A multi-proxy, diachronic and spatial perspective on the urban activities within an indigenous community in medieval Riga, Latvia

Abstract The research presented here represents the first urban medieval context in Latvia where an integrated, multi-proxy environmental sampling strategy has been applied. The establishment of Riga, the modern capital of Latvia, is synonymous with the Livonian Crusade, and the foundation of the medieval town is examined here. This study uses an intra-site comparison of environmental datasets from several buildings to provide a unique, high resolution, diachronic analysis of the daily life of the inhabitants within the pre-Hansa town, and specifically of the indigenous ‘Liv’ population during the period of the Livonian crusades, 1198–1291. The integrated zooarchaeological, archaebotanical,…