Salaspils Laukskola settlement in Paleolithic

Roughly 15 000 to 13 000 years ago, Northern Europe was covered by glaciers. When the gradual retreat of the ice carved out the present day territory of Latvia, the Daugava valley became the access route for the first human settlements here. In the late Paleolithic (10 500 – 9 000 BC) at Salaspils Laukskola on the right bank of the river near a ford there was the seasonal camp of nomadic reindeer hunters, as shown by complex finds of flint tools used for hunting and processing of animal skin. The artefacts were discovered in a 500-meter zone along the riverside during archaeological excavations in 1974 – 1975 led by Anna Zariņa. The prehistoric settlement consisted of six cabins built of birch-wood poles covered with seal or reindeer skin (at least 25 skins were needed for one cabin). Hunters at the site of Salaspils Laukskola are believed to be of Swiderian and Ahrensburg archaeological culture, which was widely spread across north-central Europe.