.
The new meeting will be conducted in the form of an excursion to the sites of the best known archeological excavations, starting with the site of first archaeological excavations in Pskov, carried out near Mstislavskaya Tower 1914.

On March 25, 2014 a conference “Water route between Hanseatic towns Pskov and Novgorod via rivers Cheryokha, Uza and Shelon” was held in the town of Porkhov. The conference was organized by Porkhov local lore museum with the participation of the Archaeological Center of the Pskov Region.
Porkhov is one of the medieval towns located on the Shelon’ river. It was founded in proximity to the western border of Novgorod territory in the first half of the 13th century. Not far from the town there was a medieval trade water route, which connected the Livonian and Hanseatic towns with Pskov and Novgorod.
In the framework of the conference a presentation, dedicated to the objects of archaeology, found along the medieval trade route from Pskov to Novgorod was made. This research was conducted in the framework of the project «ARCHAEOLOGY, AUTHORITY & COMMUNITY: cooperation to protect archaeological heritage», as the continuation of the studies of medieval transportation links which used to exist in Pskov area. We would like to remind that in September, 2013 in the framework of the project its Russian, Estonian and Latvian participants traveled along the medieval trade route Pskov-Izborsk-Marienburg (Aluksne).

In the second half of the conference A.V.Mikhailov told the participants about the experimental trip by water from Pskov to Novgorod down the rivers Velikaya, Cheryokha, Uza, Shelon’ and Ilmen’ lake, which had been undertaken under his supervision in 1996. The participants of that expedition reconstructed the medieval journey by water which was over 230 km long. It took them 14 days to come from Pskov to Novgorod. Thus they managed to prove the possibility of such journeys in the past

One of the main activities in the framework of the project ««ARCHAEOLOGY, AUTHORITY & COMMUNITY: cooperation to protect archaeological heritage» is organizing cooperation with municipalities. Partners from Russia held several meetings and seminars with the representatives of municipal authorities. The most significant event of 2013 was the seminar «Preservation, use, popularization of archaeological heritage. Challenges and perspectives for cross border cooperation», which was held on December 19, 2013 in the conference hall of “Dvor Podznoyeva” hotel complex in Pskov.
The organizers of the seminar were: the State Committee of the Pskov Region on Culture and the partners of the Project – Pskov State United Historical, Architectural and Fine Arts Museum-Reserve, The Archaeological Center of the Pskov Regionand Pskov Archaeological Center..

The representatives of Bezhanitsy, Gdov, Loknya, Pechory, Pliussa, Porkhov, Pskov, Pustoshka, Pushkinskiye Gori, Pytalovo, Sebezh, Strugi Krasniye, Usvyaty districts of the Pskov Region, responsible for the preservation of objects of cultural heritage, took part in the seminar. Among them were the representatives of the Administrations of Pskov and Velikiye Luki.

The program of the seminar included the discussion of a wide range of questions, connected to the changes in the laws determining the preservation of objects of cultural heritage, in particular, the monuments of archaeology. Great attention was paid to the successful practical experience of preservation and popularization of archaeological objects. One of the key issues was the discussion of mutual measures of counteracting illegal activities in the sphere of archaeological heritage. Moreover during the seminar perspectives and risks of incorporating objects of cultural heritage into tourist sphere were discussed. A separate discussion was dedicated to the possible variants of museumification of separate monuments of archaeology as well as complex archaeological sites. During the seminar the participants were asked to complete questionnaires about the preservation of the historic and cultural heritage of the region.

The experts of the seminar: Volova Nadezhda Ivanovna – the head of the Department of Legal Expertise and Statutory Regulation in the Sphere of Preservation of Objects of Cultural Heritage of the State Committee of the Pskov Region on Culture; Volochkova Olga Kuz’minichna – the director of the Autonomous Non-Profit Organization “Pskov Archaeological Center”; Zarutskiy Anton Anatolyevich – the Head of the Department of State Control and Supervision in the Sphere of Preservation of Objects of Cultural Heritage of the State Committee of the Pskov Region on Culture; Korolyova Elvira Valeryevna – the head of the Department of the Preservation of Archaeological Collections of Pskov State United Historical, Architectural and Fine Arts Museum-Reserve; Mikhailov Alexander Valeryevich – the head of the Department of Field Studies and Cameral Treatment of “The Archaeological Center of the Pskov Region; Yakovleva Elena Aleksandrovna – the Head of the State Committee of the Pskov Region on the Preservation of Objects of Cultural Heritage.

The organizers of the seminar printed leaflets to be distributed in the Pskov region, informing about the responsibility for the illegal use of metal detectors.

Next seminar will take place in 2014. On the agenda of this seminar there will be discussions of mutual measures which can be taken to prevent damages to the monuments of archaeology.

Also, the web page of Tutulus has been completed, as well. Now there is no need to wait anxiously for next years’ first Horisont to read new stories about Estonian archaeology. The web page is constantly renewed, therefore do not forget to have a glimpse every now and then!