Archaeology Department – Latvijas Nacionālais vēstures muzejs

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Archaeology Department

The LNMH Archaeology Department holds around 300,000 artefact units. Sometimes a single inventory unit consists of several hundred objects, which makes the total number of artefacts much larger.

The Archaeology Department collection is based on the items collected by the State Historical Museum and the Monuments Board in 1920-30s, donations of individuals and institutions and the materials from archaeological excavations conducted by the Museum researchers. The collection includes artefacts from the collection of the Riga Latvian Society and part of the Riga Dom Museum, the Courland Provincial Museum and the University of Latvia Institute of Latvian History collections. LNMH also holds descriptions of archaeological monuments and finds, excavation reports, plans and photographs. A small part of the collection consists of replicas of archaeological objects (mainly textiles).

Head of the Archaeology Department Jānis Ciglis

janis.ciglis@lnvm.lv

Stone, Bronze and Early Iron Age collections

LNMH collections of the Stone, Bronze and early Iron Age cover a period of more than ten thousand years (10,500–1 BC). The collections consist of stray finds and material from archaeological research of settlements, hillforts and burial sites – artefacts and pottery sherds.

Collections of dwelling-site ceramics from the Iron Age to Early Modern Times

The LNMH collections of archaeological ceramics contain over a million pottery sherds made from the early Iron Age (500 BC) to the early modern period (17^th century) and about half a million fragments of stove tiles produced since the late medieval period.

Iron Age, medieval and early modern collections

The Iron Age, medieval and early modern collections are preserved in the LNMH Archaeology Department by the cultural regions of Latvia – Latgale, Vidzeme, Riga District, Kurzeme, Zemgale and Sēlija – which largely correspond to the territories inhabited by the ancient peoples.

Vēlā dzelzs laikmeta vīrieša kapa inventārs.

Documentation on the archaeological surveys and research

The documentation collection consists of several parts. The core of the collection of archaeological survey materials (AO) consists of information on various archaeological sites, locations of artefact finds, and excerpts from literature collected by the Monuments Board in the 1920s–1930s. The descriptions of the sites are supplemented by such unique documents as sketches, plans and photos.

Arheoloģisko izrakumu dokumetācijas žurnāli.