Speaking to current affairs show "Ringvaade suvel," archaeologist Martin Malve said that: "Much excavation work has been done in the vicinity of Kaarli pst, and along with these new finds, 3,000 skeletons have been found."

"Mainly members of the city congregation and also residents of the suburbs were interred at the site," he added.

The work has practically been driving on-site construction workers crazy, he added, as the cleaning of human remains of small children in particular takes an exceptionally long time.

Archaeologist Keiti Randoja said the mass grave dated back to the 17th centiry and was within the boundaries of the old St. Barbara (Püha Barbara) cemetery.

"So far, we have identified the remains of 150 people, while currently, we are cleaning the skeletons, which is a very time-consuming and precise task, done with small brushes and spoons," Randoja went on.

The archaeological team hope to determine for certain if the mass grave was a plague pit, or a place where those who had perished in a famine had been buried.

Once cleaned, documented, described, photographed, measured, 3D models are made from all the skeletons.

Each skeleton is examined separately to determine if it belonged to a man, woman, or child, how old the individual was at the time of death, and what diseases they might have been suffering from, Randoja said.

Randoja added there were 10 involved in the excavation work, plus three or four supervising archaeologists, one of whom is a bone specialist, on-site.

A skull found in a different cemetery in southeastern Estonia and which dates back to the 13th-14th centuries was taken into the studio to provide example of how soft tissues can sometimes be preserve in graves.

In this case, green coloration indicated corrosion likely from a metal braid used as a hair ornamentation.

Another skull found at the Hospidali kalmistu cemetery near Liivalaia revealed signs that the victim had likely died from leprosy. "The nasal area and palate are completely dissolved, which is characteristic of leprosy," Malve said.

Yet another skull found elsewhere in Tallinn, at the Skoone bastion, close to the harbor area, showed signs of syphilis. "Syphilis is most visible on bones, and we see this disease the most frequently. Changes are clearly visible on the outer forehead area," Malve said.

The skull was likely re-interred with earth used to fill the Skoone bastion, he added.

A femur belonging to an adult female which was found showed signs that the person had survived an injury, but this would have definitely hindered their quality of life, as the left femur, and consequently leg, was shorter then the right.

The original "Ringvaade suvel" slot is here.

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