NEW DISCOVERIES ON THE

• Main Authors: Mare Kõiva, Andres Kuperjanov, Väino Poikalainen, Enn Ernits, Tatiana Popova
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Onega; karelian
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.580.9889; http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol18/oleni_is.pdf

One of the most remarkable Mesolithic monuments in North-East-ern Europe is the prehistoric Karelian burial ground on the south-ern Oleni Island in Lake Onega. The burial ground of Oleni Island was discovered while opening a limestone quarry in 1936, which ruined the cemetery considerably. During 1936–1938 an expedition led by V. Ravdonikas conducted extensive excavation works in the area (Ravdonikas 1940; Zhirov 1940). In 1939 the excavation materials were transferred to the Peter I Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Acad-emy of Sciences (Kunstkamera), where they are preserved to the present day as an invaluable treasure of Russian archaeology.1 Archaeological (Ravdonikas 1956; Gurina 1956) and paleontological (Debets 1948; Gurina 1956; Yakimov 1960) material on this remark-able Early Holocene necropolis has become world-famous and open to research. During the last decades numerous interesting Mesolithic and Neolithic settlements have been found in the north and north-east-