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Late Iron Age Silver Deposit Found At Nanguniemi,Inari, Finland
Siida ^ | 9-25-2003

Posted on 10/05/2003 5:01:39 PM PDT by blam

Press release Sep. 25th, 2003 at 2 p.m.

Late Iron Age silver deposit found at Nanguniemi, Inari, Finland

On September 19th, 2003 writer Seppo Saraspää was looking for lichen for his draft reindeer in Nanguniemi in Inari. While climbing on the rocks his eye was caught by something unexpected. At first glance it looked like a snake or a woman's hair holder. Saraspää decided to have a closer look. What he had found was in fact a silver neck-ring. Saraspää looked around and concluded that the ring had fallen down from the small cave above. He peeked inside the cave and noticed that there was still something else left, yet he decided to leave the treasure untouched. Saraspää contacted immediately Tarmo Jomppanen, the director of Sámi Museum Siida, and delivered him the ring that he had found.

Nanguniemi silver treasure in its hiding place before the excavation.

The deposit was researched on September 23rd together with the finder, Seppo Saraspää, museum curator Arja Hartikainen and archaeologist Eija Ojanlatva. Saraspää told the crew that he had seen some birch bark and also something else in the cave. The excavation team took proper documentation equipment and packing materials with them. Looking at the boulders from a distance, it was impossible to tell where the cave was. The big rock above the small hole or a cave was tilted downwards over the hole so that no one could actually see the hole unless bending on one's knees. The cave was perused with a flashlight, and the researchers discovered that there were at least three more neck-rings left. The rings were placed on top of each other over two small stones, and a birch bark plate was placed between the rings and the stones. The rings and the bark were lifted together carefully over a piece of cardboard, and the package was placed to the transportation box. The soil under the rings was collected to a plastic bag in order to examine it later in the museum's lab to ensure that there are no more artefacts to be found. The rings were carefully cleaned from the soil, and the birch bark was stored uncontaminated for the radiocarbon dating.

This silver deposit is the only one so far that has been found from the Inari region. The closest similar silver deposit is from a place called Lämsä in Kuusamo, and it was found in 1953. All the four silver neck-rings on the recent discovery are made from twisted silver wires. The neck-rings are woven so that they narrow towards the ends, and their geometric ornamentation consists mainly of triangular and circular stamps. There are very beautifully curved hooks at the ends of the rings. All of the rings are practically undamaged and very well preserved, only one of the hooks is broken. One of the four rings is different. It has altogether three axe-shaped silver pendants that are symmetrical and decorated by stamps. The silver deposit can be dated to the Late Iron Age, approximately between the 11th and 13th century, according to the typology and other similar silver deposits found from the Northern Finland.

All four silver neck-rings.

Late Iron Age silver treasures are among the most interesting archaeological find types in Northern Scandinavia. From Northern Finland alone there are five known silver deposits, and they are all dated between 1050-1200 AD. Similar silver neck-rings or fragments of them have been found from Tavajärvi and Lämsä in Kuusamo, Aatservainen in Salla and Lohijärvi in Ylitornio. Tavajärvi and Lämsä findings also contain axe-shaped silver pendants. Silver neck-rings have also been found from deposits, or places of sacrifice, in Norway and Sweden. Among these can be mentioned the following sites: Lenvik, Bothamn in Troms and Haukøy in Norway and Unna Sáiva and Karesuando Idivuoma in Sweden.

This exquisite silver pendant is part of the Nanguniemi silver treasure.

The research of Nanguniemi silver deposit has just begun, and thus the interpretation of the find is still open. The fence of the deposit has consciously placed the rings in the cave where they were protected from snow, melting waters, sunlight and, of course, from other people. The site is probably a hiding-place. It lacks bone and antler material, and there are no signs whatsoever of it having been a sacrificial site. At this stage of research it is difficult to tell if the treasure has belonged to a local inhabitant or to a foreign trader in the wilderness. Quite another problem is to define the place or region where the rings have been manufactured. During the Late Iron Age the same kind of silver rings have been used both in east and west, in a region reaching from Estonia and Novgorod to Finland, Sweden and Norway.

After the first announcement of the discovery at the Sámi Museum Siida in Inari the silver rings of Nanguniemi were delivered to the National Board of Antiquities in Helsinki. It is a normal procedure, where the artefacts will be indexed and documented by researches and evaluated by conservators. Sámi Museum Siida has already sent a loan request to the National Board of Antiquities in order to get the silver deposit permanently in their exhibition.

Silversmith Petteri Laiti looking at the Nanguniemi silver pendant at Siida Press Conference on Sep 25th, 2003.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: age; antiquities; archaeology; deposit; discovery; finland; ggg; godsgravesglyphs; history; inari; iron; late; museum; nanguniemi; silver
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1 posted on 10/05/2003 5:01:40 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam
I just love articles like this, thanks for posting.
2 posted on 10/05/2003 5:05:07 PM PDT by Andyman
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To: All
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3 posted on 10/05/2003 5:05:55 PM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: farmfriend
Ping.
4 posted on 10/05/2003 5:07:00 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam
What a dope. He should have taken them himself and sold them. Now the government will get the dough.
5 posted on 10/05/2003 5:11:43 PM PDT by Rodney King (No, we can't all just get along.)
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To: blam
Kind of makes you wonder if the deposit was really a cemetary and the necklaces are the only things left.
6 posted on 10/05/2003 5:13:24 PM PDT by Rodney King (No, we can't all just get along.)
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To: blam
At first glance it looked like a snake or a woman's hair holder.

Without a scale, that first photo looks more like a dead octopus to me. :)

Thanks for the thread, please keep 'em coming.

7 posted on 10/05/2003 5:16:08 PM PDT by xJones
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To: blam
Seppo Saraspää's integrity and respect for history are admirable. Thanks for posting this, blam.
8 posted on 10/05/2003 5:17:43 PM PDT by solzhenitsyn ("Live Not By Lies")
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To: blam
Petteri Laiti is in period dress from the rings' time?
9 posted on 10/05/2003 5:17:50 PM PDT by inPhase
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To: blam
So are there Silver Deposits for the base material yet to be found he asks as visions of the Lost Dutchman Mine dance in his wee little head...
10 posted on 10/05/2003 5:23:20 PM PDT by tubebender (FReeRepublic...How bad have you got it...)
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        Inari

11 posted on 10/05/2003 5:26:30 PM PDT by Consort
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To: blam
Obviously the neck rings were placed there during the last global warming period. My theory is that the owners took them off to go skinny-dipping in the 72 degree ocean water. For some reason they didn't come back for the clothes.
12 posted on 10/05/2003 5:28:05 PM PDT by vger
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To: blam
Are the discovers Sami? Is it suggested these items are from Sami culture?
13 posted on 10/05/2003 5:32:01 PM PDT by truth_seeker
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To: blam
Dude looks like Elton John looking for some new weird get-out.
14 posted on 10/05/2003 5:37:03 PM PDT by djf
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To: truth_seeker
"Are the discovers Sami? Is it suggested these items are from Sami culture?"

The only hint we have of an association with the Sami is that they are going to the Sami museum.

An Introduction To The Sami People

15 posted on 10/05/2003 5:46:32 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam
On September 19th, 2003 writer Seppo Saraspää was looking for lichen for his draft reindeer...

Yeah, me too.

16 posted on 10/05/2003 5:48:47 PM PDT by decimon
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To: djf
"Dude looks like Elton John looking for some new weird get-out."

Ahem, I didn't notice, my attention was on the scholarly looking blonde behind him.

17 posted on 10/05/2003 5:57:42 PM PDT by blam
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To: blam
I admit, that caught my eye as well. The intellectual, quiet type...

;-)
18 posted on 10/05/2003 6:06:29 PM PDT by djf
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To: blam
interesting change of pace.
19 posted on 10/05/2003 6:35:09 PM PDT by rface (Ashland, Missouri)
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To: blam
Re: An Introduction To The Sami People -- Thanks for posting that link, blam. Most interesting!


20 posted on 10/05/2003 6:41:50 PM PDT by solzhenitsyn ("Live Not By Lies")
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