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Marfeldt Photography

Mystery or the unexplained · 1922

A mass grave between Tartu airfield and the barracks

Ühishaud Tartu lennuvälja ja kasarmute vahel

In autumn 1922 soldiers digging earthworks on the edge of Tartu, between the airfield and the barracks near the rifle range, struck a mass grave just under the turf. Bodies lay jumbled one on top of another in a pit some seven or eight metres long; the bones were dark and the skulls crumbled, and two small green-corroded copper brooch-like objects fell apart when lifted. When Postimees reported in 1925 that plague pits had been found in Riga, a reader wrote in about this one and asked scholars to explain it. The paper suspected victims of the Great Plague of the early 1700s.

Open it on the map See the spot on the old maps and as it is today

Eesti keeles

1922. aasta sügisel tabasid sõdurid Tartu servas lennuvälja ja kasarmute vahel lasketiiru lähedal mullatöid tehes otse murukamara all ühishauda. Umbes seitsme-kaheksa meetri pikkuses augus lebasid laibad läbisegi üksteise otsas; luud olid tumedad ja pealuud pudenesid, kaks väikest roheliseks läinud vasest preesitaolist eset lagunesid väljavõtmisel. Kui Postimees 1925. aastal teatas Riiast leitud katkuhaudadest, kirjutas üks lugeja sellest leiust ja palus teadlastel see seletada. Leht arvas, et tegu on 18. sajandi alguse suure katku ohvritega.

Map of the area around A mass grave between Tartu airfield and the barracks
58.39200° N, 26.75800° E · Map: Maa- ja Ruumiamet

Source: Postimees, 26 October 1925, p. 5 (DIGAR) ↗

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