Otterböte
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Otterböte
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Otterböte
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Otterböte is located at the highest point on Karlbylandet, the largest island in the Kökar archipelago of the Åland Islands in Finland . The island rose from the sea through the post-glacial uplift . Otterböte was during the Bronze Age around 1000 BC. A seal hunter camp that was used for about 500 years was discovered in 1918 by the farmer Erik Gustav Öberg and excavated between 1946 and 1950.
The camp is in very good condition in an area surrounded by outcrops of rock that are approximately 60 meters long and 30 meters wide. During the excavation, four heaps of garbage, a small well and nine round huts were found. The diameter of the round huts vary from four to seven meters. Most of the places with fewer stones indicate a doorway. Soot was found in the center of the floor of five huts where the stove was. It is believed that Otterböte was a winter camp for hunters ( Säljägarnas in Swedish ) who arrived in autumn and overwintered until the hunt on the spring ice began. After that they returned home.
Ceramics
25,000 ceramic shards (260 kg) and 10 kg of bones, mostly from seals , but no fish bones were found. Many shards come from larger vessels shaped like barrels. Analysis of the pottery shows that it was not made in Åland. The clay comes from the southern shore of the Baltic Sea and the island of Bornholm . The walls of the vessel show impressions of farm crops. Some larger vessels have a distinctive articulated style decoration, made of grooves and grooves, which indicates that they come from the Lusatian culture .
See also
literature
- Kenneth Gustavsson: Otterböte: New Light on a Bronze Age Site in the Baltic, Theses and Papers In Archeology B: 4, Stockholm University (1997)