Animal remains from Saami offering places:glimpses of human-animal relations from Finnish Lapland AD 1000–1900

• Main Authors: Núñez, M. (Milton), Äikäs, T. (Tiina), Aspi, J. (Jouni), Eriksson, G. (Gunilla), Heino, M. (Matti), Lidén, K. (Kerstin), Oinonen, M. (Markku), Okkonen, J. (Jari), Salmi, A.-K. (Anna-Kaisa)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Archaeological Society of Finland 2020
• Subjects: AMS dates; Finnish Lapland; Saami offering places; human-animal relations; stable isotopes; saami; Lapland
• Online Access: http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe202101151919

Abstract We present the results of 41 AMS and 49 stable isotope determinations of animal bones retrieved at seven Saami offering places or sieiddit from Finnish Lapland. The offered remains are dominated by reindeer, but other wild and domesticated species were also present. AMS dates and artefacts suggest that six of the studied sieiddit were being utilized as offering places by the 13th century, and that votive activity continued with varying intensity until around 1900. The AMS dates and stable isotope analyses of the sieidi bones produced interesting, somewhat unexpected, results that reflect various aspects of human-animal interaction in Finnish Lapland. In addition to information about Finland’s sieidi sites in terms of utilization chronology and the species offered at them, the study provides a major body of new data from animal species that lived in Finnish Lapland during AD 1000–1900.