The long-planned dig in the Riigiküla Stone Age site is believed to yield new information about conditions from 7,000 years ago," archeologist Aivar Kriiska said.

"Firstly, we are dealing with a site that has given a name to an entire Stone Age culture, the so-called Narva culture that starts the history of pottery in Estonia. This year, we are mainly engaging in so-called rescue digs as we are connected to the intersection expansion and are in a sense freeing up the area so a road could be built here," Kriiska explained.

A working group led by Kriiska discovered several new settlement sites in Riigiküla in the 1990s that had been home to hunters and fishermen who used clay-based pottery.

"We have unearthed Narva-type pottery or potsherds as we like to call them. But also stone tools and remains of the process of making such tools created when rocks are struck. Burnt animal bones. We were especially glad to have found nutshells as organic materials allows us to accurately date the site," Kriiska said.

The dig at Riigiküla covers an area of 40 square meters, with regard to future exploration when archeology is even more advanced than today.

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