Today we finished the excavations in Valjala for the year. When we excavated the wall, we were in for a surprise: a beautiful pendant came out of an earlier layer of culture directly from under the wall. The pendant is most likely from the end of the prehistoric period. The massive clay and stone masonry wall, 4 m wide, was thus built on a cultural layer dating from the end of the prehistoric period. So when?
There was also a thin bronze pile near the rampart and a knife fragment in the lower cultural layer between the two walls.
In this excavation, an earlier enclosure or wall could be assumed from the southern part of the transect, where there was no clear cultural layer under the masonry. However, the history of the construction of the rampart is still unclear at the moment, whether there was an earlier narrower stone fence that was extended or whether the entire 4 m wide rampart was constructed at one time.
At the moment there are more questions than answers. It is hoped that C14 analyses and research in the coming years will provide some clarity. The only indication that is certain at the moment is that a strong rampart, at least in the lower part of the stone wall, surrounded the currently visible Valjala fortress in the late prehistoric period or in the 13th century.
The archaeology consists, alas, of both fieldwork and subsequent (as well as previous) work. We’ll keep you posted!
