Something Old, Something New: Excursions into Finnish Sacrifical Carins

Authors

• TIMO MUHONEN University of Turku

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.33356/temenos.4592

Abstract

The article approaches the archaeological phenomenon known in Finland as 'sacrificial cairns' by examining the scholarly history and by placing these cairns in the context of the recent theoretical discussion concerning the essence of ritual and secular in prehistoric socities. 'Sacrificial cairns' are traditionally considered to have been Iron-Age altar-like constructions for the worship of various supernatural powers. This view started to develop already in writings on the Finnish 'ancient religion' (Fi. muinaisusko), and was made explicit in antiquarian and then archaeological scholarship. The grounds for identifying sacrificial cairns were sometimes very slight, but they nevertheless influenced future research. Later, secualr perspectives were added to ritual ones. I argue that the scholarly tradition and the consequent archaeological attributes of sacrificial cairns are an over-simplification, and that there is thus reason to re-examine the old interpretations. Although the existence of prehistoric cairns as places of sacrifice is implied by the ethnographic record, the same evidence also suggests that the relationship between cairns with sacral and secular functions is far less straightforward than has previously been thought. Following the recent discussion, some of the cairns traditionally identified as sacrificial might perhaps better be defined as structured depositions, possibly resulting from practices in which the ritual and the secular were inseparable.