Hidden and Remote: New Perspectives on the People in the Levänluhta Water Burial, Western Finland (<i>c.</i><scp>ad</scp>300–800)

Wessman, Anna; Alenius, Teija; Holmqvist, Elisabeth; Mannermaa, Kristiina; Perttola, Wesa; Sundell, Tarja; Vanhanen, Santeri

doi:10.1017/eaa.2017.84

Cited by 9 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Prior to this, domestic fowl are not dominant within assemblages; rather, they are seen as high status commodities. Current evidence places the introduction of G. gallus in Finland to the 8 th century CE (Ukkonen & Mannermaa 2017;Wessman et al 2018). For northern Scotland and the Scottish Isles the introduction of domestic fowl is later than the rest of Britain (Serjeantson 1988).…”

Section: Domesticatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Birds in Medieval Norway

2019

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Whilst modern avian distributions in Scandinavia are well studied, how past events and processes have shaped modern bird communities in the region remains poorly known. This is mainly due to the fact that work on post-glacial avian assemblages has been done mostly from an archaeological perspective, and on a site-specific basis. Therefore, in order to understand the history of bird species in Scandinavia, there is a clear need to collate data on the past occurrences and abundance of birds within the region. Here we present data on the presence of bird species within 21 Norwegian Medieval (1030-1537 CE) assemblages. Despite climatic fluctuations and the rise of urban centres, our re-examination and compilation of bird bone assemblages from Medieval Norway found no evidence to suggest that the Medieval bird fauna differed from the modern one. The most common birds in Medieval assemblages are Galliformes. In urban sites these are mostly domestic fowl, whereas on rural sites wild species are dominant. Our data indicates an introduction of domestic fowl in the early Medieval period and a slightly delayed introduction of domestic geese, with both species becoming more abundant during the mid to late Medieval period. This appears to be later than other Scandinavian countries. Interestingly, species that are now ubiquitous in urban areas, such as pigeons, corvids and gulls are mostly absent from Medieval urban centres. In addition, we found a bias towards the use of female Accipiter gentilis in falconry, while Falco species may have been exported. This is the first time that data on past avian occurrences for any period are reviewed and collated for Norway. In addition, our work highlights the importance of birds and bird exploitation in Medieval Norway.

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Section: Domesticatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Birds in Medieval Norway

2019

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“…Field cultivation in Ostrobothnia is proven at around AD 600 [58] paralleling the observation of permanent and manured cultivation at 64˚N latitude in Northern Sweden from around AD 480 onward [59], also located 30 km inland. In the vicinity of Levänluhta, the first sporadic occurrences of Hordeum (barley) and Secale (rye) pollen are observed from around AD 690 onward [22]. The recent study of Levänluhta and Käldamäki burials [22] proves contemporaneous animal husbandry within the area, as bones of domesticated animals were found.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 94%

“…In the vicinity of Levänluhta, the first sporadic occurrences of Hordeum (barley) and Secale (rye) pollen are observed from around AD 690 onward [22]. The recent study of Levänluhta and Käldamäki burials [22] proves contemporaneous animal husbandry within the area, as bones of domesticated animals were found. Thus, there are inarguable signs of agriculture within the area.…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 94%

“…Quantitative understanding of dietary habits allows for estimating the influences of both marine and freshwater reservoir effects within the measured radiocarbon dates. Archaeologically, the Levänluhta water burial has been estimated to span from AD 300 to AD 800 [19,22]. Radiocarbon analyses and reservoir-effect corrections based on isotopic evidence (Table 3), and subsequent Bayesian chronological modelings (Table 4, S7 Appendix) prove this long human timeline ranging through centuries.…”

Section: Levänluhta Timelinementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The boundaries include the cortical bone own age correction of 18 ± 5 years [48] and thus the values reflect the moments when the burial activity has started/ended. � Archaeological datings, assumed to correspond to the median ages, were adopted from the literatur [19,22].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

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Buried in water, burdened by nature—Resilience carried the Iron Age people through Fimbulvinter

et al. 2020

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Levä nluhta is a unique archaeological site with the remains of nearly a hundred Iron Age individuals found from a water burial in Ostrobothnia, Finland. The strongest climatic downturn of the Common Era, resembling the great Fimbulvinter in Norse mythology, hit these people during the 6 th century AD. This study establishes chronological, dietary, and livelihood synthesis on this population based on stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic and radiocarbon analyses on human remains, supported by multidisciplinary evidence. Extraordinarily broad stable isotopic distribution is observed, indicating three subgroups with distinct dietary habits spanning four centuries. This emphasizes the versatile livelihoods practiced at this boundary of marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems. While the impact of the prolonged cold darkness of the 6 th century was devastating for European communities relying on cultivation, the broad range of livelihoods provided resilience for the Levä nluhta people to overcome the abrupt climatic decline.

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Re‐analysis of the Levänluhta skeletal material: Sex and stature estimation of individuals in an Iron Age water burial in Finland

Maijanen

Junno

Mannermaa

et al. 2021

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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Levänluhta, an Iron Age water burial site in Finland, and its material consisting of commingled skeletal remains and artifacts, has been studied by several researchers over the past 100 years, resulting in multiple interpretations of the people and the site. Previous skeletal analyses have concluded that the majority of the individuals represented in the remains were females and children and were of relatively short stature, so possibly nutritionally deprived. This study re‐analyzed the commingled adult human remains with updated methods. The methods applied in this study to estimate sex and stature were based on more representative European reference samples than the previously applied methods. The methods included morphology, osteometrics, and computed tomography (CT) scans. Our results indicated that depending on the reference data, the majority of the individual adult bones including os coxae (73%, n = 45) and long bones (humerus 83%–89%, n = 52; radius 72%–89%, n = 47; ulna 50%–65%, n = 58; femur 92%–100%, n = 25; tibia 77%–85%, n = 26) were classified as females based on their size and morphology. The cross‐sectional bone properties of humerii, femora, and tibiae visualized using CT scanning also supported these findings. However, the cranial morphology did not show as clear female‐biased sex ratio as other methods (42% females, 33% males, 24% undetermined, n = 33). In females, the mean stature based on the tibia (155.3 cm, n = 10) was within the range of the coeval European females and did not necessarily indicate nutritional deprivation, which is in line with previously published stable isotope findings from the site. The mean stature based on the tibia suggested that the Levänluhta males were short (164.0 cm, n = 3), but final interpretations were limited due to the small number of male individuals. The current study affirmed that the Levänluhta skeletal assemblage was female biased and gave new insights into interpretation of the stature.

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Hidden and Remote: New Perspectives on the People in the Levänluhta Water Burial, Western Finland (c.ad300–800)

Cited by 9 publications

References 18 publications

Birds in Medieval Norway

Birds in Medieval Norway

Buried in water, burdened by nature—Resilience carried the Iron Age people through Fimbulvinter

Re‐analysis of the Levänluhta skeletal material: Sex and stature estimation of individuals in an Iron Age water burial in Finland

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