Taipalsaaren Kuivaketveleen muinaislinna
Abstrakti
A great deal has been written about the ancient hillforts of Finland in relation to how few finds and permanent structures they have actually revealed. The age and function of the hillforts have been the main questions considered.
The author lists a total of eighteen sites referred to as ancient hillforts in the present-day Finnish South Karelia but regards only two or three of them as being of any value as prehistoric forts.
The article presents excavations conducted by Timo Jussila at the Kuivaketvele hillfort in Taipalsaari. The site is a rocky cape with access along a gentle southern slope and at this location there is an unstructured wall of laid stones preventing free access to the top of the hill. A radiocarbon date of charcoal found beneath the laid stones provided the date calAD 890-1030, according to which the fort had already been in use in the Viking Age.
Other fieldwork observations were limited. The wall with its stone foundation appears to have continued as a soil-based earthwork protecting the whole southern slope of the hill. In addition, a test pit revealed indications of occupation, though not of its period or specific nature. Interpretations of the hillfort are hindered by the fact that hardly any evidence of lron Age settlement is known from the area and even the known indications are sparse and geographically distant. In this sense, the hill will remain a mystery. The author argues that prehistoric hillforts are a heterogeneous group with regard to dating. With regard to this argument, he has drawn up a list of radiometrically dated hillforts, and according to his interpretation of the list it is for the time being impossible to demonstrate any distinct periods for the hillforts at least on the basis of these measurements.
