In 1863, a Jelgava artist and student of antiquity, Julius Döring, conducted an archaeological dig here, finding two boat-formed gravesites that were made of large rocks and placed one behind the other. The “boats” were oriented toward the North-West, and there were 10-12 chambers made of stone plates that were placed above one another at three levels. They were full of burned human bones, coal and broken dishes mixed with sand. The South-Eastern boat was researched and reconstructed by students from the University of Latvia Faculty of History and Philosophy under the leadership of Professor Andrejs Vasks. It is assumed that these “devil boats” were Scandinavian travellers from Gotland, and this was a tradition from the late Neolithic period until the Viking age. IDOL LINDEN TREE IN VALDEMĀRPILS The Valdemārpils Idol linden tree is the most noble and thickest linden tree in the Baltic States. It is thought to be 400 or 500 years old, with a circumference of 8,8 m. People are amazed at this thickness and the powerful branches that bend toward the ground and rise to the sky. According to stories, this tree was an ancient cult location where various rituals were conducted. The linden tree symbolises femininity in Latvian folklore, which is why a pretty young woman is compared to a leafy linden tree. Cradles for new-born girls 7 km away from this gravesite, there is another interesting object – a geological monument, the Lūrmaņu cliffs. This canyon-type valley on the both banks of the Roja River have sandstone cliffs at a length of 400 m. They are up to 6 m high and date back to the Devonian period. Fossils of fish and no-jaw animals have been found at the cliffs.
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