The lower reaches of the Daugava in the Bronze and earliest Iron Ages (1800–1 BC)

The Bronze Age is significant in that dramatic changes in people’s lifestyles took place: hunter-gatherer communities became livestock and farming communities. As a result, there have been drastic changes in people’s lifestyles, ideologies, and demographics. To illustrate these drastic changes, the lower reaches of the Daugava were chosen as a peculiar model area, where these changes were seen more clearly than in other parts of the Eastern Baltic. Until the beginning of the Bronze Age, the lower reaches of the Daugava were relatively sparsely populated. This can be explained by the priority of choosing more suitable areas for gathering – mainly the shores of lakes and rivers. The most striking example is the wetland of Lake Lubāna. The situation began to change in the early Bronze Age (1800–1100 BC). There is still little archaeological evidence of this period. In the lower reaches of the Daugava, Vampenieši settlement at the top of Dole Island covers this time period – there 280 fragments with a striated surface have been found. The pottery found in Vampenieši settlement is similarly dated. In the lower reaches of the Daugava, Vampenieši settlement is still the only known Early Bronze Age residence (Fig. 1). Possibly, a settlement of the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages previously was also in the place of Daugmale hillfort, since one whole and three fragmentary straight-backed axes were found there, which are often considered to be battle axes that were used in the Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Ages. In addition, two bronze sickles have been found on the site of the Daugmale hillfort – one whole and the other fragmentary, which have analogies in the finds of Scandinavia in the Early Bronze Age. The most extensive evidence of fortifications and buildings was obtained in Ķivutkalns, Vīnakalns, and Klaņģukalns (Fig. 3). In Ķivutkalns, or example, the width of the fortification zone reached 7–10 m, in Vīnakalns 6–10 m, including a living area of 650–700 square metre and 420–460 square metre, respectively [1]. The obtained materials show that the communities of these hillforts had already completely switched to animal husbandry and farming as the main sectors of the livelihood strategy. Judging by the thick layers of fish remains in Doles Ķivutkalns, fishing in the Daugava was also important. Compared to the bones of livestock used for food, the small number of game bones in hillfort Ķivutkalns indicates limited hunting opportunities on Doles Island, where forest areas decreased due to extensive farming. In the Late Bronze Age, the lower reaches of the Daugava became a densely populated area. Compared to the Early Bronze Age, from which eight population points are known, their number has now reached 26. At the beginning of the Early Iron Age, Eastern Baltic societies had learned to extract iron from bog/lake ore. Consequently, the earlier exchange communications lost their significance, the main object of which was bronze, but the former advancement centres ceased to exist – in the lower reaches of the Daugava they were Ķivutkalns and Klaņģukalns, which in the 1st–2nd centuries AD were abandoned. Although both of these hillforts existed until the time when iron mining was already known in the Eastern Baltic, neither of them showed any signs of iron mining. Apparently, the existence of such bronze processing and exchange centres depended on the established social relations between long-distance exchange participants, bronze craftsmen, and the local elite. The beginnings of iron mining were related to rural settlements (for example, Jaunlīve settlement in the lower reaches of the Daugava and Sēlpils Spietiņi settlement near the Daugava). However, they were already other societies that based their existence only on local resources, including the extraction and further processing of iron ore.