Distribution of Corded Ware in the Areas North of the Gulf of Finland – An Update

Abstract

Research of the Corded Ware phenomenon in the areas north of the Gulf of Finland has been scanty during the last several decades, and consequently outdated views, distribution maps, and numbers of finds still prevail. This paper aims to update data on the distribution of Corded Ware in Finland and Karelia (Russia), and to discuss the results in the context of the old research tradition, and to highlight some aspects of the northern Corded Ware. The current data shows that there are ca 360 Corded Ware settlement sites, 30 burial sites and over 1300 stray find locations of battle axes in the research area. Contrary to much of Europe the areas north of the Gulf of Finland accommodate a large amount of settlement sites but only a few burials. No singular reason for this can be pointed out but the most likely explanations include modest later land use at the locations, factors related to archaeological visibility and research methods, and also to local Corded Ware cultural practices. Despite certain shortcomings the northern Corded Ware material is exceptional and holds a great potential for further studies of the phenomenon, especially its domestic sphere and everyday practices.

On the scent of an animal skin: new evidence on Corded Ware mortuary practices in Northern Europe

“…Artefact distributions show that the core area of Corded Ware settlement was in southern and western Finland (Figure 1). In contrast to the evidence from other regions, Finnish Corded Ware was also associated with large numbers of settlement sites, which are often found in the locations of Early Neolithic ( c. 5200–3900 cal BC) hunter-gatherer settlements (Äyräpää 1923: 26–27; Edgren 1984: 75; Nordqvist & Häkälä 2014).…”

Tracing grog and pots to reveal Neolithic Corded Ware Culture contacts in the Baltic Sea region (SEM-EDS, PIXE)

“…Both the pottery and battle axes exhibit stylistic elements peculiar to Baltoscandia (Larsson, 2009: 139-152;Lindström, 2003). People in the areas surrounding the Gulf of Finland were obviously in close contact during this period (Carpelan, 2004(Carpelan, , 2006Kriiska, 2000Kriiska, , 2009Lang and Kriiska, 2007;Mökkönen, 2008Mökkönen, , 2011Nordqvist, 2016;Nordqvist and Häkälä, 2014). It has been suggested that the CWC first spread to East Sweden from Finland, rather than from Denmark or Poland, as was previously assumed (Larsson, 2008(Larsson, , 2009.…”

The advance of cultivation at its northern European limit: Process or event?

“…Animal husbandry does not necessarily involve cultivation, which explains the absence of indications of cultivation from our pollen data, and why it is not visible in our population size estimate either. Moreover, there is a lack of any archaeological evidence for cultivation by CW people (Nordqvist and Häkälä, 2014), although Siiriäinen (1980) argued that their lack of hunting-related tools could indicate a subsistence based on something other than hunting. The first, modest indication for cultivation in the pollen spd dates to Kiukainen Culture (mean approximately 1500 BC).…”