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FINLAND

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The Late Iron Age can be said to have begun in Finland around A.D. 400. This last prehistoric period continued as long as eight centuries in parts of eastern Finland. During this time, population expanded, settlements spread, and trade contacts broadened.

WAY OF LIFE

Most Finns continued to live as semisedentary farmers practicing the slash-and-burn technique of field use. This method of agriculture requires that an area of natural growth be burned and the ash used as a supporting nutrient for several seasons of crop growth. When the land no longer produces adequately, it is allowed to lie fallow until it fully regenerates. Traditional Finnish households might move every generation or so in search of fresh arable land.

Slash-and-burn cultivation, which did not require much digging, was an excellent adaptation to most of Finland's southern and central landscape. Large areas of forests were often so stony that permanent clearance and the use of a heavy plow to cut fields of straight furrows was all but impossible. Slash-and-burn cultivation, however, cannot be practiced intensively in just one area, so most of the Finnish population remained dispersed throughout vast wilderness tracts. This dispersal of settlement occurred not only for cultivation reasons but also to gain access to good forest pasturage, hunting lands, and fishing sources. Finnish men might travel great distances during certain times of the year to hunt or fish in wilderness territories. Historical sources suggest that specific areas may have been claimed for use by certain kin- or clan-based groups.

TRADE CONTACTS AND CULTURAL INFLUENCES

The increased raiding and trading activity of the Viking Age began in Scandinavia. Finland, too, was growing restless and making new contacts abroad. Swedish farmers immigrated in earnest beginning around A.D. 400 to the Åland Islands off the coast of Varsinais Suomi, greatly changing the character of the population. More than three hundred Late Iron Age sites are known in the archipelago.

As the first millennium A.D. drew to a close, the focal points of Finnish wealth and influence, based on long-distance trade, migrated eastward to Häme and Karelia. Before the medieval period of Swedish political domination throughout the country, Finland had no centralized towns or government such as were typical elsewhere in Europe. Nevertheless, Finns were still able to organize themselves and recognize leadership on a regional basis in order to maintain systems of defensive hillforts, the distribution of rights to various northern hunting and fishing grounds, and the protection and operation of long-distance trade routes spanning the breadth of the country and beyond. The details of this kind of organization are not known, but it is clear that it existed.

In Finland the commonly recognized archaeological periods are as follows: the Viking period covers the years from A.D. 750 to 1050, followed by the Crusade period from A.D. 1050 to 1150 in western Finland and from 1050 to as late as A.D. 1300 in Karelia. Although Finns were not Vikings in the same sense that the Scandinavians were, they did participate in the eastern trade of furs, silver, and slaves that was a large part of the Viking activity in these regions. The fur trade was already becoming important in Finland in the fifth century and is credited with the growth of settlement and apparent personal wealth in Ostrobothnia and southern Häme. Finnish cultural and trade connections extended from Sweden to northern Norway in the west and to central northern Russia and the eastern Baltic lands to the east. Finnish settlements and cemeteries have been found on the shores of Lake Ladoga in present-day Russian Karelia. Items of jewelry from the Perm region of central Russia have been found in Finnish graves.

Coin hoards from the Viking period, which occur in large numbers in Scandinavia and elsewhere, are much less common in Finland. Not surprisingly, a disproportionate number (nearly a quarter of the total) occur on the Swedish-settled Ålands. These are mostly ninth- and tenth-century hoards of Islamic dirhams, a silver coin minted in vast quantities. The mainland hoards are more recent, from the eleventh century, and contain more western coins. This pattern matches the general pattern for hoards in other northern countries and reflects changing trade relations and silver sources in Russia and the Islamic countries. The Finns did not use the coins as money but rather as either raw silver measured by weight or as ornament. A number of coins have been found in graves as pendants on women's necklaces (fig. 1).

Karelia's first brush with Christianity came from the eastern Orthodox Church of Russia, but the Russians were not intent upon converting the heathens. The Roman Church, on the other hand, reaching Finland via Sweden, was very interested in promoting conversion. Many scholars think that much of Sweden's interest in this endeavor had to do with acquiring control over Finnish territory with the intent to control trade in the eastern Baltic. By converting the Finns to Christianity, the Swedes could make Finland dependent on Swedish ecclesiastical authority. Some western parts of Finland are believed to have become Christian, at least officially, by the year A.D. 1050, at the end of the Viking period. This date is probably rather early, except for a small portion of the population. Over the next century, however, Christian influence—as seen from the evidence of changing burial rites—clearly increased.

Central and eastern Finland became Christian, under the Roman Church, at progressively later dates. Swedish domination did not touch Karelia until c. A.D. 1300 The interim period in these regions is often referred to as the Crusade period, referring, specifically, to the crusades in Finland led by the Swedes. In Karelia, however, Orthodox influences had some impact when Russian Novgorod, realizing late in the thirteenth century that it was in danger of losing its access to the Baltic Sea because of Swedish encroachments, did finally press for conversion to Orthodoxy in order to gain stronger Karelian support. The Orthodox form of Christianity is still espoused by many Karelians.

HISTORICAL SOURCES

Late Iron Age people in Finland had far-reaching contacts and lived much like their Scandinavian neighbors. The major difference is that continental Europe rarely recorded much information about Finland, and since Finnish society did not develop its own written language until the sixteenth century, no contemporary native sources of value exist. There are a few tantalizing mentions of Finns in Norse sagas, recorded mostly in the thirteenth century, but because Norse terminology often confused the identity of the various cultural groups to the east, the term "Finn" in Norse texts might refer mistakenly to the Saami. At first, medieval Finnish documents were written in Latin or Swedish, for the literate members of the society were often Swedes who were not part of Finnish culture. By the sixteenth century, Finns and others began to write about their ancient culture, but not until the nineteenth century—when folklorists and ethnographers started traveling to the Finnish interior, particularly to Karelia—did many Finnish stories, myths, poems, songs, memories, and other cultural treasures become written texts at last. A central core collection of these poems was first published as the national epic for Finland in the mid-nineteenth century under the title it continues to bear today, the Kalevala.

Another group that is occasionally mentioned in saga texts are the Kainulaiset ("Kvenir," in Norse sources). These people are believed to have been certain Finns from the south who (like the northern


Scandinavians) organized into large hunting and trading corporations in order to exploit the more northerly populations' ability to hunt animals producing valuable pelts. The people of Häme, in particular, competed with the Norse in what was referred to in the sagas as the taxation of the "Lapps," now known as the Saami. Finnish traders probably transported many valuable goods from the far north to Lake Ladoga where they met up with Scandinavian and Slavic traders. Another route led from the Ostrobothnian coast to Karelia via the many inland rivers and waterways. Traveling through the interior of Finland in this way was especially useful since difficult seas, lack of harbors, and the presence of pirates in the eastern Baltic made the movement of trade goods there a high-risk proposition.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE

The archaeological remains of Finnish culture from the Late Iron Age primarily consist of burials and a growing list of settlement sites, most notably in the Åland Islands off the southwest coast, which have a more temperate climate than the rest of Finland (marked by a greater percentage of deciduous trees). Island society also prospered from the rich marine environment and an accessible yet protected position between Finland and Sweden. Although ships could carefully navigate the shallow approaches to the Åland harbors, no enemy could stage a swift attack without running aground. Most of the excavated settlement units on the islands are farmsteads resembling contemporary sites in Sweden. A sign of far-flung trade contacts is seen in the "clay paw"–shaped artifacts found in many graves. These have their closest parallel in the Volga area of central Russia. About half of the excavated Iron Age graves belong to the ninth and tenth centuries.

In Varsinais Suomi, similar geological and environmental conditions enabled farmers there to adopt the more intensive methods of plowed field cultivation than seen elsewhere in Finland. It was also possible to keep larger herds of cattle. With greater food production came the possibility of denser settlements and towns. The city of Turku (Åbo in Swedish) in this province was incorporated sometime between 1290 and 1313. Finland's first university arose there. Other early medieval towns were Porvoo, founded in 1347, and Pori, in 1348. Most towns were not founded until the fifteenth century or later. Urbanization came late to Finland.

In southern Häme, near modern Hämeenlinna, a large but historically undocumented occupation site, today called Varikkoniemi, has been excavated. Some believe that the structures found here are the physical remains of a trading station holding a significant level of control over the east-west trade route through Finland's interior. The site may date as early as the Viking period.

The southern Savo region was settled by farmers mostly in the Late Iron Age. A regional survey project conducted in the 1980s noted seven previously registered hillforts and approximately twenty new sites categorized as "ancient guarding posts." There are ninety-four so-called cup-marked stones concentrated in eastern Savo. Many more occur elsewhere in Finland. The cup-marked stones are


recognized as ritual offering places used by the pagan Finnish farmers. In the small depressions, or cup-marks, cut into large boulders, Finns would leave offerings of such things as first fruits from the harvest as a form of thanks to their guardian spirits and ancestors. Pollen studies from soil cores taken at Lake Saimaa show that slash-and-burn cultivation combined with cattle breeding began in southern Savo in the Late Iron Age. Permanent settlement of the area does not seem to have taken hold until the twelfth century. When choosing a dwelling site, Finns sought out fine soils and a close relation to bodies of water. It was more important that a site be suitable for cattle-breeding than for agriculture.

The cemeteries of the Late Iron Age present much interesting information about trade contacts, social organization, and religious beliefs including the process of conversion to Christianity. Finns practiced both inhumation (burial of the intact body) and cremation (burning the body) rites. In a small circumscribed area of western Finland (corresponding to the traditional parishes of Eura, Köyliö, and Yläne), large inhumation cemeteries—the largest cemeteries of any kind in prehistoric Finland—have been found (fig. 2). Many of the dead were accompanied by rich grave goods, and many of these items originated from Scandinavia and western Europe. Males were often buried with impressive sets of weapons including swords and spears. Both sexes were often well ornamented with costly brooches, rings, beads, and other items. Some early-twentieth-century scholars felt that these people were too wealthy and foreign-looking in their dress to be actual Finns, but researchers are now certain that they were truly Finnish. The explanation seems to be that the trade in furs and other valuable goods that had first stimulated settlement in Ostrobothnia was now moving into the interior along the Kokemäki River. These cemeteries represent the settlements of people who operated the gateway to that interior route, which perhaps already reached as far as the Lake Ladoga markets. Such control over valuable long-distance trade would indeed make communities in the area wealthy. Perhaps also, because these Finns dealt so much with foreign traders, they learned about, and chose to adopt, burial practices that are strikingly similar to those used nearby in western Europe. The large inhumation cemeteries found here remained in use until Christian times. Their final phases exhibit the effects of conversion. The latest burials, during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, are significantly lacking in grave goods and demonstrate the Christian teaching that the dead should not take their worldly possessions with them. When the parishes were finally organized, these old cemeteries dating from the pagan centuries were abandoned altogether, and new burials were placed in proper church graveyards.

Although spectacular in the finds they produced, the western inhumation cemeteries do not represent the common burial practice of Late Iron Age Finns. Cremation seems to have been most common, and cremations could be found both in mounds and in low-lying stratified, or layered, areas called field cemeteries. These are unusual in that the cremated remains are scattered about and intermixed with the remains of other cremated bodies. All individuality of burial identity is lost by this mixing. This behavior may reflect a prevailing belief in cyclical reincarnation from a defined ancestral kin group. Individuals who die lose their former earthly identity but are eventually transported into a new earthly form. Thus, the cremation field cemetery symbolizes the merging of kindred spirits in the afterlife.

Other burial types, particularly mound groups, flourish in different parts of the country. Finland is a fascinating place to study Iron Age ritual and religion, for more fragments, both in the ground and in the folklore, can still be uncovered there than in other lands with a longer and more deeply engrained history of Christianity.

See also Iron Age Finland (vol. 2, part 6); Saami (vol. 2, part 7); Pre-Viking and Viking Age Sweden (vol. 2, part 7); Staraya Ladoga (vol. 2, part 7).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Edgren, Torsten, ed. Fenno-Ugri et Slavi 1988: Papers Presented by the Participants in the Finnish-Soviet Archaeological Symposium "Studies in the Material Culture of the Peoples of Eastern and Northern Europe." Helsinki: National Board of Antiquities, 1990. Iskos 9. (Various papers of interest, including many Iron Age papers.)

——, ed. Fenno-Ugri et Slavi 1983: Papers Presented by the Participants in the Soviet-Finnish Symposium "Trade, Exchange and Culture Relations of the Peoples of Fennoscandia and Eastern Europe," 9–13 May 1983. Helsinki: Suomen Muinaismuistoyhdistys, 1984. Iskos 4. (Various papers of interest, including many Iron Age papers.)

Grönlund, E., H. Simola, and P. Uimonen-Simola. "Early Agriculture in the Eastern Finnish Lake District." Norwegian Archaeological Review 23 (1990): 79–85.

Hirviluoto, Anna-Liisa. "Finland's Cultural Ties with the Kama Region in the Late Iron Age Especially in the Light of Pottery Finds." In Traces of the Central Asian Culture in the North: Finnish-Soviet Joint Scientific Symposium Held in Hanasaari, Espoo, 14–21 January 1985. Mémoires de la Société Finno-Ougrienne 194. Edited by Ildikó Lehtinen, pp. 71–80. Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, 1986.

Huurre, Matti. 9000 Vuotta Suomen Esihistoriaa. Helsinki: Otava, 1979. (In Finnish.)

Kivikoski, Ella. Die Eisenzeit Finnlands: Bildwerk und Text. Helsinki: Finnische Altertumsgesellschaft, 1973.

——. Finland. Translated by Alan Binns. London: Thames and Hudson, 1967.

Lehtosalo-Hilander, Pirkko-Liisa. "Finland." In From Viking to Crusader: The Scandinavians and Europe 800–1200. Edited by Else Roesdahl and David M. Wilson, pp. 62–71. New York: Rizzoli, 1992.

——. Luistari. 3 vols. Helsinki: Suomen Muinaismuistoyhdistys, 1982. (Suomen Muinaismuistoyhdistyksen Aikakauskirja 82, nos. 1–3). (A major inhumation cemetery excavation report in English; burial and artifact catalog in Finnish.)

Meinander, Carl F. "The Finnish Society during the 8th–12th Centuries." In Fenno-Ugri et Slavi 1978: Papers Presented by the Participants the Soviet-Finnish Symposium "The Cultural Relations between the Peoples and Countries of the Baltic Area during the Iron Age and the Early Middle Ages," 20–23 May 1978. Edited by Carl F. Meinander, pp. 7–13. Helsinki: Helsinki University, 1980. (Moniste 22).

Odner, Knut. "Saamis (Lapps), Finns and Scandinavians in History and Prehistory: Ethnic Origins and Ethnic Processes in Fenno-Scandinavia." Norwegian Archaeological Review 18 (1985): 1–35. (Determining ethnicity is a controversial topic.)

Orrman, Eljas. "Geographical Factors in the Spread of Permanent Settlement in Parts of Finland and Sweden from the End of the Iron Age to the Beginning of Modern Times." Fennoscandia Archaeologica 8 (1991): 3–21.

Saksa, A. I. "Results and Perspectives of Archaeological Studies on the Karelian Isthmus." Fennoscandia Archaeologica 2 (1985): 37–49.

Shepherd, Deborah J. Funerary Ritual and Symbolism: An Interdisciplinary Interpretation of Burial Practices in Late Iron Age Finland. BAR International Series, no. 808. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports, 1999.

Talvio, Tuukka. "Finland's Place in Viking-Age Relations between Sweden and the Eastern Baltic/Northern Russia: The Numismatic Evidence." Journal of Baltic Studies 13, no. 3 (fall 1982): 245–255.

Zachrisson, Inger. "Samisk kultur i Finland under järnåldern." In Suomen Varhaishistoria. Edited by Kyösti Julku, pp. 652–670. Oulu, Finland: University of Oulu, 1992.

DEBORAH J. SHEPHERD