Glada Vappen - Snowy 1st of May..

We woke up in a soft silent world of snow flakes but the flag is up, wet paper streamers by the door and choir music coming from the radio. Yesterday at our local school the pupils made 150 litres sima, mjöd, the famous viking drink of spring-time and delicious doughnuts and sold them at the centre. So the dessert is ready and a party at the Granny's later in the evening for the 15 of us today at Pellas and at the neighbour. Perhaps we even find the grill under this sudden snow... The swim we'll skip this year!

Last weekend I attended two seminars about the local history in Korpoström Archipelago centre here in Korppoo. We heard old fairy tales and legends about the goblins that people here used to explain things they didn't understand. The goblins had their kingdom in the forest and could take unfortunate wanderers under ground - some never returned, other came back changed...

Archeologist Tapani Tuovinen took us on a time-travel to the years just after the ice age when the three kilometres thick ice melted, the ground began to raise and the first islands of this archipelago came up from the sea. Nine thousand years ago the sea level was 50 metres higher than now and still every year the ground rises 4,2 mm... It is like a football that has got a bump.

In Korppoo the first people came over 4000 years ago, started to fish and hunt and bury their dead in huge stone-covered graves on the top of the cliffs.

We visited the oldest known place inhabited here that was only a few years ago found when a farmer made a forest road and a ditch... Parts of ceramics, stones and ash, villagers living in small huts. We couldn't have guessed it standing there now.

It was quite hard to imagine the huts and people here..

The iron-age grave could be over 2000 years old. The dead were burnt and the remains with gifts to the death set on sand bed on a cliff facing the sea and big stones set on top of everything.

This round stone ground had been a place where people could stay over-night on their fishing trip or cover their belongings with the sail from their boat and few sticks. 

Russian ovens were built by the Russian soldiers in the 18th century when they attacked Finland that then belonged Swedish kings. In ovens they baked bread for the navy troops.

 

All this awakened our imagination and a lot of fabulous theories were told to explain things from the past. Some even found evidence from the old Greeks... 

I just enjoyed listening and it is always a joy to meet other islanders. Korpoström was beautiful in a spring morning still waiting for the first boaters and the new season. 

Lisää kuvateksti

http://www.sunnan.fi/korpo.html

About archeology and finds: http://www.paikkatietoikkuna.fi/web/fi or
http://kulttuuriymparisto.nba.fi/netsovellus/rekisteriportaali/portti/default.aspx