In the historic centre of Tartu, archaeologists have come across an unusual find: more than fifty lead cloth seals from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, among which one is clearly marked with the symbols of Amsterdam. These small lead discs, once attached to rolls of cloth, tell of the trade routes that linked distant cities of Northern Europe.
The Amsterdam seal, 3,7 centimetres in diameter, bears on one side the image of a cog — a typical merchant ship — and on the other the city coat of arms with the three crosses of Saint Andrew. Such marks served as a guarantee of the cloth's origin and quality, helping merchants and buyers find their way in a world where cloth could pass through the hands of several intermediaries.
According to Arvi Haak, head of the archaeology department at the Tartu City Museum, at one site of the future Siuru Cultural Centre several times more seals have been found than had previously been known across the whole city. By comparison, at Town Hall Square in 1981 only three such objects were discovered. The concentration of finds makes the site key to the study of the textile trade in medieval Livonia.
Tartu was part of the Hanseatic trade network, through which woollen cloth from Flanders, the Netherlands, England and Germany reached the region. A 2015 study by Riina Rammo of the University of Tartu showed that among 1815 wool fragments from the city's cesspits, around 87 per cent were probably of imported origin. The seals complement this picture with direct evidence of the routes taken by goods.
Lead seals were usually removed when the cloth arrived at its destination, and the rolls were divided into small pieces for sale. Lead could be melted down, so many seals have not survived. Their accumulation at the Siuru site may be connected with trading activity, waste disposal or the fertilising of soil with city refuse — the exact answer has yet to be found.
The excavations over an area of about 10 500 square metres, which began in April 2026, continue until the end of 2027 and are considered the largest in Estonia's history. Besides the seals, the remains of a fourteenth-century building with a stone stove, a small cross and a brooch with Trinitarian symbolism have already been found here. Together these objects paint a picture of everyday life in a medieval city.
Such finds remind us that even tiny lead discs can reveal the scale of trade connections and the habits of people who lived centuries ago.
