Preliminary results of the archaeological investigations of the Käpa forest brothers bunker in the border zone of Harju and Järva Counties

Abstract

In 2023–2024, archaeological research was conducted on a forest brothers' bunker discovered near Lake Käpa in the border area of Harju and Järva counties, where human remains were found in 2022 when the bunker was discovered. Therefore, the aim was to obtain additional information for a criminal case concerning the systematic attacks against the civilian population carried out by the occupying powers in Estonia between 1944 and 1978 with the aim of suppressing resistance. The Käpa bunker was an underground one-man bunker measuring just over four square meters. The skeleton discovered on the bunker's platform was almost complete, with only a few minor skeletal parts missing. The skeleton belonged to a man aged 40+, with some remarkable pathologies. Käpa bunker is an important discovery, because a large number of bunkers were destroyed in attacks by the Soviet security operatives and the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Forest brothers themselves also often demolished their bunkers.