Preservation of microscopic fur, feather, and bast fibers in the Mesolithic ochre grave of Majoonsuo, Eastern Finland

Abstract

The study of animal and plant fibers related to grave furnishing, garments, and grave goods in thousands-of-year-old burials provides new insights into these funerary practices. Their preservation presupposes favorable conditions, where bacterial and fungal activity is at a minimum, as in anaerobic, wet, salty, arid, or frozen environments. The extreme acidic-soil environments (i.e., podzols) of Finland pose a challenge when it comes to studying funerary deposits, as human remains are rarely found. However, its potential to preserve microparticles allows us to approach the funerary event from a totally different point of view. Here, we present the first multiproxy analyses of a Mesolithic deposit from Finland. A red-ochre burial of a child found in Majoonsuo is studied by analyzing 1) microscopic fibers, 2) fatty acids, and 3) physical-chemical (CIELab color, pH, grain size) properties of 60 soil samples and associated materials. The microscopic fibers evidenced the remains of waterfowl downy feathers, a falcon feather fragment, canid and small rodent hairs as well as bast fibers. These could have been used in furnishing the grave and as ornaments or clothes. Canid hairs could belong to a dog inhumation, or more likely to canid fur used as grave good/clothes. Samples with microparticles have more long-chain and unsaturated fatty acids, although animal species identification was not possible. Soil properties indicate that the burial was made in the local soil, adding homogeneous red ochre and removing the coarser material; no bioturbation was found. The highly acidic sandy soil, together with a slight increase in finer particles when ochre is abundant, probably resulted in micro-scale, anoxic conditions that prevented bacterial attack. This study reveals the first animal hairs and feathers from a Finnish Mesolithic funerary context, and provides clues about how their preservation was possible.

Two microparticle analyses of Stone Age quartz tools in Finland

“…In Finland, the preservation of fibres in Stone Age contexts has been discussed along the Majoonsuo red ochre burial case (Kirkinen et al 2022). In this study, it was proven that the addition of red ochre (iron oxides) to the burial pit changed the chemical properties of the soil by increasing its acidity, changing the dominant charge of the soil particles, and also by increasing the content of the finer particles.…”

“…The search for microparticles in soil samples (Äyräpää 1931;Ahola et al 2018;Kirkinen et al 2022) and on the surfaces of quartz artefacts (Kirkinen et al 2023, this volume) have provided evidence that less than 1-mm-long remains of soft organic materials such as hairs, plant fibres and feathers can be preserved in Stone Age contexts in Finland.…”