Sammallahdenmäki

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Bronze Age Burial Site of Sammallahdenmäkia
UNESCO World Heritage Site
State Party Flag of Finland Finland
Type Cultural
Criteria iii, iv
Identification #579
Regionb Europe and North America

Inscription History

Formal Inscription: 1999
23rd Session

a Name as officially inscribed on the WH List
b As classified officially by UNESCO

Sammallahdenmäki is a Bronze age burial site in Finland near Lappi. It was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1999, and includes 33 granite burial cairns dating back more than 3,000 years, to 1,500 to 500 BC. It is located on a hill in a remote area off the road between Tampere and Rauma. Originally, it was near the coast of the Gulf of Bothnia, but the land has risen so it is now 15 kilometers from the sea. It is one of the most important Bronze Age sites in Scandinavia.

Four of the cairns were excavated by archaeologist Volter Högman in 1891, including Kirkonlaattia ("Church Floor"), an unusual rectangular cairn covering 16 x 19 metres with a flat top, and Huilun pitkä raunio ("long cairn of Huilu"), which is surrounded by an ancient stone wall.

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