Finland

Finland is a relatively large country (c. 338,000 sq km) with a small population of only about 5.3 million. Its situation between the 60th and 70th parallels of latitude results in rather low temperatures and explains why the country was covered and eroded by the Scandinavian ice sheet during the Ice Age. As a result, Finland’s soil, flora, fauna and human occupation cannot be older than 10,000-12,000 years. Although the cold temperature may help preservation, the young acid podzol soils contribute to the rapid decay of organic matter, including bone. Until 1809 Finland was part of the Swedish Kingdom and, even though new laws were

introduced during both the autonomous period (1809-1917) and the subsequent republican times, some of the current legislation affecting ancient human remains has its original roots in the Swedish period. Although it has never stood as a distinct discipline in Finland, much that can classify as physical anthropological research has been traditionally conducted mainly by medical doctors. It is only during the last few decades that the study of ancient human remains has begun to be carried out by anthropology-trained archaeologists. Since physical anthropology was not regarded in the past as an independent discipline which

was taught at Finnish universities, medical graduates were amongst the only ones capable of conducting some sort of anthropological research before the 1970s. A number of studies on the anthropology of the Finns were made, mainly by physicians during the late 19th and, particularly, the early 20th centuries (see, e.g., Retzius 1878; Westerlund 1900, 1902, 1904; Kajava 1924, 1925; Kajava and Finne 1926). These investigations were attempts to define the physical characteristics of the Finns and their regional variations within the country. They were, in other words, studies of race involving physical traits such as stature, cranial morphology, body proportions and pigmentation. Despite their somewhat skewed orientation, these early works are important because they involve data from thousands of individuals. Of particular significance was the work initiated by Professor Yrjö Kajava, who in the 1920s organized a series of regional anthropological studies that came to be published as various monographs between 1931 and 1957 (see Kajanoja 1971 and references therein). This work, conducted by medical doctors, concerned mainly living subjects, but a few researchers went as far as digging up skulls, especially from recent Lapland cemeteries, on rather dubious legal grounds. The research and results associated with the physical traits of the Finns have been summarized by Kajanoja (1971). In

addition to the preoccupation with physical traits, Finnish researchers produced some valuable results in forensic anthropology, such as the work of Professor Antti Telkkä on long bone dimensions and the stature of adult and juvenile Finns (Telkkä 1950; Telkkä et al. 1962; Palkama et al. 1962; Virtama et al. 1962), Professor Pauli Kajanoja’s use of discriminant functions for sexing Finnish crania (Kajanoja 1966), and the more recent research on differential shoulder development in tennis players (Kannus et al. 1995). In the case of ancient human remains, anthropological analyses were carried out by a handful

of physicians interested in the subject. The bones were excavated and retrieved by archaeologists, and the skeletal remains, or what was left of them, were usually delivered afterwards to the interested researcher for anthropological examination (see, e.g., Grönroos 1913; Pesonen 1939; Blomquist 1953). This situation could perhaps be seen as the first of three developmental stages in the study of

ancient human remains in Finland. The first stage began with the discovery of the Jettböle skeletal material on the Åland Islands in 1905 and lasted until the late 1960s. The second stage is characterized by the presence of some physical anthropology-trained

archaeologists. A few Finnish archaeological students, unhappy with the situation, travelled abroad in order to obtain training in human osteology. Upon their return they engaged in the anthropological analysis of human remains that were being excavated in Finland (see, e.g., Lahtiperä 1970; Formisto 1993). However, the apparently poor prospects of making a living by undertaking this kind of work in Finland forced most of these researchers to seek greener pastures abroad. This was not quite the case in the Åland Islands, where bone preservation is better and human remains are encountered more commonly than on the mainland. For this reason, it was not unusual that the reports of excavations conducted on the islands included an osteological report. In the mid-1980s, Milton Núñez, who had studied Physical Anthropology at the University of Calgary (Canada), was hired as a special researcher in the Archaeology Section of the Ålands Museum. This led to the anthropological analyses of newly and previously excavated ancient human remains from the archipelago (see, e.g., Núñez 1987, 1997; Núñez and Lidén 1994, 1997). This second stage came to an end in the late 1990s. The third stage is marked by the introduction of significant changes in the university education

of Physical Anthropology and the shift of the bulk of the research on ancient remains to the University of Oulu. In September 1994, Milton Núñez was offered a professorship with the purpose of creating a new Archaeology Department at the University of Oulu, in northern Finland. By September 1996 a new study programme had been designed and the newly admitted Oulu archaeology students faced a compulsory introductory course in Biological Anthropology. Prior to this, in the 1970s and 1980s, the archaeology-inclined staff and students of the Oulu

History Department had excavated a few mediaeval and early historical burial sites in northern Finland (see, e.g., Koivunen 1978, 1982; Paavola 1989). Although no thorough anthropological analyses were made, there were a few interesting articles by a team of researchers from the Oulu Odontology Department (see, e.g., Pirttiniemi and Heikkinen 1989; Pirttiniemi and Huggare 1989; Pirttiniemi et al. 1990). For a summary of this early anthropological work carried out by Oulu researchers see Niinimäki et al. (2009). Interest on the subject of human remains increased in the 1990s with a series of investigations

by Oulu archaeologists at various northern church sites. In 1997, there was the excavation of over 300 individuals buried in the vicinity of Oulu Cathedral dating to the 17th and 18th centuries. Fortunately, the Oulu parish was very understanding and kindly allowed the study of the skeletal material until 2006, when it was returned and reburied. The Oulu Cathedral material generated several master’s theses and publications (see, e.g., Cózar et al. 2000; Ojanlatva et al. 2000; Maijanen 2006; Núñez et al. 2006; Núñez 2007).