The idea to publish a series of short articles on the history of Tartu came from my late colleague Aadu Must who urged me and my colleagues to profoundly think about the history of Tartu in 2024 and to also write a series of articles on that theme – after all, Tartu is the cultural capital of Europe this year. Moreover, this year marks the passing of 800 years since the city of Tartu was founded. This essay on the prehistory of Tartu is thus the first of a series of short articles, which will be published in this year’s Tuna issues. The focal point of my essay is Toomemägi, where my latest archaeological excavations ended just a few months ago. From there, the story of Tartu before it became a town begins to unfold.

The oldest archaeological find from Toomemägi, a flint scraper, dates back to the Stone Age. Several settlement and burial sites from this period, as well as stray finds, are known from both Tartu and its surrounding areas. The banks of the Emajõgi River provided suitable living environments for Stone Age hunter-fisher-gatherers since at least 8,000 years BC. During the Corded Ware culture period, in the third millennium BC, settlement and burial sites were established at some distance from the immediate riverbank, which might have been due to raising livestock and perhaps also grain cultivation.

Our knowledge of habitation in the Tartu region in the Bronze Age is scant, and is based only on a few randomly discovered stone axes. Clearer traces of settlement, marked by potsherds with a striated surface, date back to a few centuries before and after the beginning of the Common Era. Fragments of such pottery have been found on Toomemägi and in various parts of Tartu’s later downtown. They likely indicate the locations of farms. Remains of ancient fields found on Toome due to the ard marks visible on sand surfaces possibly date back to the same period.

In the late centuries of prehistory, the establishment of Tartu developed or continued at a much livelier pace. Probably in the 8th century AD, a stronghold was built at the location of the current observatory. Nearby, on Toomemägi, there was a settlement area, which might even have been a pre-fortress. The village was located at the  base of the hillfort facing the river. This phase of the settlement site might possibly have ended by the year 1030 as a result of a military campaign led by Grand Prince Yaroslav I of Kiev, which is documented in the Old Russian chronicle Tale of Bygone Years.

After the conquest, the settlement site recovered and expanded. The stronghold and the presumed pre-fortress were rebuilt, and an even larger village was established once again at the base of the hillfort, on the bank of the Emajõgi River. A part of a building excavated last year on Toomemägi, which had been burned down, is likely also from this period. Presumably, this fire was part of a conflagration caused by the Sosols’ military campaign described in the Russian chronicle in 1061. This ended the Kievan Rus’ era in Tartu, which lasted three decades. The subsequent period in Tartu, until the beginning of the 13th century, is characterised by very limited knowledge and requires in-depth archaeological investigations in the future.