Early Holocene coastal settlements and palaeoenvironment on the shore of the Baltic Sea at Pärnu, southwestern Estonia

Studies were conducted on 16 sections of buried organic matter (pre-Ancylus Lake and pre-Litorina Sea) and associated Stone Age cultural layers in the Pärnu area, southwestern Estonia. Buried organic beds are each part of a sedimentary sequence, which is repeated, forming two overlying sets of an orderly succession of five layers. The organic sedimentation of the lower set (set 1) occurred about 10,800–10,200 years BP, and that of the upper set (set 2) about 9450–7800 years BP. Associated with set 1 is the Early-Mesolithic settlement of Pulli, and with set 2 are the Stone Age cultural layers at Sindi-Lodja. The Early- and Middle-Mesolithic sites in Estonia are concentrated on shores of rivers and lakes to utilise of a variability of resources. The hunters and fishermen followed the ancient Pärnu River downstream to the receding shoreline of the Yoldia Sea. After about 10,700 years BP, they were forced to retreat inland in front of the transgressive Ancylus Lake shore which first inundated the Paikuse area about 10,400 years BP, and Pulli and higher sites about 10,200 years BP. The total amplitude of the transgression preceded 11 m and reached up to 14 m a.s.l. in the area. The Litorina Sea transgression reached 7 m a.s.l. after 8000–7800 years BP. The Mesolithic, Neolithic and modern sites on top of each other in the Pärnu area may suggest that, although years apart, they were inhabited by the same group of people who stayed in the area and moved back and forth together with the shifting shoreline of the Baltic Sea.