Birckala 1017

We drove Emma to Lahdesjärvi early in the morning, where she stepped into the car of Liisa's family - they drove girls to Lohja this time. Emma and Liisa will practise with WU16 national team in Kisakallio for four days. 

Soon after it was time to drive to the parking lot of Ikea - I participated to an annual outdoors flea market event that was arranged there. My sister shared her stall with me, also Ilona was part of our selling team. The weather was almost good, it rained a bit, but luckily only a bit. Good amount of people participated to the event and we had nice time there, and also sold some stuff :)

Hubby and I spent our afternoon in Tampere, we visited the Museum Centra Vapriikki among other things. There's a new interesting exhibition called Birckala 1017 - Viking Age Tavastian village in Tursiannotko. The exhibition allows visitors to travel through time and visit a village in Northern Häme a millennium ago. Tursiannotko situates in Pirkkala, where there are archaeological excavations going on also this summer.

The Late Iron Age (800-1200) settlement of Tursiannotko was discovered in 1971. Large scale archaeological excavations on the site started in 2012. The abundance of findings exceed all expectations! Since then, excavations and other archaeological studies have occurred in Tursiannotko in Pirkkala almost every year. Due to the vast extent of the site and the massive number of findings, there will be enough to study for a long time.

The photo is from the exhibition, where this imaginary family is telling stories of their life in the village Tursia in the Viking Age.


Who lived in Tursiannotko?


The people living in Viking Age Tursiannotko were Finnic people, Tavastians who primarily inhabited parts of Finland known as Häme. There were farmers, herders, fishers and hunters. From slave to master, everyone did heavy manual labour. A few might get rich in the fur trade or embark on an adventure on the eastern trade routes. The Tavastians traveled far from home on their hunting and trading trips. They encountered representatives of other ethnic groups, such as the Sami who lived in the forest and lake areas. At the trading places in the archipelago and on the coast, they could run into Viking warriors and traders. The Tavastians themselves, however, were not Vikings.


Tursiannotko excavation report in Finnish



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