Maritime Burial Cairns and the Land-Use History of South-Western Uusimaa
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Burials at the End of Land – Maritime Burial Cairns and the Land-Use History of South-Western Uusimaa Henrik Jansson Department of Philosophy, History, Culture and Art Studies Archaeology, P.O.Box 59, FI-00014 University of Helsinki [email protected] Abstract The maritime landscape of Uusimaa has been quite an unknown territory for archaeologists up to recent years. Only the archipelago of Ekenäs in the western part of the area was surveyed exten- sively before the year 2002. In this article recent research is presented. The focus is on the most maritime area between Hanko in the west and Espoo in the east. The viewpoint is from the sea, meaning that the relationship between the burial cairns and the maritime environment is especially emphasized, but the larger geographical context is not forgotten, either. Another important aspect is the perspective of the landscape. How are the sites located in the landscape and what meanings can be derived from the patterns in the landscape? Questions about the chronology of erecting cairns in the maritime zone will be discussed - when did the phenomenon start, how long did it continue, and when did it end? The main question is: How do the spatial and morphological patterns of the burial sites and stray finds reflect secular land use? Keywords: archaeology, maritime areas, landscape, Bronze Age, Iron Age, burial sites, land-use. 1. Introduction maa (Jansson & Latikka 2006)1. During the sur- veys hundreds of formerly unknown sites were documented and reported. The data gathered during that project forms the basis for the dis- The maritime landscape of Uusimaa has been cussion in this article. A more detailed analysis quite an unknown territory for archaeologists of the material had to wait for the following up to recent years. Only the archipelago of project (2004–2006) called Uusimaa during Ekenäs in the western part of the area was sur- Iron Age and Middle Ages2. Part of that work is veyed extensively before the year 2002. Most presented in this article. of the archaeological field activities had up to that point been concentrated to the more inland agrarian landscape of Uusimaa. In 2002–2003, 1 The project was funded with the generous contributions archaeologists and historians, in a project of Svenska kulturfonden, Konstsamfundet, Sparbanks- named Our Maritime Heritage organized by stiftelsen i Hangö, Tenala, Bromarv, Esbo and Helsing- the department of Archaeology at the Univer- fors, The Jenny and Antti Wihuri Foundation, Svenska litteratursällskapet and the EU LEADER+ programme. sity of Helsinki, started surveys in the coastal 2 The project was funded with the generous contributions and archipelagic areas of south-western Uusi- of the Kone foundation. Maritime Landscape in Change THE FINNISH ANTIQUARIAN SOCIETY, ISKOS 19, 2011 HENRIK JANSSON The focus is on the most maritime area be- During the whole Holocene period, the tween Hanko in the west and Espoo in the east maritime area of Western Uusimaa has been (Fig. 1). This is also the part of Uusimaa that a coastline broken by several fjord-like inlets during medieval times formed the coastal and running from north to south. Geological rift for- archipelagic part of the county of Raseborg. The mations form east-west-oriented natural cause- term maritime area is used to define the area be- ways in the archipelago, which are quite easy tween the mainland seashore and the open sea to navigate nowadays with marked sea lanes. areas It consists of an archipelago with islands In the north-south direction, the archipelago is of various sizes. The scale of the archipelago quite narrow, only about 20 km at its widest. In depends on its location within the larger area. some areas, such as in Hanko, the archipelago The land uplift process in the area demands that consists of only a few scattered islands on the changes in shorelines are taken into considera- brink of the open sea. tion. The shoreline has changed depending on The inner archipelago consists of large is- the profile of the land cover, which means that lands (more than 15 hectares) with narrow the coastline in the former parish of Snapper- straits and smaller islands forming a mosaic tuna (Raseborg) and the parish of Siuntio was of shallow and narrow waters around them several kilometres to the north of the present (Häyrén 1900). There is no real middle archi- shoreline as relatively recently as in 1000–1500 pelagic zone in the area; the archipelago opens AD. In other parts the changes were minor and up to the outer archipelagic zone quite rapidly. larger fluctuation, such as the drying of inlets of In this paper, land use during the Bronze the shoreline, has taken place only locally. Age and the Iron Age in the maritime area of Fig . 1. The area discussed in this article. Darkest grey shows the shoreline approximately 1000 AD, the lighter grey approxi- mately 500 BC and the lightest grey approximately 1500 BC. The tilting effect of the area has been taken into consideration. 118 BURIALS at THE END OF LAND – MARITIME BURIAL CAIRNS AND THE LAND-USE history OF SOUTH-western UUSIMAA Western Uusimaa is discussed. Also the issue 2. Some perspectives on burial of when the archipelago was permanently set- cairns as indicators of land use tled will be addressed, but the main focus is on land use in general, of which dwelling is only a part. The main question is: How do the spatial and morphological patterns of the burial sites Burial site and burial cairn and stray finds reflect secular land use? The site types have been chosen because they are the most common and in many cases the only prehistoric types of sites in the maritime areas. The term burial site or burial cairn is used to The lack of Bronze Age and especially Iron signify a site whose main purpose is the burial Age settlements is not only a maritime problem and/or the ceremonies regarding the deceased, but also a problem for more inland areas. whether it was the primary or secondary place The viewpoint is from the sea, meaning of burial. The burial sites were places con- that the relationship between the burial cairns cerned with the actual burial, the funerary ritu- and the maritime environment is especially als, or rituals involving the ancestor and con- emphasized, but the larger geographical con- cerning the living (Barrett 1996:397). text is not forgotten, either (cf. Jasinski 1993). Another important aspect is the perspective of Representativity the landscape. How are the sites located in the landscape and what meanings can be derived from the patterns in the landscape? Questions In Finland, the land-use and settlement history about the chronology of erecting cairns in the of the Iron Age especially and to a large extent maritime zone will be discussed – when did the also the Bronze Age of southern Finland has phenomenon start, how long did it continue, been and still is mostly based on burial sites and when did it end? (Kivikoski 1961; Salo 1981; Edgren 1992; Salo In addition to the lack of recent field re- 1995; Lehtonen 2000; Pihlman 2004:84–85). search in the mainland area, also more theoreti- Especially during the early years of archaeol- cal studies and publications have been scarce. ogy, but also still in the late 20th century, stud- One exception has been the work of Anna ies tended to focus on burial sites, especially Wessman (Wickholm) on the Iron Age burial on the rich cemeteries from the late Iron Age. sites in the area (Wickholm 2000; 2005; 2007; In Uusimaa, only two Iron Age settlement sites Wessman 2010). It is important that the mari- were studied before the 21st century (Wickholm time areas are considered in relation to these ar- 2005). eas in order to obtain a complete picture. Also In this paper, burial and stray finds are used studies in neighbouring areas need to be given as indicators of land use because they are the some attention, especially the coastal areas and only type of prehistoric sites that can be found archipelago of Finland Proper where interest- throughout the area. The existence of Iron Age ing new results have been published during the settlements in Western Uusimaa is almost non- last 10 years (Asplund 2001; 2008; Tuovinen existent, and there are only a handful of pos- 1985; 1990; 2002). sible Bronze Age settlements (cf. Forsén et al The archaeological material from main- 1993). When burial cairns are used as indica- land burial sites in Western Uusimaa has not tors of land use, it has to be remembered that been included in field studies by the author and they represent only a part of the wide spectrum therefore only previous publications and stud- of activities that made up the life of a prehis- ies are used in the discussion regarding them. toric person. This raises the question of how representative the material is. 119 HENRIK JANSSON Physical representativity means the physi- example, Lewis Binford saw the relation be- cal coverage of, for example, surveys done tween mortuary practises and the complexity by professional archaeologists and the repre- of a society as quite straightforward (Binford sentativeness of the number of sites and their 1972:235). This view has been criticized since geographical distribution. Fieldwork done in by several authors (cf. Trigger 1989; Lagerlöf most maritime areas can be considered as rep- 1991). Michael Parker Pearson has shown, by resentative. The coastline and archipelago were studying English graveyards, that an egalitar- surveyed in the same project during 2002–2003 ian mortuary practice does not always reflect using a standardized documentation method.