Askola culture

The Askola culture is a Mesolithic culture in Finland , named after the finds of living quarters in the Porvoonjoki river valley near Askola in southern Finland.

The finds consist of quartz rock , while organic matter has not been preserved. The material for the tools was partly extracted in quarries that lead to early mining. In Kopinkullio, a flat rock is criss-crossed with quartz veins, which are usually a few centimeters thick, but one meter thick at one point. The Mesolithic probably smashed the rock with heavy, rounded stones. Common tools are: drills, chisels, scrapers , burins and handle tips, some with fine retouching .

Presumably the Askola and Komsa cultures or Fosna cultures are branches of the same culture. They are reindeer hunters (not yet reindeer owners or breeders) who migrated north after the Ice Age and have their roots in the Ahrensburg culture . The people made a living mainly from the seal hunt . In Lundfors, on the east coast of Sweden , thousands of net sinks were found for seal hunting. Similar methods were used by the Askola people around 7500 BC. Have had.

literature

• Vile Luho: The Askola Culture. The early Mesolithic Stone Age in Finland . Helsinki 1995.