Burial
Burial has changed a bit throughout the ages. New methods have been introduced by migrating people and they've been mixed with the old methods, creating completely new ones. On this page I will go through every single burial method from the stone ages to the iron ages. Most of the methods have been used across all the time periods, but each period has a common method used during that era. There is one thing that is present in every single burial method, and that is items in the grave for the afterlife. I do not have pictures of most of the methods, but once I do, I will update the page. This also does not go super in depth, I describe every method as much as I can to be able to understand the basics of the method.
During the iron age when an item was placed in a grave with the deceased, it could've been intentionally broken. Why they did this, we don't really know, but there's many great theories. They could've done this to stop people from robbing the grave, make the items unusable. The ancient Finns believed the afterlife was like our world but upside down/inside out, so maybe the items had to be broken to be usable in the afterlife while they had to be intact in our world. The last theory is that when you broke the item, you released its spirit. This allowed the item to travel with the deceased to the afterlife. Not always did they break the items, but it was common.
Body burial
The most common burial method of the stone age was a body burial. A hole would be dug into the ground in the size of a body, and the body would be placed inside it along with items the deceased could use in the afterlife. The body could've been covered with some sort of textile or tree bark. On the bottom of the hole, an animal pelt or moss could be put. In some of the graves, there could be wooden walls or a coffin made out of big flat stones. Some body graves have been found, where the body is on the surface and just covered with stones or soil. Usually only one body was buried in this method, but there could be graves with several people. A very uncommon and rare burial was found in Levänluhta, where hundreds of bodies were buried in a pond. This is one of the two water burials ever found in Finland.
Usage: Stone age and iron age
Burial mound
A rare type of burial method in Finland. The mound was either made out of rocks and soil, or just soil. The body was underneath the soil along with items, and both the body and items could be burned as well. The body or ashes were either on the surface or inside a shallow hole. This burial method was taken from Scandinavia.
Usage: Iron age
Ash burial
I couldn't come up with a better name for this, it's called a ''palokuoppahauta'' in Finnish. It is a small hole where the burned remains of a corpse is placed. Either the items for the deceased were burned with the body, or were placed whole into the hole with the ashes. The ashes could've been put on a flat stone and the hole could've also been covered with a flat stone. The hole was then covered with soil. Many of these holes could be in the same place for individual people. If the ashes were in some kind of vessel, you could call it an urn burial. If rocks were piled on top of the ashes, it would be a burial heap (read below).
Usage: Bronze age, iron age
Burial ground
Again, couldn't really come up with a better name. In Finnish it is called a ''polttokenttäkalmisto''.
The burial ground consisted of rocks that had been placed on the surface either in the shape of a ring or nonstructural and randomly. If they were in a ring, there could've been smaller rocks in the center of it. Sometimes there were just a few rocks, or even no rocks at all. The body was burned along with items, and the ashes scattered across the burial ground. The ash mixed with the soil and the rocks. The same burial ground was used for hundreds of years for many generations and the whole tribe, so it is impossible to determine single graves and bodies. This was the most common burial method of the iron age.
Usage: Iron age
Iron age burial ground, notice the ring of rocks
Stone coffin
The stone coffin was made out of flat, big stones. Some stone coffins even had a lid made out of stone or wood. During the stone age, the body was put into the coffin without burning it. Items were put inside the coffin with the body. During the bronze age, the coffin was used as an inner structure of a burial heap. During this period, the body could also be burned. During the iron age, the coffin was dug into a hole in the ground. The body was placed intact into the coffin, with many offerings and items for the afterlife. The coffin was then covered with soil.
Usage: Stone-, bronze and iron age.
Burial heap
Another method I couldn't find a better name for, we call it ''hautaröykkiö'' in Finland. This was the most common burial method of the bronze age. The burial heap on the surface looks just like a well structured pile of rocks, and they can be fairly tall and very wide. Graves up to twenty meters wide have been found. You would recognize a bronze age grave very well outside in nature, they look pretty monumental. These were usually built close to the shore and/or high up on a hill. The body was burned, and the ashes placed either inside a shallow hole or the surface. Items the deceased could use in the afterlife were placed with the ashes. On top of the remains, they would then place several rocks into a pile. The body did not have to be burned, body burials were also done. Sometimes there was an inner structure underneath the pile where the body or ashes were placed, this inner structure was a stone coffin (read above).
I'll put another method under the same title, since it is similar. An iron age burial heap mainly made out of soil, but also has a few rocks. Sometimes it has border rocks around the heap. Like the iron age burial ground, the body was burned and ashes scattered on the surface. The area was then covered with rocks and soil. Also here you cannot determine single graves, since all the remains are mixed with each other.
Usage: Bronze age (Iron age)
Bronze age burial heaps
Graveyard
Most names are really hard to translate into English, the name in Finnish is ''tarhahauta'' which would be close to yard grave or garden grave. Rocks are placed into the shape of a rectangle, and is usually two meters long and one meter wide. A hole was dug inside the rectangle and the body was placed without burning inside the hole along with items. The body was covered with soil, and sometimes rocks as well so the inside of the rectangle was filled. Sometimes the body was burned and then placed inside the hole. These graves usually have one or two people buried, but there could be several graves linked together to form a sort of chain.
Usage: Iron age
Underneath all the grass and plantation, there are rectangles made from rocks
Here you see a picture of a chain of graves
Boat burial
A very rare burial method in Finland, it was perhaps reserved for very important people. We all know about the boat burials the Scandinavians did. There are two types of boat burials in Finland, one where you burn an actual boat with the corpse inside and one where you make the shape of a boat with rocks.
Boat burning: The boat was burned with the body and items inside, and then the ashes were gathered and scattered in a burial ground. It is hard to determine this kind of burial, since the ashes are scattered in a burial ground. Some researchers say that fifty nails among the ashes are enough to call it a boat burial, and some say that a hundred is enough. Nails could also be from a coffin or other structure. The remains of a broken boat could also have been used in a burial pyre where a body was burned, and this way nails would be among the ashes.
Rock boat: Rocks were placed into the shape of a boat. The body and items were burned and scattered inside the boat. Some graves have rocks thrown on top of the ashes, and some graves have no rocks.
A boat could have symbolized a journey to the afterlife.
A boat shape made out of rocks