Tainiaro is located in the northernmost reaches of Europe, in the south-west of Finnish Lapland. This Stone Age cemetery, the largest discovered so far in Finland, is located in a site of extreme climate and harsh living conditions, just 80 kilometers away from the limits of the Arctic Circle.
Recent analyzes carried out by researchers at the University of Oulu indicate that the origin of this necropolis dates back to 6,500 years ago, but only 10 percent of the entire space has been studied, as explained by archaeologists in an article published in the journal Antiquity.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the Finnish Heritage Agency carried out excavations at Tainiaro, led by Tuija Laurén, who is also a co-author of the newly released study. But a lack of resources left the analysis of the findings incomplete and unpublished.
Only a tenth of the total area has been investigated by excavations, suggesting the presence of about forty tombs. But archaeologists are very clear that the site is much larger than previously believed. Estimates point to the existence of at least 120 graves, although that figure could even reach 200.
In 2018, specialists from the University of Oulu carried out new field work. The data from this work, combined with the latest geographic information systems, measurement equipment used in the field and the results of test excavations have provided a much more complete picture.
“The acidity of the soil has destroyed organic matter, including human remains, over the past two millennia. Stone Age tombs have left behind only the form of pits and red ocher, which is rare in Tainiaro. Therefore , the evidence is quite elusive,” says researcher Aki Hakonen.
As their function was initially unknown, the graves found in the cemetery were compared with 869 other Stone Age tombs in northern Europe, located in 14 different necropolises. Archaeologists found that the Tainiaro structures closely resembled the best-preserved graves in the limestone-rich soils of southern Finland.
Hence, the team led by Hakonen and Laurén was surprised by the size of the cemetery, since it was previously thought that such large necropolises only existed in areas located much further south. “Research on Tainiaro shows that apparently large cemeteries also existed near the Arctic Circle,” they point out.
Southern Lapland and the coasts of the Gulf of Bothnia (between Finland and Sweden) were inhabited at that time by the Early Comb Ware culture, a society of hunter-gatherers whose true identity has yet to be discovered.
Tainiaro, of course, was not just a cemetery. Numerous traces of fire and the making of distinctive stone objects also suggest that the site was inhabited. “In the future, all research on this era in the north will need to be re-evaluated to some extent, because these societies may not have been as small as previously thought,” Hakonen says.
“Our research – continues the archaeologist in a statement – raises questions about why such a site existed so high on the map and whether there are still similar cemeteries to be discovered in the dozen river valleys of the Bay of Bothnia.”
The alleged graves cannot yet be directly verified and, for the moment, only their exact number can be estimated. Although researchers urgently call for new excavations, for now they are content with conducting ground-penetrating radar tests, which could potentially map the entire site in the future without major disturbances.
“New soil samples could be analyzed for fossilized hairs, which have been found in other Stone Age tombs in recent years. It appears that animal skins and bird feathers were often used in funerary rituals. Collect Ancient DNA directly from the soil can provide unequivocal evidence for burial interpretation or reveal entirely new findings that will guide our understanding of Stone Age society in an even more fascinating direction,” concludes Ari Hakonen.
