A large fifth-millennium BC cemetery in the subarctic north of the Baltic Sea

Datos Bibliográficos

ID3309674
AutoresA Hakonen (0000-0002-6286-6040, University of Oulu, autor de correspondencia), Noora Perälä (University of Oulu), Samuel Vaneeckhout (University of Oulu), Tuija Laurén, Jari Okkonen (0000-0001-6488-9118, University of Oulu)
Año2023
Volumen97
Número396
Páginas1402-1419
Fecha de publicación2023-12-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAntiquity (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0003-598X • E-ISSN: 1745-1744
EditorialAntiquity Publications (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.15184/aqy.2023.160
OpenAlexW4389241648
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas3
Referencias citadas23

The European far north is an improbable location for a large prehistoric hunter-gatherer cemetery. Tainiaro, 80km south of the Arctic Circle, was first excavated four decades ago but the unpublished findings and their potential significance have evaded wider recognition. Despite the absence of skeletal evidence, dozens of fifth-millennium BC pits have been tentatively interpreted as burials. Here, the authors present the first analytical and comparative overview of the site. Many of the pits are consistent in form with those used for inhumation at contemporaneous sites suggesting that Tainiaro is one of the largest Stone Age cemeteries in northern Europe and raising questions about the cultural and subsistence practices of prehistoric societies in the subarctic

Agriculture · Archaeology · Arctic · Baltic sea · Beaker · Geography · Prehistory · Subarctic climate · Subsistence agriculture · The arctic · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Geology · Indigenous Studies and Ecology · Oceanography · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology