ABSTRACT
In the context of Holocene shoreline displacement in the Baltic Sea Basin, Chapter 5 examines recently obtained archaeological evidence from Mesolithic and Neolithic archaeological sites in the Užava area near the Baltic Sea coast of Latvia. This area lies at the periphery of the region affected by postglacial rebound: because land uplift here has been comparable in magnitude to Holocene water-level changes in the Baltic Sea Basin, the area has experienced a series of transgressions and regressions, and since the terrain is very flat, even relatively minor fluctuations in water level have resulted in the flooding or exposure of large areas. Evidence of occupation from the time of the maximum level of the Ancylus Lake stage has been discovered at the sites of Sise and Lapiņi. The Vendzavas site, where a burial has also been excavated, was occupied during the Initial Littorina Sea stage. At Sise, a large number of antler and bone artefacts have been recovered from the bed of the River Užava, several of them dated to the Littorina Sea stage.
