9.1. A Summary of Empirical Results

Five cairns were excavated for this study. Sundbergen 1 in Nagu is a medium-sized cairn where a young person was cremated in the Late Iron Age. The body was interred with a comb of antler. The grave had probably been constructed on a bare rock. Judging from the results of the weathering investigations the stone setting of the grave was damaged when a crater was dug in it essentially later than at the time of the interment. Sundbergen 2 in Nagu is a small cairn where a grown-up person was interred in the Late Iron Age. Some iron rivets, probably from a clinker-built boat were buried with the body. Parts of faunal remains, cattle, pig, goat or sheep, and cat were also detected in the cairn. The construction of the grave had been started by carrying a layer of earth on the bare rock outcrop. The interment was then implemented in this earth layer which was covered up with stones and boulders. The cemetery at Sundbergen is comparable with the cairns at Piiloinen in Vehmaa which, however, date from the Early Roman Iron Age (Salo 1968: 67–69). The stone setting at Lilla Kuusis in Nagu, and the minor cairn at Östergård in Dragsfjärd remained without finds. The same applies to the medium-sized cairn at Ängesnäs bergen in Nagu, but in this case the excavation observations and the weathering investigations indicated that it was an ancient man-made construction, probably a grave.

The purpose of the study was to complete previous investigations by increasing the number of field observations. The field work programme included both probable locations of burial cairns and locations which were not likely to have been selected as burial sites, and the area of the investigation was extended to embrace the outer and skerry zones of the archipelago because in this way a more representative sample of burial cairns was acquired. The number of registered burial cairns increased from 240 to 444; some of the graves were mentioned in old field reports but could not be relocated. The number of the graves in the outer archipelagian zone was considerable with regard to its limited land area. The nature of these graves refers to the Iron Age, which was confirmed by the excavations at Sundbergen in Nagu. In a sampling study of the recent topography at the burial sites in Houtskär, Korpo, and Nagu, it was established that, typically, rocky and even places which were elevated in relation to the adjacent topography, were selected as burial sites. They were preferably near each other, and close to the sea. An examination of the locations of the burial sites reveals also that, due to shore displacement, the graves are generally later than the local topography implies.

A rough estimate of the total weights of burial cairns suggested that the majority of cairns measured less than 20 to 30 tons in weight. Graves with more than 100 tons of stones are obviously very rare. A comparison between the minerals and rocks in the graves Sundbergen 1 and 2 and those excavated from the wave-washed tills in the vicinity suggested furthermore that the stones used in grave constructions were fetched from the immediate vicinity of the graves whereby no special attention was paid to the colour or other visual properties of the stones. There are, however, certain intimations of red or glimmering stones being the most popular. The stones close to the burial site were used first, and, as no more stones were available on the adjacent bare rocks, the rest of the stones had to be transported from more and more distant places, often from low hill slopes.

The most common shape of the stone setting is round or oblong, and several stone settings which now are indistinct and diffuse, have probably been round originally. The area of the stone setting as the product of length and width is seldom more than 150 m. The long cairns may, at will, be discussed as a separate group. A special case among these is the 49 meter-long grave at Öijen, Nagu (232) which is the longest cairn in southwestern Finland. In large graves in particular, there are stone chains, stone cists, and prominent central boulders.

The graves were frequently fairly close to each other. The distribution of the relative distances between the graves suggests, however, that more than half of the graves were located individually in the terrain. When there were several graves close to each other, the number of adjacent graves was seldom greater than four.

When comparing the distinctive features of the dated cairns on the coast of southern Finland and those of the non-dated (through excavations or by other means) cairns in Åboland, the most essential distinctive differences between the graves from the Bronze Age (Group P) and those from the Iron Age (Group R) are to be found in the area of the cairns, the differences in elevation in the vicinity of the grave sites, and in the differences in elevation between the grave site and the highest rock summit within the radius of 1200 metres. On the other hand, the graves display continuity from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age: for instance, the typical location of graves close to each other does not change essentially in course of time. More than half of the cairns belong to the Iron Age rather than to the Bronze Age. The shoreline datings of the graves indicate that 58 graves must have been built in the Iron Age, part of them in the Late Iron Age.

The viewsheds opening from the grave site were of great importance for the constructors when they were choosing the location for the last resting place of the deceased. Shore displacement has certainly changed the landscapes around the grave sites in an essential way as the previously visible sea became dry land. The graves in Group P (dating from the Bronze Age) as well as those in Group R (dating from the Iron Age) were in their day built at equally maritime sites. The present gradient from the inner towards the outer archipelago – from the earlier shore displacement milieu towards the later – is the stochastic age gradient of the cairns.

A common feature to the viewsheds of the graves in Group P in all the four selected regions was that they were turned towards the land. In general, the visible sea area from the grave sites was fairly extensive, and several graves had been built on the hills rising up from the sea shore. Despite the proximity of the sea it is apparent that the sea view was of no primary importance in the choice of the grave site; on the contrary, an extensive view towards the land and the effect of depth and exaltation were of greater importance. The sites of the graves in Group R were typically close to the sea with an obstructed and extensive sea view – Lillandet in Nagu was, however, an exception; there the sites of the graves in Group R resembled those of the graves in Group P. The viewsheds from several graves in Group R were directed towards the same water area. Also the viewshed to the horizon seems to have been of importance in the choice of the grave site, and therefore the grave was frequently constructed on a minor island where the terrain did not interrupt the line of sight towards the sea and the horizon to the same extent as on a large island.

In spite of the differences in viewsheds, the choice of the grave sites in the terrain is characterized by continuity from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age. The choice of elevated sites and the pertaining perspective with the effect of depth and height were the common features for the locations. In terms of areas, the viewsheds were extensive with certain local variations. In the mortuary ritual, the viewsheds from the graves seem to be associated with expressions of desired livelihood and success. They may be interpreted also as exalted places which were ascended and visited ceremonially, and where the grave and its surroundings were beheld. The graves were meant to be revisited over and over again, from generation to generation. These sites were places which were dedicated to recollecting, narrating, reiterating and negotiating, there the children adopted from adults their beliefs, ethical commitments, and the significances of the landscape and the sites – but, above all, at the grave sites everybody was conscious of the ’sacred’. There one could encounter the awareness of the presence of one’s ancestors, and superhuman powers.