Kersti Kihno

Tracing fire cultivation in Estonia

Tracing fire cultivation in Estonia Fire cultivation is possibly the agricultural land-use method of the longest duration in Estonia; yet still it has attracted little attention from researchers. The aim of this paper is two-fold: firstly, to discuss the latest stage of historical bushland management via fire cultivation as it appears in historical sources, and secondly to look for ways in which the natural historical research methods can be combined with those of the humanities in search of more complex understanding of land-use dynamics. The material analysed are the 19th century agrarian laws and ethnographic data. These sources show that researchers have so far rather under- than overestimated the persistence and spread of fire use - a number of fire cultivation cases are reported even from the early 20th century from different parts of Estonia. Thus we suggest that bushland management with fire cultivation methods has continued longer than previously assumed. Analysis of the 19th century Livonian agrarian laws shows that legislation of the period directed the land-use pattern away from the earlier practice of a mosaic or scattered patchwork of wooded areas and cleared fields, towards bigger wooded areas and more compact cultivated areas, thus bringing about changes in the landscape. Tuleviljeluse jäljed Eestis Tuleviljelus kui üks põllumajanduslikke tegureid peab olema mõjutanud eesti maastike kujunemist nagu on mõjutanud seda loomakasvatus ja künnipõllundus. Käesoleva artikli eesmärk on näidata, et tuleviljeluse mõju on olnud pikemaajalisem ja ruumiliselt varieeruvam, kui senised käsitlused seda on näidanud. Kirjalikud allikad, mis võimaldavad täpsustada tuleviljeluse ajalist levikut, on 19. sajandi Liivimaa talurahvaseadused ja Eesti Rahva Muuseumi korrespondentide kaastööd. 19. sajandi esimesel poolel oli tuleviljelus Lõuna-Eestis laialt levinud põllumajandustegevus. Seaduste tulemusel muutus senine põllumajandusmaastike mosaiikne muster ja neljandikul seni võsamaadena kasutataud aladel hakasid taastuma mestakooslused. Töös analüüsitud etnograafilised allikad näitavad, et tuleviljelust kasutati põllumajanduses veel 20. sajandil, isegi kuni 1940ndate aastateni. Etnograafiliste allikate analüüs näitab, et erinevalt seni arvatust esines tuleviljelust 19. sajandi teisel poolel veel kõikjal Eestis. Käesolevas artiklis toodud etnograafilise ja ajaloolise materjali analüüs näitab, et uurijad on seni tuleviljeluse kestvust ja levikut Eestis pigem ala- kui üle hinnanud. Sellise alahindamise tõttu ei ole ka aleviljeluse mõju eesti maastikule ja looduskeskkonnale piisavalt tähelepanu pööratud, erinevalt näiteks Soomest. Tuleviljeluse seni arvatust hilisem ja geograafiliselt laialdasem levik eeldab täiendavaid uuringuid selle inimõjulise teguri mõjude ja tagajärgede selgitamiseks meie keskkonnas ja maastikel ning ajaloolaste ja loodusteadlaste tihedamat koostööd selles valdkonnas.

Sea level changes and Neolithic hunter-fisher-gatherers in the centre of Tallinn, southern coast of the Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea

Relative sea level (RSL) changes and the palaeogeography of a Neolithic hunter-fisher-gatherer settlement site on the former shore of the Gulf of Finland in the city centre of Tallinn were reconstructed by implementing GIS in landscape modelling based on archaeological, sedimentary and shore displacement data. AMS radiocarbon dating of mammal bones from the cultural layer suggests the existence of the hunter-fisher-gatherer settlement around 5.1–4.8 cal. ka BP on a seaward inclining sandy beach of Tallinn palaeo-bay c. 100 m from the Litorina Sea shoreline and at about 2.4 m above the coeval sea level. The shoreline passed the study site at about 5.8 cal. ka BP and retreated towards northeast with an average speed of 13 m per century, while the RSL lowered by c. 2.5 mm annually. Combining radiocarbon dates of terrestrial and marine mammal bones from the Neolithic cultural layer, a marine reservoir effect of 350 14C years for the brackish-water Baltic Sea was calculated. By using high-resolution archaeological data in combination with RSL and other geological proxies, we demonstrate new possibilities to reconstruct the palaeoenvironment of deeply buried coastal settlement sites and to predict a possible continuation of the cultural layer in heavily built-up areas.