Stone-Hill-Graves

Stone-Hill-Graves 

burial structures distributed in the Estonian SSR and the northern part of the Latvian SSR. Between the first and the fifth centuries they were rectangular enclosures made of large boulders, oriented from north to south along the long axis. Later, from the sixth to 13th century, they were structureless masses of stone and earth. The interments were group burials, with inhumation practiced in the first and second centuries and cremation predominating in later periods. The stone-hill-graves were used for burying family communes or the larger kin group; burials with ten or more enclosures attached to one another are known. The articles found include iron weapons, tools, and bronze ornaments. The stone-hill-graves were left by the ancestors of the Livo-Estonian tribes.

REFERENCES

Moora, Kh. A. “Arkheologicheskie pamiatniki I-IV vv. v Pribaltike.” In the collection Kratkie soobshcheniia instituía istoriia material’noi kul’tury, issue 53. Moscow, 1954.
Shmidel’khePm, M. Kh. Arkheologicheskie pamiatniki perioda razlozheniia rodovogo stroia na severo-vostoke Estonii (V v. do n. e. - V v. n. e.). Tallinn, 1955.