The Kirkkomaki Cemetery at Kaarina
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Fennoscandia archoeologica IX (1992) Kaar\o Katiskoski THE KIRKKOMA.KI CEMETERY AT KAARINA Absiract Found in 1950, the late Iron Age inhumation cemetery of Kirkkomiiki at Kaarina has been the site of repeated archaeological investigations. The aim of this article is to pre sent the main finds and observations of the excavations conducted by the author in 1983 and 1984 and to give an archaeological background to the coin finds discussed in the appendix to this paper by Tuukka Talvio. Evidence of other prehistoric activities within the excavated area and the question of the transition period between late prehistoric times and the Middle Ages are also briefly discussed. A new major excavation was carried out at the site in 1991 and will be continued in 1992. The results of this research, which may greatly renew the picture at hand, will be published later by the excavators. Kaarlo Katiskoski, Department of Archaeology, National Board of Antiquities. Box 913, SF-0010l Helsinki INTRODUCfION made of fur (Riikonen 1991, 21).Considering the distance between the burials it seemed obvious The late prehistoric inhumation cemetery of that there was a major cemetery on the sandy Kirkkomiiki (,Church Hill') at Kaarina is situ north-eastern slopes of the vicarage hill of ated some 150 meters north of the medieval Kirkkomiiki. parish church of Kaarina (Sw. S. Karins, prevo Trial excavations were carried out at the site Nummi), dedicated to St. Catherine, within the in the 1960s and 1970s in connection with local present boundaries of the city of Turku (Abo) building plans. A single inhumation of a female (Map 1). In 1950 two burials containing grave in a nailed coffin was found in 1962 about 15 goods of both sexes and dating to the late Viking meters further southeast of the weapon grave Period were found at a distance of about 45 (Hirviluoto 1963). Remains of clothing with meters from each other at the site (Salmo 1951; spiral ornaments and glass beads were found NM 12687:1-20). A pair of D-type round broo (NM 15807:1-35). The grave may be given a ches and a bracteate imitation, probably of local rough dating to the 11th or 12th century. In 1973 work, of an Anglo-Saxon penny of King and 1974 a large area was excavated in the fields tEthelred II, allow a dating of the woman's east of Kirkkomaki, but no more certain inhu burial to the first half of the 11th century (Talvio mations were detected (Bergstrom 1974 & 1975). 1978, 185). A reconstruction has been made of Some 30 to 40 meters northeast of the known the clothing of the woman (Riikonen 1990). graves an area interpreted as a minor cremation Only weapons were found in the man's grave cemetery (so-called field cemetery laid on level which had been destroyed in cable works. A ground) of 50 square metres was discovered. silver-ornamented sword resembling Petersen's Burnt bone and various fire-worn artifacts from types Sand Z, a G-type spearhead, and a battle the Viking Period were found at this location. axe are dated roughly to the same time or to the There was also a cultural layer 20 to 50 cm thick Crusade Period (Kivikoski 1971, 843). Another to the south and southeast of this location, with male grave, which was partly demolished, re finds mainly consisting of ceramics and pieces of mained unnoticed and was not excavated until burnt clay daub. These can be interpreted as re 1991. It contained, among other objects, a mains of various settlement activities and are bronze balance and a set of weights in a pouch mainly dated to the Middle Ages and later times, 75 TURKU KAARINA KIRKKOMAKI AURAJOKI RIVER I , AREAS EXCAVATED IN \ 1983-84 WITH FINDS OF PREHISTORIC ACTIVITIES ~INHUMATION WCEMETERY PARK \ N \ \ 60 M \ U~IVE'RSIT~~ r",mnlin, CAMPU;:----...J ~1J O~~~ / CHRISTIAN CEME /tHUIRCfr-~~ / o o N UMMI SCHOOL Map 1. The Kirkkomaki cemetery and environs. 76 but even partly to the late prehistoric period Various burial constructions were observed in (NM 19272:1-292, NM 19433:1-47). the grave-pits. Rectangular carbonized lines with nails were interpreted as the remains of the side-planks of wooden coffins (I, C-F). In graves I and E a larger number of nails with mostly transverse fibres of wood, and also lengthwise EXCAVATIONS IN 1983-84 ones in some cases, were found at the comer joints and sides of the coffins (Fig. 1). In grave The excavations in 1983 and 1984 were carried A the deceased was clearly laid in a hollowed out because of plans for enlarging the pres tree-trunk (Fig. 2), possibly in grave II as well. ent Kaarina parish graveyard into the area of the There were remains of birchbark, probably Iron Age cemetery (Katiskoski 1984, 1985, covering the corpse. The deceased in grave IV 1990). An overall area of some 370 m' was ex may have been buried without a coffin. Vague cavated around the hill of Kirkkomaki. The decayed remains of other materials, probably of areas on the eastern slope gave positive results furs or fabrics obscured the interpretation of (NM 22078:1-182, 22631:1-424). Excavation these constructions. The graves were neatly laid revealed graves among and between previously side by side in rows, as if the cemetery had been detected ones. The remains of a dwelling site planned in a regular form. They were all with artifacts, a clay-pit related to metallurgical oriented in a SW - NE direction and in each ob activities, and a fossil field were also found close served case the head-end was towards the to the graves. southwest. This was also true of the graves found The results of the excavations of 1983 and in 1950 and 1962. This direction in late Iron Age 1984 will be discussed in the following section. graves has been commonly interpreted as a striv The emphasis is on the chronology of the site, in ing towards the W-E direction of Christian which the coin finds play an important role. burials (Palsi 1938, 30-31; Nordman 1939, Kirkkomaki and its relation to a number of other 13-15; Cleve 1978, 78). However, for example archaeological sites in the near vicinity will be in the cemetery of Luistari at Eura, where most dealt with in view of the problem of continued of the later and unfurnished graves were settlement from the prehistoric period into the oriented SW - NE, the graves already from the Middle Ages and from pagan times to the Chris early Merovingian period that almost exclusively tian era. laid in that direction (Lehtosalo-Hilander 1982 I, 19,21; cf. Graslund 1985, 298-299). The furnishing of the graves varied to a great degree. In most cases there were remains of knives or parts of bronze sheaths. Graves I, D, E THE GRAVES and Fs may be described as rich or well-fur nished. Graves II and IV, on the other hand, The burials excavated in 1983-84 are presented were practically unfurnished and contained in Table 1, containing various observations on mainly rusted remains of what may have been the graves and including the inventory numbers knives. A large proportion of the grave finds of the finds. All in all, eleven burials were ex consists of highly corroded fragments of uniden cavated (graves I - IV found in 1983 and A-F de tified iron objects. The main finds are briefly dis tected in 1984) in two separate areas totalling 80 cussed from a chronological point of view. m'(Map 2). Of these, three can be described as The five silver coins, identified by Tuukka probable burials of children (III, B, C). The Talvio and discussed in detail in the appendix, broad grave-pit F turned out to contain a double were found in three graves. Of the two German burial. Only minor remains were left of the cor coins in the male grave D one was struck c. 1100 pses as vague figures and deposits of molar ena in Goslar and the other for Bishop Conrad in mel. These have not been analysed. The esti Deventer (1070-1099, NM 22631:53-55; there mation of the sex of the deceased is based on may have been even a third coin broken into pie grave-goods and the size of the graves. It ap ces). These unperforated coins may be described pears that graves I,IV,A,D-E and Fn belonged as Charon coins as judged by their location near to men, and II and Fs were women's graves. Two the head of the body, and not in the probable other patches of dark soil were interpreted as pouch found in the grave (cf. Graslund 1967, graves (G and H) but these were not excavated 168-197, Sarvas 1972, 8-9) with thin sheets until 1991. of silver with stamped ornamentation (NM 77 MAP 2 I.,aa 4~O ';512 TURKU I KAARINA KIRKKOMAKI I K. KA,TISKOSKI 198]·U ::1..1 I I 5 " I I-IV GRAVES DETECTED IN 1983 I A·H 1981, L .... RGER STONE I I I :::l~. / 160 - 158 - 156 - 152 _ ISO - 148 - 146 - ,.,, , , , '" '?8 500, 50', '" 140 - 138 - 136 - Map 2. Kirkkomaki, Kaarina. 13L _ Turku. Graves excavated in 1983 and 1984. clay pit and ploughing remains. 78 Table I GRAYES EXCAVA TED AT KAARINA KIRKKOMAKI IN 1983 & 1984 GRAVE SIZE of CONS- ORIEN- DECEASED GRAVE GOODS NM n:os TRUC- TAnON nON weapons persooal dress tools others coins ornaments grave· coffin! decayed sex pit constr.