Archaeological Study of the Rural Churches of Harju and Viru Provinces in Northern Estonia: Development of the Building and the Use of Space in the Lower Zone

The thesis focuses on buildings archaeology of the medieval rural churches of northern Estonia. Seven articles published between 2007–2018 make up the core of the dissertation. The principal aims of the thesis are to sum up the existing knowledge, to give a systematic overview about the state of research, and to formulate research questions for the future about the archaeology of rural churches in the provinces of Harju and Viru. The field studies of the last 20 years have brought to light several new and important discoveries, which have added valuable information on the building history and the use of space in these houses of worship. The case studies, discussed in this thesis, provide evidence for a wide variety of material which covers different topics and research questions concerning primarily, but not only, the lower zone of the buildings: the development and the use of space, the building sequence, form and age of specific elements, and so on. The studied topics include evidence of timber churches and early stone churches, identifying the oldest part of preserved stone churches, the initial ground plan of chancels, identification of blocked portals of side entrances, demolished sacristies and buttresses, evidence of medieval building processes, reuse of dressed masonry details, remains of medieval floors, demolished side altars and burial vaults. Besides medieval building elements, evidence of demolished Early Modern timber inventory – the pews and galleries – is analysed. Distribution of small metal artefacts is considered only as evidence regarding the use of space in the nave by the congregation.