Why not write something for those who scratched out improbable livings here? Someone has managed to sow This broken field with stones, it appears, Autumn - SYDNEY LEA
Meilahti
A pile of old rocks
If you walk from the north exit of Kuulosaari metro, then head west along the road that runs parallel to the train tracks, you might notice a small path that leads up to the ridge on your left. Let your eyes wander up the path and you’ll see the thick chains and granite posts that protect a burial cairn built around 3000 years ago during the Finnish Bronze age.
Let’s stop and think about that for a moment, because it’s easy to skim past dates without much thought. Imagine the oldest person you know. Now imagine their grandparents. Imagine how life was different for them: their jobs, their possessions, their hobbies. Well you’re probably only imagining life four or five generations ago. Now keep going back another hundred generations, the hands of the clock spinning backward, suns rising in the west and setting in the east, the trees around you shrinking back down to saplings, then seedlings, then being replaced by other, former, giant trees. Imagine this repeating itself over and over, over a million sunsets, back through the world wars, through the French Revolution, past Da Vinci painting the Mona Lisa, the life of Genghis Khan, The Crusades in the middle east, back past even the ruin and rise of the Roman Empire. Before all those seismic events in world history, around 3000 years ago, someone stood in this very place, next to these same rocks, with the same wind on their face, and looked out on the land as we might.
There are four of these cairns remaining in the Helskinki region. Visiting them, we have an amazing opportunity to step into the shoes of a bronze age local. Who was this person standing here? Why was he here? What did he look like? What was he wearing? Were his hands and toes also cold? Was his nose running? Was he too watching flocks of waxwings spook, alight and swirl in the air before settling to eat the rowan berries? Was his old, deaf dog sniffing around the rocks? Could he see boats down in the bay? Was one of them his? Did he live on this island (for there were no bridges then) or was this a seasonal visit? Was he getting ready to leave for the winter? Did he come up here to say goodbye? Was he alone? Was he a she?
Though we may not be able to answer with certainty all the questions we have, we can use the evidence we do have to create an image of this world in our minds. We can piece together the Bronze Age lifestyle and then re-imagine our predecessor friend and the life they lived.
Sorsavuorenpuisto
Not so simple times
There are four remaining burial cairns in the Helsinki region, one in Meilahti, two in Herttoniemi and one on Kulosaari. Each is a pile of some 100 watermelon-sized rocks piled on bare bedrock overlooking the coast. All of them have been dated to the Finnish Bronze age, around 3500 years ago. This takes us back to prehistoric times. Not quite Fred Flintstone, but certainly pre-Roman. It’s easy to think of them as simple times. In many ways they were. Hunting and gathering were still vital and fishing certainly so. There may have also been longer seasonal excursions to find game, perhaps in the north, but largely the nomadic lifestyle had long been replaced by farming and permanent settlements. Crops were grown, mostly barley but also wheat, rye and beans as well as flax and hemp for cloth. The diet would have been made up of game and fish, grains made into breads and porridge, and berries and other plants foraged from the forest and coast. Animals were also kept but would have only been killed for special occasions. Dogs were also essential members of the family used for hunting and protection. The most complex technology would have been bronze made into weapons or ornaments. But largely tools would still have been stone, flint, bone or antler. Some people would have had a specialist trade such as carpentry or metalwork. The working day would have been determined by the sun, with long, dark winter nights dimly lit by fires, wicks and oil lamps.
Bronze axe heads would have been the height of technology at the time and perhaps used sparingly or even ceremoniously. Photo courtesy of Finnish Heritage Agency
Bronze axe heads would have been the height of technology at the time and perhaps used sparingly or even ceremoniously. Photo courtesy of Finnish Heritage Agency Clothes (trousers, shirts and dresses) would have been woven from wool and animal skins would have been vital in these climes. Both men and women would have decorated themselves with jewellery. As for religion, our Bronze Age friend was polytheistic and different spirits from the natural world would have respected for their powers. Pendants in the form of elk or fish, or bears claws, were treasured for their positive qualities. Water was key to mythology as can be seen from the proximity to lakes and coasts of rock paintings and cairns, as well as by offerings placed in waterlogged areas. People were even buried with boats to aid their journey to the land of the dead, believed also to be on the bed of a river.
However, thinking of these people as primitive is much like the city dweller thinking himself superior to the farmer. These were a people with a quite remarkable understanding of the natural world they lived among. Each tree or plant would have been recognised and its uses known, be it for food, materials, medicines or forecasts. They, without the use of metal, could make tools that worked, bows and arrows that killed, nets that caught, boats that sailed, pots that boiled and homes that sheltered. They made roads for their carts and tamed animals for work and food. They withstood the cold extremes that this part of the world is renowned for and brought into it healthy happy babies. They not only survived, they thrived. They were so successful that they could afford to trade their valuable resources for luxuries brought at great expense from thousands of kilometres away. These were a people that was master of its landscape. Our friend next to the rocks was not eking out a living, he was doing just fine.
Herttoniemi
A globalised world
It’s also wrong to think of this area as isolated, a wintry outpost in the north. These islands, these people, were connected to huge trading networks that ran not just over the Baltic, but all over the continent. The demand for metals had driven the expansion of already existing trade routes and itinerant salesmen travelled vast distances to buy and sell precious objects. These objects would have been highly prized and a sign of great prestige obtained at great cost, perhaps in exchange for the prized Baltic amber or animal furs. The sea was key; the highway of these times. Boats were made with incredible skill, from tree to sea-going craft with at most simple bronze axes and without nails but rather pieced together like jigsaws and sewn with twine. With these boats coastal areas and rivers as far away as the middle east could be connected, sharing goods, information, skills and stories.
Vuosaari
Down on the shore
The obvious thing about these cairns is that they all overlook the sea. What is less obvious is that the sea level was dramatically higher in those times. The Finnish land mass has been rising like bread dough ever since it was freed from the weight of the great glaciers after the last ice age. The south coast still rises several millimetres per year and back when these cairns were built they would have been right on the water’s edge. The land too would have been almost unrecognisable. Half of modern day Kulosaari would have been been underwater and Herttoniemi would have been a skinny peninsula, the easternmost cairn would have even been on the mainland but stranded on an island 500 metres offshore.
The above image transitions between modern day Kuulosaari and Herttoniemi, and the form of the islands as they would have appeared in the Bronze-Age.
The three cairns on Kuulosaari and In Herttoniemi. When we project the higher Bronze-Age sea levels we can see all three sit right on the water's edge and the Sorsanvuoropuisto cairn is adrift on an island. The Melahti cairn would have held a much more prominent position in the bronze age. That makes the construction of these monuments even more impressive. These rocks are just about big enough for one person to carry, but to do that maybe 100 times, maybe more, to an island. This was a big undertaking. Probably done by many people. A big undertaking and an important one.
A comparison between the land forms of modern day and Bronze-Age Meilahti. Could these cairns be signposts, similar to lighthouses? Perhaps, but these were people with an intense and intimate knowledge of the land and sea. Each tree and rock would have served as a signpost for them, each change in the currents and blow of the wind would have helped them navigate. Could they be burial or cremation monuments? Perhaps. Bone was found at the Meilahti cairn, and there was evidence of burning at all four. But even so, that was likely only part of their purpose. They are, after all, constructed on bare bedrock. Hardly ideal for burials. I think we must look at the context. These cairns were built in changing times. New technologies such as the arrival of bronze and established farming techniques had allowed new lifestyles to develop. The nomadic hunter gatherer had gone, his territory fixed, the population was growing and land was now of a premium. Prize real-estate, such as along the Helsinki coast, would have attracted many the envious eye. These cairns were more than practical, they were huge statements, built on bare rock that would have stood out from the forested land as bold as the break of day. They were something built to be seen by anyone sailing nearby. They may have served as boundary markers, but also much more than this. These huge works were the Arc de Triomphe of their day, a gatehouse with a family coat of arms and banners proudly on display. These cairns were the deeds to this area, the proof of relatives past that legitimised your claim to control this land, its waters and all they produce. These cairns say: “Here I am. I am here. My ancestors too.” As I look out over these rocks, mostly cold, the dog waiting for a sign that we are moving on, I see our friend here too. This must have been a magical place, it still is. And our bronze age friend was a truly accomplished person, proud of his ancestors' work, comfortable in his world.
Comments