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- Title
Keminmaan Valmarinniemen polttohautaukset -- luonne, löydöt ja konteksti.
- Authors
Ikäheimo, Janne; Maijanen, Heli; Paavola, Kirsti
- Abstract
This article re-examines some fourteen cremation burials found during the 1981 excavations of the Valmarinniemi cemetery of the Medieval Kemi parish in northwest Lapland (Fig. 1). This assemblage is examined not only from the point of osteoarchaeology and material analysis but also as a deposition process by emphasizing the context. The observations and documentation made at the field will also be critically reviewed, while the reasons and conventions for the use of this type of burial in the time (13-14th c.) when the Christian doctrine, requiring inhumation burials without artifacts, was not systematically followed in the recently established parishes around the Bay of Bothnia. The excavations resulted in 27721 fragments of charred bone (Table 1) interpreted to pertain to cremation burials; of these 7652 fragments (28.11 %) were identified to a specific bone or a bone group . When possible, age (or age group) and sex of the deceased were estimated using diagnostic fragments (Fig. 3) from skull and unfused long bone ends. Identification of these fragmented skeletal remains was originally performed by osteologist Pirjo Lahtiperä in 1984 and sex and age estimates were revised by Heli Maijanen in 2015. Remains of at least two adult males, one adult female, and four young individuals of indeterminate sex were identified from the assemblage (Table 2). Rest of the individuals were identified as adults. Four burials (B, I, L and M) contained remains of at least two individuals, while it was also concluded that none of the burials contained such quantity of bones that could result from complete retrieval of cremated bones of an individual; hence the actual cremation of the deceased took place elsewhere. Finds other than cremated bones were made only in two burials, F and M (Fig. 4). The first contained six silver coins dated to the reign of Magnus Ericsson (AD 1340-1360) and a mosaic glass bead, while a fragmentary bone object and the rivets of a purse were recovered from the latter. The coins from the cremation burial F were analyzed with pXRF for their metal composition. Their silver content of 30-45 % (Table 3) suits well with other sources reporting heavy monetary inflation experienced during the last years of Ericsson's reign. The purse rivet from the cremation burial M can be dated to the 12th century and is possibly of Novgorodian origin, thus giving evidence on eastern contacts existing beyond hostilities documented in historical sources. The spatial distribution of the cremation burials at the cemetery is not easy to interpret, although most of them were found from the southwestern quadrant of the excavation area whereas the possible remains of one or two Medieval churches that might have existed at Valmarinniemi were found from its northern half. The chronology of cremation burials, based on six radiocarbon dates and artifact finds, indicates that this type of burial custom was continued at least for a half and at maximum for four centuries. It is possible that an area had been marked for cremation burials at the cemetery or the knowledge about its location was passed through oral tradition. Another, similarly credible explanation for their existence at a Christian cemetery is the re-location of 11th and 12th century cremation burials to the cemetery, which is corroborated by the evident partialness of the burials themselves. Finally, individuals identified from cremation burials -- both young and old adult males and females as well as young individuals -- suggests that the society taking advantage of the resources provided by the estuary of Kemijoki River during the early Medieval period was demographically balanced and at least partially stuck in Iron Age beliefs, where the disposal of the deceased by cremation burial was still a norm.
- Publication
Faravid, 2017, Vol 43, p81
- ISSN
0356-5629
- Publication type
Article