Contextualizing Törminkangas

This article contributes to our understanding of Late Iron Age settlement dynamics and socio-economic developments in northern Fennoscandia by presenting the results and broader implications of archaeological excavations at Törminkangas in Oulu, a newly discovered Iron Age dwelling site near the Kalimenjoki River in Northern Ostrobothnia, Finland. The excavations, centred around a rectangular stone sauna stove, yielded artifacts including a fragment of a bird-shaped bronze pendant and a quartzite ball, both suggestive of symbolic deposition practices. Radiocarbon dating and artifact typology place the site in the late Viking Age (ca. AD 950–1050). The study contextualizes Törminkangas within broader regional settlement patterns, paleogeographic changes, and environmental changes. The results support the existence of locally rooted communities on the Bothnian Bay coast during the Viking Age – possibly identified in historical sources as the Kvens – instead of seasonal exploitation carried out by southern migrants.