ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWN OF VILJANDI IN THE LIGHT OF EARLIEST ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND COMPLEXES
ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE TOWN OF VILJANDI IN THE LIGHT OF EARLIEST ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND COMPLEXES

Summary/Abstract: Numerous attempts have been made to reconstruct the development of the medieval town of Viljandi (south Estonia), yet the source material is extremely scarce. The current article reviews the existing written sources and reconstruction maps, and introduces to provide an introduction of the existing archaeological sources, on the basis of context-related analysis of finds from the earliest deposits all over the territory of the medieval town, with special attention on pottery as the most numerous find type. On this basis, a new development scheme of Viljandi, based on the dating of the find complexes, is suggested and the concept of Paul Johansen of Viljandi as a typical “founded” town is examined. The authors reach the conclusion that all strata with 13th-century finds (with the exception of the complex of a pottery kiln in Pikk Street) were located in the northern part of the town, and a spatial connection between the castle and the emerging town is not as striking as has been stated earlier. The diversity of pottery imports, on the other hand, increased from the end of the 13th century.

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