Late Iron Age Silver Deposit Found At Nanguniemi,Inari, Finland

Siida ^ | 9-25-2003

[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.

[opbuzz]

Actually the Sami (or Lapps) dress like that fairly often. Never saw one with a leather hat, though.

I was in Inari and Kuusamo last August. Never found any silver neck rings though.

[wafflehouse]

indexing...

[wafflehouse]

ping for you..

[Plutarch]

Seppo Saraspää

What are all these Japanese people do in Finland?

[blam]

"What are all these Japanese people do in Finland?"

Ainu perhaps?

[aruanan]

"silver deposit" is a bad term to use when they're talking about finding a stash of silver artifacts.

[blam]

""silver deposit" is a bad term to use when they're talking about finding a stash of silver artifacts."

I agree. My first thought was that they had found an old mine.

[Rebelbase]

"What a dope. He should have taken them himself and sold them. Now the government will get the dough."

Nah, this way we all get to see them.

[Willie Green]

My first thought was that they had found an old mine.

There were a few other instance of awkward phrasing, so I'm guessing that the English translation was written by a Finn.

I gotta admit, I'd be tempted to rub those rings with a little silver polish to brighten 'em up some. But I suppose the archaeologists would probably frown on that.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks, wafflehouse, for adding this to GGG in 2003. Thanks, Blam, for starting it in the first place. But it never got strapped into the electronic ping accelerator and fired off toward multiple targets. This oversight is now corrected. ;')

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on, off, or alter the "Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list --
Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
The GGG Digest -- Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)

[SunkenCiv]

Just updating the GGG information, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. Thanks.

Please FREEPMAIL me if you want on or off the
"Gods, Graves, Glyphs" PING list or GGG weekly digest
-- Archaeology/Anthropology/Ancient Cultures/Artifacts/Antiquities, etc.
Gods, Graves, Glyphs (alpha order)