Levänluhta jewellery links Finland to a European exchange network
Levänluhta jewellery links Finland to a European exchange network
The Levänluhta water burial site, dating back to the Iron Age (300-800 CE), is one of Finland's most famous archaeological sites. Nearly one hundred individuals, mainly women or children, were buried in a lake located at Isokyrö in SW Finland, during the Iron Age. Some of the deceased were accompanied by arm rings and necklaces made out of copper alloy, bronze or brass.
Style of jewellery domestic but material from abroad
"The origin of the metals used in these pieces of jewellery was determined on the basis of the objects' geochemical and lead isotope compositions. The jewellery of the deceased is stylistically typical Finnish Iron Age jewellery, making it probable that they were cast in local workshops. However, the metals used to make these objects are unlikely to be originally from the region, since copper ores had not yet been discovered here during the Iron Age," says Elisabeth Holmqvist-Sipilä, a postdoctoral researcher.
Up to now, archaeologists have assumed that copper used in the Iron Age came mainly from the copper ores discovered in southern Scandinavia. However, this interpretation has in recent years been called into question, since the copper found in archaeological metal discoveries in Sweden has also been determined to be imported.
In a study conducted in collaboration between archaeologists at the University of Helsinki and the Geological Survey of Finland, the origin of the bronze and brass jewellery found at Levänluhta was investigated by comparing their geochemical composition and lead isotope ratios to known copper ores in Finland, Sweden and elsewhere in Europe. The study was published in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.
Copper tracks lead to southern Europe
"The results demonstrate that the copper used in the objects was not from Finland or the nearby regions; rather, it has travelled to Finland along extensive exchange networks, most likely from southern Europe," says Holmqvist-Sipilä.
Based on the lead isotope ratios, the copper in the objects has its origins in the copper ores found in Greece and Bulgaria. These regions produced a large quantity of copper in the Bronze and Iron Age, which spread around Europe as various object forms, distributed as presents, loot and merchandise. Metals were also recycled by melting old objects into raw material for new casts. It may be possible that metals that ended up in Finland during the Bronze Age were recycled in the Levänluhta region.
The findings of this project, funded by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation, demonstrate that products of the copper exchange network of continental Europe also reached Finland across the Baltic Sea, thus making it possible to link the region with the extensive copper exchange system known to have extended throughout Europe. The results also illustrate the temporally and technologically multi-layered nature of prehistoric metal artefacts: raw materials found their way here through a number of hands, most likely over a long period of time and across very great distances. In domestic artisan workshops, these metals of international origin were manufactured into pieces of jewellery in domestic Iron Age fashion, perhaps embodying the local identity and place of residence of the bearer.
Press release from the University of Helsinki
Breakthrough in the discovery of DNA in ancient bones buried in water
Breakthrough in the discovery of DNA in ancient bones buried in water
During the Iron Age around 300 AD something extraordinary was initiated in Levänluhta area in Isokyrö, SW Finland. The deceased were buried in a lake, and this habit was continued for at least 400 years. When trenches were dug in the local fields in mid-1800's skulls and other human bones were surfacing. These bones had been preserved almost intact in the anoxic, ferrous water. Archaeologists, historians and locals have been wondering about these finds for over 150 years now.
In 2010, a multidisciplinary research group at the University of Helsinki decided to re-investigate the mystery of Levänluhta. The site, thought to be e.g. a sacrificial spring, is exceptional even in global scale and has yielded altogether c. 75 kg human bone material. The research group, led by docent Anna Wessman, had an ambitious aim: to find who the deceased buried in Levänluhta were, and why they were exceptionally buried under water so far from dwelling sites. Now, after several years of scientific work, the group reports their results in the most recent issue of Nature. The results are part of a more extensive international study shedding light on the colonization and population history of Siberia with DNA data from ancient - up to 31 000 years old - human bones.
"In our part, we wanted especially to find out the origins of the Iron Age remains found from Levänluhta," says the group leader Anna Wessman.
New results with DNA sequencing technology
This was investigated using cutting edge ancient DNA sequencing technology, which Department of Forensic Medicine is interested in due to the forensic casework performed at the department. Professor Antti Sajantila explains that the early phases of this project were demanding.
"Unability to repeat even our own results was utterly frustrating," Sajantila tells about the first experiments in the laboratory.
The methods were developing rapidly during the international co-operation, and ultimately the first Finnish results were shown to be accurate. Yet, it was surprising that the genomes of three Levänluhta individuals clearly resembled those of the modern Sámi people.
"We understood this quite early, but it took long to confirm these findings," tells docent Jukka Palo.
Locals or by-passers?
The results were suggesting that the Isokyrö region was inhabited by Sámi people in ancient times - according to carbon datings the bones belonged to individuals that had died 500 - 700 AD. This would be a concrete proof of Sámi in southern Finland in the past. But were the people locals, recent immigrants or haphazard by-passers? To find out, other techniques than DNA were needed. The solution lied in the enamel of teeth.
Curator Laura Arppe from the Finnish Museum of Natural History tells that strontium isotopes found in the enamel strongly suggest that the individuals grew up in the Levänluhta region.
The current genomes of the people in Finland carry both eastern Uralic and western Scandinavian components, and the genome of one the Levänluhta individuals examined had clear ties to present day Scandinavians. As a whole the replacement of the Sámi people in southern and central Finland reflects the replacement processes in Siberia, clarified in the present article. This has probably been a common feature in the Northern latitudes.
"The Levänluhta project demands further studies, not only to broaden the DNA data but also to understand the water burials as a phenomenon. The question "Why?" still lies unanswered," ponders the bone specialist, docent Kristiina Mannermaa.
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The project was funded primarily by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation and the participating researchers represented various disciplines and departments at the University of Helsinki. As authors of the current Nature publication were: Anna Wessman, Kristiina Mannermaa and Tarja Sundell (archaeology), Antti Sajantila, Jukka Palo and Mikko Putkonen (forensic medicine), and Laura Arppe (geosciences).
Press release from the University of Helsinki
