Local historian: ancient stones in Latvia hold legends and possible traces of burial sites
Local historian Ivars Logins, nicknamed the Stone Man, describes his research into ancient stones and stone piles in Latgale and Kurzeme. He offers his own theories about their origins and meaning, and about the origin of the name Kuldiga.
Local historian Ivars Logins, popularly known as the Stone Man because of his passion for studying ancient stones, has spoken to the newspaper Kurzemnieks about his observations in Latgale and Kurzeme, regions of Latvia. He has mostly explored the Latgale area, but in recent years he has also been investigating unusual stone piles and hillforts in Kurzeme. His ideas are personal theories, not scientifically proven conclusions.
A thunder-god head in the Balvi area
Logins has studied stones since the early 2000s. He heard a legend that in the second half of the 18th century, Catholics who wanted to build a church by Lake Perkonis in the Balvi municipality ordered locals to smash the old sanctuary stones and throw them into the lake. After 1900 the lake's water level dropped, and farmers found a stone head on the steep bank, with a crown, one eye open and the other shut. Antons Rimovics, the Catholic priest in Balvi, had it walled into the foundations of the parish house, where it can still be seen. Logins says he has found similar stones in several places in northern Latgale, including the Danilovka burial site.
Kurzeme: the Mara circle and Kuldiga
In Kurzeme, the researcher is drawn to the Mara circle in the Maznodupji stone pile in Dienvidkurzeme municipality, near Pavilosta. He believes there may have been burial sites there, since ancient graves are often marked with distinctively shaped stones. He has seen a similar stone pile in Lithuania.
As for the name of Kuldiga, Logins offers an intuitive, scientifically unfounded version: it could be linked to the Venta rapid, which resembles a kulgrinda, a place that was crossed in the past. He also mentions the Scandinavian burial sites discovered near Kuldiga ten years ago.
Offerings and healing stones
Logins believes scientists should give their opinion on lesser-known stones, such as those near the Grizi Devil's Bench in Targale parish, Ventspils municipality. He recalls archaeologist Peteris Stepins' excavations near Liepaja, where about 20 bracelets and brooches were found at a sacred spring. On healing stones, he cites Aigars Lielbarzis's 2024 book "Latviesu buramvardi" (Latvian Incantations).
