Stone barrows in Jõelähtme and museum of the reserve
An abundant number of ancient burial grounds - referred to as kangur (cairn-grave by the local people - have been preserved intact throughout history. There is usually only one, or several in a group, but they can always be identified by a hump on the ground.
Sites that have been excavated and then reconstructed by archaeologists have much greater appeal to a stray passer-by. The burial site at Jõelähtme is just one of these - unique in Europe - to have emerged in 1982-1984 during salvafe escavations.
It dates back to the Bronze Age (8th-7th century BC). The Tallinn-Narva road was being constructed when the builders stumbled upon 36 stone-cist graves which later, after having been explored, were so to say "lifted" to the side of the new road in accordance with the original plan. Currently, there is a museum next to the conservation area where the findings are on display.
There
were few finds from the coffins. Objects like a bronze shaving knife
and pincers put into coffins were most typical to Jutland toward the
end of the Bronze Age. Evidently also the spindles found from the
barrows originate from Danish territories.The dead have been buried in centrally-placed sarcophagi with their heads pointing to the north and their eyes gazing at the life giving Sun. The sarcophagi were encircled in limestone walls as if embodying the world model of the man of that time : the man is the centre of the circle, able only to seize the unatainable horizon of the world with his gaze.
