A PRE-ROMAN BURIAL SITE IN PUIJONSARVENNENÄ, KUOPIO, EASTERN FINLAND
PRELIMINARY RESULTS AND INTERPRETATIONS
Keywords:
cremation burial, Early Metal Period, Iron Age, Pre-Roman Period, osteology, cairnAbstract
In 2019, a metal detector hobbyist found an iron spearhead, a knife, and some burnt bones from an ambiguous stone structure situated on the scenic cape of Puijonsarvennenä in Kuopio. Archaeological excavation and sub- sequent analyses of the find material confirmed that the site was a single cremation burial, which was radiocarbon dated to 410–355 calBC, in the Pre-Roman Iron Age. The find material included several fragments of bone artefacts and a small amount of asbestos-tempered ceramics. The burial and its finds seem to indicate that the deceased person engaged in hunting and possibly fur trading, setting Puijonsarvennenä into a continuum with similar burial sites known from interior and northern Finland from the Early Bronze Age to the Late Iron Age. Currently, Puijonsarvennenä is the only Iron Age burial site to have been excavated in the North Savo province.
