Finland in northern Europe is one of our homeschool countries-of-the-week, so why not spend a few minutes today learning about one of Finland’s World Heritage Sites: the Bronze Age Burial Site of Sammallahdenmäki.
The Sammallahdenmäki site in Finland is one of the largest Bronze Age burial complexes in northern Europe:
Situated on the Gulf of Bothnia, the Bronze Age Burial Site of Sammallahdenmäki forms the largest, most varied and complete burial site from the Scandinavian Bronze Age, 1500–500 B.C. The site includes 33 burial cairns within an area of 36 ha. The cairns are disposed in several distinct clusters along the crests and upper slopes of a long ridge. Out of eight excavated cairns, six can be dated to the Bronze Age and two to the Early Iron Age.
Stone burial cairns were typical for western Bronze Age culture. These cairns were usually constructed of granite boulders quarried from the cliff face below the crest of the ridge or collected from the site itself. The cairns can be classified into several different groups according to their shapes and sizes. Sammallahdenmäki also contains two unusual structures: one oval and elongated structure, which seems to have been enlarged in successive stages, and a large quadrangular cairn, known as the “Church Floor,” which is unique in Finland and extremely rare in Scandinavia. The cairns have no earth fill, and form landmarks on cliffs and gravel hillocks with an extensive view of the sea.
The cairns relate to a new religion, sun worship, which spread to the coastal regions of Finland from Scandinavia, and they have been a manifestation of kin group land ownership, which is thought to have appeared with the introduction of farming.
Situated in a rugged, rocky landscape, the cairns bear exceptional witness to the social and religious structures of northern Europe, dating back to more than three millennia. The ancient coastline is still present on the cliffs of Sammallahdenmäki. (World Heritage Centre #579)
You can find a gallery of additional photos of the Bronze Age Burial Site of Sammallahdenmäki on the World Heritage Centre’s website.
World Heritage Sites are cultural or natural landmarks of international significance, selected for recognition by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. More than 1000 such sites have been recognized in over 160 countries, and we feature one every Wednesday, drawn from one of our homeschool countries-of-the-week. You can find a complete list of World Heritage Sites online at the World Heritage Centre and in Wikipedia.
The World Heritage Centre also has a free and comprehensive World Heritage education kit for teachers, as well as a wonderful full-color wall map of World Heritage Sites, available for the cost of shipping. Why not add them both to your own homeschool library. 🗺
What world treasures are you exploring in your homeschool this Orion Term? 😊
❡ Books in the running brooks: You can always turn to your River Houses almanac, atlas, and history encyclopedia for more information about any of our countries-of-the-week. The almanac has profiles of all the nations of the world on pages 752–859; the endpapers of the atlas are indexes that will show you where all of the individual national and regional maps may be found; the history encyclopedia includes national histories on pages 489–599; and you can find additional illustrations, flags, and other mentions through the indexes in each of these volumes. For an ideal little lesson, just write the name of the Weekly World Heritage Site on your homeschool bulletin board, find its location in your atlas, read the WHC’s brief description aloud, look at a picture or two, and you’re done. Over the course of the year, without even realizing it, your students will absorb a wealth of new historical, geographical, and cultural information. 🇫🇮
❡ The great globe itself: This is one of our regular Homeschool States & Countries posts featuring historical and natural sites of international importance. Download a copy of our River Houses World Heritage Calendar and follow along with us as we tour the planet, and add your name to our weekly mailing list to get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 🌍
