INSIDE THE DWELLING: CLAY FIGURINES OF THE JAGALA JOESUU V STONE AGE SETTLEMENT SITE ( ESTONIA)

Sculpted clay figurines were widespread in Stone Age Europe. They were common in the hunter-gatherer communities in the territories of Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Western and Northwestern Russia. In these territories they were mainly associated with the Comb, Pitted and Pit-Comb Ware cultures, ca 4000-2000 years calBC. This paper examines clay sculptures from the Jagala Joesuu V Comb Ware culture settlement site in northern Estonia, where 91 fragments of figurines were found, making it the most abundant deposits of clay figurines and their fragments in the eastern Baltic. Among them, three different types of image were distinguished: one zoomorphic (harbour porpoise) and two anthropomorphic. All the figurines were fragmented intentionally in ancient times, as determined by microscopic and experimental research. Most of the fragments were situated in the filling of a pit-house, which indicates that the dwelling had a sacral as well as a habitational dimension. During the research process, Stone Age clay figurines from nine more Comb Ware culture sites of Estonia and Ingria were catalogued. The catalogue contains 13 previously published and 21 newly discovered instances and radiocarbon dates taken at the sites, some of which are being published for the first time.