Sometimes the most intriguing finds are the smallest ones. The miniature clay figurines made by the neolithic stone-age seal hunting population on the Åland islands around 4 000 + years ago offer a journey into the animistic mindset of our stone-age ancestors but also tests the limits of Scientific Archaeology itself.
In the very early 20th century Finnish archaeologist Björn Cederhvarf made a series of excavations of the Jettböle site on Åland and found many strange clay artefacts until then unknown to the archaeological community. Named "Clay Idols" because of their supposed use in rituals the use of these items have been debated ever since.
Sensational new finds of several fragments of these kind of "Idols" from the Ge 16.9 site situated in Geta in the N. part of the Åland islands in July 2021 may finally shed light on the use of these strange and intriguing items.
Head fragent of a "Jettböle Type" clay figurine found in July 2021 during community archaeology excavations of the Geta 16.9 site. First photo version Marjo Karppanen.
The Scientific research of the newly discovered figurines has only just started and will be done in co-operation with local archaeologist and PhD researcher MA Jenni Lucenius (University of Turku) . In 2022 and in the years to come more archaeological excavations will be conducted on the site. The community archaeology excavations are supervised by PhD resarchers MA Jan Fast and MA Janne Soisalo (University of Helsinki) with funding fom MEDIS (Mariehamns Medborgarinstitut).
We can not thank the staff of "Ålands Museum" and especially archaeologists Jan Storå and Niklas Stenbäck enough for making our research of the stone-age of the Åland islands possible. A very special thanks goes out to Siv Ekström MEDIS (Mariehamns Medborgarinstitut) who believed in our idea of starting community archaeology excavations on the Åland Islands
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