Metal Detecting in Historic Sillamae in Estonia
Visiting An Ancient Burial
Overall, it was a successful hunt considering the fact that someone had already searched the site before me and still left some "goodies," and that the site was heavily littered with junk. My mind was already preoccupied with thoughts about metal detecting the second site that I discovered on the old map and which was not as easy to access as this one.
I wishfully thought of a possibility of discovering a "virgin" site. Though, from my previous experiences I had learned that, in most cases, the remote sites would turn out to be "hammered" by other metaldetectorists even more than the obvious ones.
Cool Finds of the Day
The next few days were rainy and cold and I stayed indoors. As soon as the weather improved, my fellow treasure hunter Ingvar came from Tallin for one day of metal detecting. He wanted to check the site, which he discovered on the old map, where a small Swedish church (Kirka) used to stand.
I told him about the homestead site I had been thinking about. He pulled an old map out of his pocket and when we were checking the location we discovered a battlefield mark (two swords crossed) with a date of 1700 in the same vicinity.
A Fragment of the Ool Map
Most likely, the battle was between the Russian forces of Peter I and the Army of Swedish King Carl XII during the Great Northern War. We made a plan: first, to check the Kirka site, then metal detect on the site of battlefield, and try to locate the old homestead site if we had time left. That was plenty to do in one day.
Ingvar came with his car so it took us only 10 minutes to get to the Kirka site. Unfortunately, instead of an old foundation in the field, we discovered a huge sand-pit at the spot. Ingvar suggested me to check the adjacent field.
We searched it for two hours and found nothing but a few fired rifle shells casings. We drove back towards the seashore, found an access road to the battle area and quickly got there without a problem.
A huge field was divided by the rampart, still in tact, built by Swedes and used as a defense line against Russian Army in 1700. The field seemed to be used by local farmers for hey growing.
Rampart Built By Swedes In 1700
According to the map, the battle took place in the North-Western corner of the field. To our disappointment, that spot was off limits as we noticed an archaeological plaque placed on a pole standing in a small group of trees.
Next to the grove, there was a huge mound - an ancient burial barrow, circa II century. Even though the archaeological plaque was written in Estonian language, we understood that this spot was protected by the State and was off limits.
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