Death, Destruction and Commemoration : Tracing Ritual Activities in Finnish Late Iron Age Cemeteries
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Suomen Muinaismuistoyhdistys ry – Finska Fornminnesföreningen rf The Finnish Antiquarian Society ISKOS 18 HELSINKI 2010 DEATH , DESTRUCTION AN D COMMEMORATION Tracing ritual activities in Finnish Late Iron Age cemeteries (AD 550–1150) ANNA WESSMAN Academic dissertation to be publicly discussed, by due permission of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki in auditorium XV, on the 4th of September, 2010 at 10 o´clock. CONTENTS Publisher: The Finnish Antiquarian Society, Helsinki PREFACE 7 Cover design: Mikael E.T. Manninen, Ramona Lindberg Layout: Ramona Lindberg LIST OF PAPERS 11 Printed in Tammisaaren Kirjapaino Oy, Tammisaari 2010 ABSTRACT 12 1 INTRODUCTION 13 1.1 BURIA L ARCHAEO L OGY IN F IN L AN D 13 Theory and methods 13 Excavation techniques 14 1.2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS AN D AIMS O F THIS STU D Y 17 1.3 A B RIE F D ESCRI P TION O F THE MATERIA L 19 The cremation cemeteries under level ground 19 Inhumation burials 25 Water burials 27 1.4 LATE IRON AGE B URIA L ARCHAEO L OGY IN F IN L AN D 29 The definition(s) of a grave 29 The character and distribution of Late Iron Age burial types in Finland 31 1.5 A B RIE F ACCOUNT O F THE RESEARCH HISTORY AN D CHRONO L OGY 34 1.6 THE F IN D MATERIA L 43 2 SEPARATING THE LIVING FROM THE DEAD 45 2.1 THE RITUA L ACTI V ITIES IN MORTUARY P RACTICE 45 2.2 CREMATIONS : DESTROYING B O D IES B Y F IRE 48 The pyres 48 Fire as transformation and fragmentation 50 2.3 CO ll ECTI V E B URIA L S 57 Scattered bones as expressions of fertility 59 2.4 IN D I V I D UA L B URIA L S : WEA P ON B URIA L S AN D INHUMATIONS 62 Individual or dividual graves? 62 The weapon burials 62 Cremations in boats 66 7 PRE F ACE Death is something that both fascinates and commemoration. People have mourned and re- 2.5 VISUA L AN D IN V ISI bl E CEMETERIES 67 frightens people more than anything else. What membered their dead loved ones, particularly at The cremation cemeteries, their topography and the landscape 67 happens after we die is a fundamental question certain times of the year. Many cultures even to- Were the graves marked? 73 which has also formed the basis of all religions. day have special days when they commemorate Water as a visual element 75 As long as I can remember, I have been in- and remember the dead. This commemorative 2.6 THE RARE INHUMATION GRA V ES 76 trigued with the nuanced culture surrounding practice also often leaves material traces for the Christianity and inhumation burials 78 death and dying. It is as been with a slight sneer, archaeologist. Through repetition, these ritual and sometimes even with a hint of repulsion, that acts are remembered and stored in our bodies 3 BURIALS, TIME AND SOCIAL MEMORY 82 my family, friends and colleagues have reacted as are the emotions, smells and pictures which 3.1 CONCE P TS O F TIME 82 to my enthusiastic stories about various peculiar- might enhance our ability to remember, espe- 3.2 MEMORY , SITES O F MEMORY AN D B URIA L ARCHAEO L OGY 84 ities and anomalies in burial customs both past cially events we have experienced ourselves. and present. Many of them have rolled their eyes 4 COMMEMORATION, ANCESTORS AND RE-USE 87 and shaken their heads of my exhilaration. Death One of my earliest memories from childhood is 4.1 REMAINS O F COMMEMORATI V E RITUA L S IN THE CEMETERY MATERIA L 87 is, perhaps, still considered to be something dark from a summer vacation in Italy with my parents Cup-marks 87 and chilling, and young people especially do not and my older brother when I was four years old. Settlement debris in the cemeteries 87 want to think about their own mortality. Death is We had rented an apartment in Riva del Sole Stone materials 88 quite mundane, however, since we are, in spite in Tuscany and every morning we were awak- Burned clay, daub and pottery 89 of everything, all potential cadavers. Thus we ened by an Italian man who pushed his barrow Iron slag 90 are forced to accept that there are powers within down the street selling croissants and dough- Wooden poles and postholes 91 us that we can not forestall; before death we are nuts. While he was walking down the street he Unburned animal bones and animal teeth 93 forced to humble ourselves. was shouting out in Swedish (!) the items he 4.2 THE RE -USE O F SITES AN D O B JECTS AS A MEANS O F REMEM B ERING 94 was selling. After breakfast we usually walked 4.3 PECU L IAR OR D E V IANT CASES 98 The idea of writing a thesis about cremation to the beach. Tall rosemary (Rosmarinus offi- Older artefacts in inhumation burials and locked coffins 98 arose in 2000 when I visited the city of Death, cinalis) bushes lined the path to the beach and Cremated bones in inhumation cemeteries 102 Varanasi (Benares), in India. After witnessing a I used to strike the bushes with my hand as we Stones placed on top of inhumation graves 106 funeral with an open-air cremation on the bank walked by. Today, the smell of the rosemary Were the dead feared? 107 of the Ganges I was convinced that this was still recalls memories from my childhood, and something I wanted to study more. At that time, when I use the herb in cooking I tend to travel 5 CONCLUSION 109 however, I had no idea that the thesis would take back to the warm and sunny Italian west coast. me to Iron Age Finland. Rosemary is one of my favourite herbs, but as it REFERENCES 114 happens, it is also a symbol of memory because Death also goes hand in hand with a wide range it is believed to improve people’s capacity to of emotions, perhaps mostly with grieving and remember. 8 DEATH , DESTRUCTION AN D COMMEMORATION 9 ACKNO wl E D GMENTS First of all, I want to express my gratitude to all stay, I gave a guest lecture at the University of that often ended in the small hours of the morn- help, even though your own schedule was often the foundations that have supported my work Stockholm about the Finnish cremation cemeter- ing. Over the years, she he has also driven me tight. financially. My first two smaller scholarships ies under level ground and the discussions held all around Estonia to see sites. Tõnno Jonuks is were received in 2002 from the Nordenskiöld after the lecture have helped me a lot. thanked for discussions about prehistoric reli- I also want to express my gratitude to Eva Ahl- Society in Finland (Nordenskiöld-samfundet i gion and Mari Lõhmus for her company in both Waris for the long but fruitful discussions and Finland r.f.) and in 2004 from the Finnish Con- The Finnish PhD School in Archaeology fi- Winchester and the Base 2 seminar. phone calls about archaeology, history and life cordia Fund (Suomalainen Konkordia-liitto). nanced my seminar at the Third Theoretical itself. She has also given me time from her busy I have also received two 6 month awards from Seminar of the Baltic Archaeologists (BASE 3) I wish to thank Richard Bradley, John Hines, schedule to read and comment on some of my the Emil Aaltonen Foundation (Emil Aaltosen held in Ventspils, Latvia, in 2007. I also want Neil Price, Nick Thorpe, Eva Thäte and Howard articles and earlier drafts of this manuscript. säätiö) in 2003 and 2005. The most important to express my gratitude to Nick Thorpe and the Williams in the UK for helpful and productive e- Thanks to Marja Ahola (née Lappalainen) for financial support was a generous three-year European Science Foundation (ESF) for invit- mail correspondence, discussions, and feedback pointing out that my thesis could go the other grant awarded by the Finnish Cultural Founda- ing me to the “Burial in ‘other’ Places in the at various seminars and conferences. way and thus not result in a monograph. Thanks tion (Suomen Kulttuurirahasto) at the end of European Past” exploratory workshop held in to her, I started to aim to publish my thesis as ar- 2005, which facilitated continuous work with Winchester , UK, in 2007. In Sweden I wish to thank Anders Andrén, ticles in spring 2008. Warm thanks go to my su- my thesis. I was able to complete my work with At these conferences and seminars I have Gunnar Andersson, Sophie Bergerbrant, Fredrik pervisor, PhD Tuija Rankama, for giving me the the help of a 3-month award from the University been able to present my ideas and get valuable Ekengren , Thomas Eriksson, Fredrik Fahlander, green light to my pursue publishing my thesis of Helsinki. feedback from the audience. The Papers I pre- Charlotta Hillerdal, Peter Holmblad, Åsa M. as articles and for reading and commenting on sented later resulted in the articles on which this Larsson, Daniel Löwenborg, Liv Nilsson Stutz, previous work at such a late stage of my thesis. Over the years, I have also received several thesis is based. Åsa Strandberg, Ole Stilborg and Jan Storå. I also thank her for reading earlier drafts of this travel grants from the University of Helsinki. manuscript.