Experiences concerning Stone age building constructions in Finland - OpenArch Conference, Kierikki 2014

Experiences concerning Stone

age building constructions in

Finland

Eero Muurimäki

Museum of Saarijärvi

emuurimaki@gmail.com

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History of the studies

Räisälä Pitkäjärvi

• Sakari Pälsi,

• Excavation in 1915

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“Räisälä hut” • 12 post hole making a

circle, 2 outside

• Pälsi: a conical hut

which an entry way.

• probably the main

structure has been

upright because of the

vertical post holes.

– slanting poles for the cover

had not been preserved.

• Pälsi made a sketch of the structure of the hut.

• no remains of the roofing material in the soil.

• He did not decide, if it has been covered with hides,

birch bark or twigs of spruces as contemporary hunter-

gatherers

• U. T. Sirelius, professor in

Ethnology, found an analogy in

Eastern Siberia

• A hut of the Gilyaks,

– nowadays known as the

Nivkhs

• After the later decades only 3 of

the kind were recognized among

thousands of excavated stone

age sites.

– Säkkijärvi, Hevonuitti

– Värtsilä Kesämaa

– Honkajoki, Lauhala Myllyluoma

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• C. F. Meinander ”pole holes” are main roots of pines.

• Our experimental studies: the inner horizontal structure of Räisälä hut

has no function, no need, because diameter of the circle is only 6 m)

• Oula Seitsonen 2005: Räisälä hut has probable been the same kind of

rectangular structure as the ”normal type” of pit house is nowadays

seem to be.

Räisälä hut in

Saarijärvi Stone Age

Village

Saarijärvi Stone age

village The First Village

• Founded 1980

• Simo Vanhatalo the first archaeologist – Stone Age buildings

– reconstructed artefacts

– traps

– dugout

– possibility to try a stone axe

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• Saarijärvi

In the beginning

• Huts of:

– Räisälä

– Narva

– Byske

– “Fur hut”

– a small pit house

– single walled lent-

to shelter hut

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Stone Age Village in the

beginning of 1990´s

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Small pit house

• Simo Vanhatalo

in front of the

picture

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Conical

“Hide hut” • elk hides

• One small hut

needs 17 hides.

• to clean one hide

takes about

week

• very bad smell!

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Hut of Byske

• Byske and

Räisälä hut, only

turf

• Keeps water out

about 1/2 hours.

• Keep on raining

inside about 12

hours after the

rain outside has

stopped!

• too steep angle

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Hut of Narva

• Birch bark white

side out

• pieces about 0,5

x 1 m

• Keeps water

• cold in wintertime

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Turf and birch bark

• Keeps water, warm also in winter time

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Birch bark

• Khanty (Ostyaks) summer dwelling

• birch bark backside up, sewn

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• Narva hut, model

1992

• sewn with tree roots,

about 2 km

“Northern

Ostrobothnian

type”

• Hannu Kotivuori 1983

• Turf and birch bark

• First new type after Pälsi

1915!

• In stone age village 1993

• Problem with the drawing:

– does the drawing mean an

gabled house or a Räisälä

hut type building.

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The New Village 1993

• Bases Evijärvi Isokangas, house grounds over 20 m in diameter.

• No structures found, not even fireplaces

• Depression round or oval

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Yurt-like structures

• Yurt-like structures 1993 planned according the form of

the pits.

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“Yurt hut”

• basically the same structure as n Räisälä hut, but two

rounds of upright posts and a turn

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• No evidence about the structure first

• In 1990`s evidence of rectangular structures

Puumala Kärmelahti

• 1998 – 1999

• 3 depressions .

• 3900 cal. BC.

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Puumala Kärmelahti

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Puumala Kärmelahti

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Puumala Kärmelahti

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Rusavierto

house • Excavation by

Sirpa Leskinen

and Petro

Pesonen 1990-

2000

• About 800 m from

Saarijärvi Stone

age village

Stone age

village x

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Rusavierto house

• Saarijärvi,

Rusavierto

X Rusavierto

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Saarijärvi, Rusavierto

• 7 different periods from Mesolithic to iron age

• Fireplaces were Mesolithic

• House pit n. 2200 cal BC.

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• house was burnt.

• Wall lines about 30 cm fro the corners out, timber frame

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• Diagram by Leskinen & Pesonen, National board of antiques

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• bark on the logs, timber

has not been barked.

• pine

• 2300 – 1900 cal BC.

• Pöljä ceramics from the

site is

contemporaneous.

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Reconstruction of Rusavierto

• Reconstruction by Sirpa Leskinen and Petro Pesonen year after

the excavation

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• use in winter assumes turf cover

• “turf” is the moss cover of the dry forest near by, not

from bog.

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• The structure is like Sami ”timber kota”

• Differences:

• Sami ”kota” is small and it is not semi subterranean

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Saarijärvi, Uimaranta

• Excavation by Leskinen & Pesonen 2001

• Uimaranta house pit

• 2 post holes found in profile.

• Symmetrically there should be 2 more.

• 3000 cal BC

• not published

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• Structure: Räisälä hut –type with 4 upright posts.

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Uimaranta house

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House of Lillberget

• Ove Halén 1994

• Halén: the walls have to been relatively high because of the

fireplaces are so near to the gable walls.

•

Houses

• Excavated and reconstructed (drawing) by Ove Halén

• Two fireplaces in every house

• Halén: the walls have to been relatively high because of the

fireplaces are so near to the gable walls.

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House of Lillberget

• One of the houses of Lillberget as reconstructed in Saarijärvi Stone

Age village

“Vara”

• The timber walls were low because in Stone age there were no

“vara”, an tool for drawing the form of the undermost timber on the

uppermost timber.

• Without sharp fit wind goes through the walls

– In the picture an ethnographic example of “vara”, about 1000 years old.

Durability

• How long the huts will last depends on the covering.

• frameworks covered only with turf are non-usable within

three years.

• Constructions with birch bark only or with turf coverings

can survive 10 – 15 years

• if the huts are kept dry with heating inside, they can

remain in good condition for a much longer time.

The Stone

Age Village in

Saarijärvi

• in the year 2014

• 26 Ha

Litterature

• Christiansson, Hans, Knutsson Kjel 1985. Bjurselet – Gamla nya experiment. Finn

forntiden. Västerbottens norra fornminnesförening. Skellefteå museum. Meddelande

XLVII 1985.

• Halén, O. Sedentariness during the Stone Age of Northern Sweden in the light of the

Alträsket site, C. 5000 B.C., and the comb ware site Lillberget c. 3900 B.C. Source

Critical Problems of Representativity in Archaeology. Acta Archaeologica Lundensia.

Series in 4:o. No. 20. Stockholm 1994. 1-163.

• Hiekkanen, M. 1984. Otlitsitelnnye osbennosti postroek tipa madeneva.

otnosjastsihsja k manennomy veku. Novoe v apheologi CCCP i Finljandii. Nauka.

Ljeningrad.

• Karjalainen, Taisto 1996a. Outokumpu Sätös ja Orov Navolok 16, talo 3.

Muinaistutkija 1/1996. Helsinki.

• Kotivuori, Hannu. Kivikauden asumuksia Peräpohjolassa - vertailuja ja rakenteellisia

tulkintoja. Selviytyjät. Näyttely Pohjoisen ihmisen sitkeydestä. Lapin

maakuntamuseon julkaisuja 7. 1993

• Leskinen, Sirpa 2002. The Late Neolithic House at Rusavierto. In Helena Ranta (ed.).

Huts and Houses. Stone Age and Early Metal Age Buildings in Finland. National

Board of Antiquites. Helsinki

• Muurimäki, Eero 1995. Saarijärven museon kivikauden kylän rakennusennallistukset -

teoreettista taustaa. Muinaistutkija 2/1995. Suomen arkeologinen seura r.y. Helsinki

1995. s. 3-11.

• Muurimäki, Eero 2007. Stone Age Village in Saarijärvi - an Overview. Vilkuna, Janne,

Taavitsainen, Jussi-Pekka and Heiskanen, Virpi (ed). IV Mittnordiska arkeologidagar

Saarijärvi 14.-16. Juni 2007. Keski-Suomi 20. Säynätsalo. s. 91 -112.

• Pälsi, Sakari 1916. Kulttuurikuvia kivikaudelta. Otava. Helsinki

• Pälsi, Sakari 1918. Kaivaus Pitkäjärven kivikautisella asuinpaikalla Räisälässä v.

1915. Suomen Museo XXV. Helsinki 1918.

• Räihälä, Oili 1997. Kuoppatalon ”merkitys”. Muinaistutkija 4/1997. Helsinki

• Seitsonen, Oula 2006. Räisälä Pitkäjärvi revisited – new interpretations of the

dwelling remains. Arkeologipäivät 2005. Suomen arkeologinen seura Hamina 2006.

• Sepänmaa, Timo 1987. Saarijärven museon kivikauden kylä. Saarijärven museon

kivikauden kylän opasjulkaisu. Saarijärven museon julkaisuja 1. Paavon paino ky.