The Archaeology of Human–Animal Relations in Nineteenth- to Mid-Twentieth-Century Finland: Horse Burials and Cemeteries in Agrarian Landscapes

Abstract

One of the most crucial issues in the study of human–animal relations is the power of humans over animal death and how it has been processed culturally by the ways animal carcasses have been treated. In this article, the post-domestic phase in human–animal relations is entered by investigating the burial of working horses in the Finnish countryside during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Toward that end, 115 horse burials, 134 cemeteries, and 61 death places or kill sites were examined through interviews with local people, and a search of literature and place names. Six burial sites were excavated and several sites surveyed in the field. The locations of all sites were analyzed with historical maps. As a result, we consider that animal graves form a significant group of historical monuments that show great variability and are associated with past land use and human–animal relations.