Instead of the 14 known rural towns in Saaremaa and Muhu, there may be even more former defensive structures than previously thought, it was revealed in the compilation of Jaan Tamme’s book “Forts and Rural Towns of Saaremaa and Muhu” published by the Saaremaa Museum.
Also 100 years ago, a summary book on the rural towns of Saaremaa was published. Author, archaeologist and environmentalist Jaan Tamm said that more knowledge has been gained in 100 years, but we are still far from the final truth of centuries ago.
“Well, we are still very far away, even in the study of these great and main fortresses. Even, for example, Valjala, although he also was pricked with a finger in the past. But now it turns out that what men have said 120 years ago now it becomes clear that this may be the case, but we don’t know whether it is the truth or a half-truth,” Tamm said.
The fourteenth book in the Saaremaa Museum series of works deals with 14 rural towns and cities of Saaremaa. During the preparation of the book, interesting discoveries were made by studying the map material, so when the next book is published, it may contain a completely different set of fortresses.
“At the moment this is obviously a hypothesis, but as I was researching the map during the preparation of the book, I noticed some places on the map that are very attractive. And in some cases even marked with conditions that could really “be something like this, either a real rural town or a fortified settlement or some smaller shelter. How many can there be? Let’s say I saw at least 2-3 of them to investigate in the landscape,” said archaeologist and co-editor of the book Tõnu Sepp.
In the vicinity of the rural town of Valjala the altitude map shows a previously unknown circular formation.
“Such a low circular bastion could also have been made for pragmatic reasons. In my opinion, for example, to keep livestock during the night. For example, a small wooden fence on top and that’s it. But yes, normally they were considered a sort of fortified places”, observed Sepp.
“The best expression is looking at an elephant through the keyhole. It is very difficult to draw big conclusions based on such small local studies. So everything is yet to come,” Sepp added.
2024-01-19 17:00:00
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