Construction work in Narva turns up centuries-old cemetery
A centuries-old cemetery was recently discovered during construction work in Narva. This latest find is a valuable one, as Narva's Swedish-era suburbs have been little studied to date.
At the end of Vestervalli tänav, only a former granary building, which now houses Narva Art Gallery, survives from prewar Narva. No one expected an old cemetery to be located nearby as well.
An archaeologist must always be present when doing excavation work in the Old Town, but this time something went wrong, and the excavator's bucket wasn't stopped in time.
"Unfortunately, what happened here was poor communication between the archaeologist and the builder," said bone researcher Martin Malve, adding that the digging turned up burials.
"We're here from the University of Tartu (TÜ), trying to save what we can," he explained. "You can see here that the bucket has dug through [the graves]. Bones are jutting out from the side. And we're trying to clean and go through the soil that has been removed from here to retrieve all these bones. And women, children, men of all ages were buried here."
Malve estimates that the cemetery dates back to the 17th century, but the details will be more precisely confirmed once the bones discovered beneath the street are examined at TÜ.
This latest find is considered a valuable one, as little information exists about the early modern era residents of Narva, their health and their dietary habits. There is likewise a dearth of information about the city's historical suburbs.
"They were burned down before wars or some kind of attacks, just to protect the main city," explained Madis Tuudur, Narva's supervisory inspector at the National Heritage Board. "But no significant traces of them remained. Of course, there are still traces preserved underground. They can accidentally turn up during construction work, in completely unexpected places – like what happened now."
The abundance of burial sites is one of the border city's distinctive features. Buried below Narva are cemeteries dating from the Middle Ages all the way through World War II.
The city's next major find, a medieval cemetery, is believed to await archaeologists on a plot of land opposite Narva Town Hall.
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Editor: Marko Tooming, Aili Vahtla
