Ancient Karelia: Archaeological Studies / Muinais-Karjala: Arkeologisia tutkimuksia

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Translation Jüri Kokkonen. The roots of this study go back to 1984, when I was permitted - as the first Western researcher since the Russian revolution - to participate in archaeological excavations at Staraja Ladoga, the Aldeigjuborg of the sagas. Permission to travel to the site, which at the time was in an area closed to foreigners, was due to the tenacity of Dr. A. N. Kirpičnikov, at the time head of the Fenno-Slav sector of the Institute of Archaeology of the Leningrad Department of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR (from 1993 the Institute of the History of Material Culture of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg). Dr. Kirpičnikov spared no efforts in drawing up applications to the Soviet authorities. The territory between Staraja Ladoga and the Finnish border, the areas of Karelia ceded to the Soviet Union in the Second World War, became more and more fascinating to me. Soviet archaeologists had carried out fieldwork there for years, gathering a considerable corpus of material in the process. But there were no Finnish researchers specializing in Karelian archaeology. My licentiate thesis presented at the University of Helsinki was on a completely different theme, Iron Age buildings and structures, and I had to begin my studies in Karelian archaeology from scratch. I decided to venture into this field. My research was made possible by an appointment to a temporary position as junior researcher with the Academy of Finland beginning in 1988. My project also received separate funding. The first years were taken up by basic-level research, and the Academy granted me two extra terms, of which the last one ended on 31 July 1993. The Finnish-Soviet Committee for Cooperation in the Sciences and Technology (later Science and Technology Commission) approved the Karelian Iron Age research project as one of its official joint study projects. The main archaeological excavations of this project were carried out in 1989-1990 at the Old Fortress of Käkisalmi and in 1991 at the Suotniemi site, in the Käkisalmi rural commune. A. I. Saksa was responsible for the scientific direction of the fieldwork together with myself. Small excavations were carried out at the Old Fortress of Käkisalmi also in later fieldwork seasons. Between 1988 and 1993 I made a total of 13 field and congress trips to the former Soviet Union (amounting to some 200 days). Over half of this time was spent in fieldwork in Karelia (excavation and survey), and some 40 days were spent in working in the archives of St. Petersburg, Moscow and Petrozavodsk. My visits also permitted me to study the collections at Staraja Ladoga, Novgorod and Syktyvkar. Establishing the precise locations of antiquities and sites is one of the main goals of fieldwork. Accordingly, I visited some 120 sites in Karelia, documenting their present state with photographs. The results are presented in this publication. PREFACE 9 1. INTRODUCTION 13 1.1 Background and goals of this study 16 1.2 Methods 21 2. HISTORY OF RESEARCH 23 2.1 The pioneering generations ca. 1850-1917 23 2.3 Russian research in Karelia 1945-1994 38 2.4 Post-war Finnish archaeology and Finnish-Russian cooperation 41 2.5 Conclusions 42 3. CLASSIFICATION AND CHRONOLOGY 44 3.1 Forms and customs of burial 44 3.2 Settlement finds 72 3.3 Ancient hillforts and fortifications 77 3.4 Cup-marked stones 90 4. HISTORY OF SETTLEMENT IN KARELIA 101 4.1 The archaeological record as a source on the history of settlement 102 4.2 The origin of the Karelians 118 4.3 Iron Age settlement and the villages of historically recorded times 130 4.4 Conclusions 140 5. SETTLEMENT, MEANS OF LIVELIHOOD AND GEOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND 143 5.1 Economy and means of livelihood 143 5.2 The influence of geography on the locations of settlements and on means of livelihood 150 5.3 Conclusions 164 6. ANCIENT KARELIA AND ITS CONNECTIONS 165 6.1 Karelian culture 166 6.2 Karelia and Savo 172 6.3 Karelia and Western Finland 174 6.4 Karelia, Scandinavia and Western Europe 179 6.5 Karelia and Eastern Europe 186 6.6 Karelia and the East Baltic region 195 6.7 Karelia and Northern Fennoscandia 197 6.8 Conclusions 202 7. SYNTHESIS 204 APPENDIX 1. - ARKEOLOGINEN AINEISTO (1500 ВС - AD 1500) 207 1. Arkeologisten kohteiden paikantaminen 207 2. Arkeologiset kohteet 212 3. Esineistö 353 APPENDIX 2. - KARJALAN C14-AJOITUKSET 398 APPENDIX 3. - Terttu Lempiäinen: KÄKISALMEN SUOTNIEMEN KASVIJÄÄNNETUTKIMUKSET 399 APPENDIX 4. - Christian Carpelan: KM 2672:1 - KERAMIIKKAA RÄISÄLÄN TIURINLINNASTA 401 APPENDIX 5. - LUOVUTETUN KARJALAN SUOMALAISET PAIKANNIMET JA NIIDEN NYKYISET VENÄLÄISET VASTINEET 403 SOURCES AND PRINTED REFERENCES 405