Skoltebyen
Skoltebyen (German city of the Skoltsamen ) is a district of the Norwegian town of Neiden in the municipality of Sør-Varanger ( Troms og Finnmark region ), which has been under state protection as a cultural monument of Norway since 2000 . It is one of the original settlements of the Skolt and from Ä'vv Skoltsamischen Museum managed cutting. It is between the E6 and the Neidenelv .
background
Skoltebyen is the original part of the Neiden municipality. It was originally used in spring and summer as a temporary settlement area for the formerly semi-nomadic Skolt Seed , who settled in the vicinity of Neiden and the Munkelva . The Skolt seeds went here for salmon fishing, berry picking and the harvest of sedge and horsetail .
When the border between Sweden and Russia was drawn after the Peace of Fredrickshamn and the cession of the Finnish territories from Sweden to Russia in 1826 , the Skolt seeds were divided between two nations and their original freedom of movement was severely restricted by the proximity to the border. From then on, Skoltebyen became a permanent residence of the Skolt seeds. When Norway became independent, Skoltebyen has belonged to Norway since 1905.
Efforts to preserve the endangered language and culture of the Skolt seeds, which today live in the border area of Norway, Finland and Russia, had led to considerations within the framework of a bilateral project between Norway and Russia, which was carried out from 1997 to 2001, measures for preservation seize the cultural heritage of the Skolt Seed. Among the measures, the recording, documentation and research of historical sites and trading centers of the Skolt seeds in northern Norway and in the Murman region of Russia were discussed. In Norway, this led to the decision, with the involvement of the Sami political representatives, to preserve the former Scoltsamian settlement area in Neiden and to found a Scoltamian museum there.
In 2000, Skoltebyen was declared a protected area by the Cultural Heritage Act in order to preserve its historical and religious significance as well as to protect its scenic unity and also to support the preservation and further development of the culture of the Skolt seeds. The construction of the museum was delayed, it was only opened in June 2017.
Existence of the cultural monument
The protected area is 230,700 m² and includes an ensemble of around a hundred monuments. These include 5 protected buildings, traces of peat huts, sunken wooden foundations and several graves. Particularly noteworthy are:
- The only 13 square meters of small Russian Orthodox St. George chapel in 1565 by missionary Tryphon of Pechenga was built and is still used today for worship and baptisms, made of wood and an altarpiece and several is inside with an altar, icons feature . In this context, the annual pilgrimage in honor of St. Tryphon, which takes place at the end of August and connects the Skoltami churches in Nellim , Svettijärvi (both in Finland) and Skoltebyen, is known.
- A Scoltsamian cemetery is located around the St. George's Chapel and was used until the beginning of the 20th century. It is currently unknown how far the cemetery extends or how old it is. The graves can usually be recognized as depressions in the ground.
- A cemetery from 2011 in which 94 skeletons were reburied, which were excavated during an anthropological study in 1915 and brought to the Anatomical Institute of the University of Oslo. Against the background of racial biological considerations, the Norwegian anatomist Karl Emil Schreiner assumed that the seeds belonged to an infantile Proto-Mongolian race, which was to be proven with the corresponding bone examinations of the skeletons. The reburial of the skeletons in 2011 sparked a public controversy over ethical issues surrounding reburial. The dating of the finds goes back to the pre-Christian history of the Sami.
- A warehouse that was originally built near Paatsvik at the end of the 19th century was rebuilt in Skoltebyen in 1965, and a second warehouse, which was originally built as a residential building, is also located here.
- There is also a large outdoor oven on the Skloltebyen site on the Skloltebyen site. The stove is made of stone, the inside is clad with clay, the stones are covered with peat.
- Of the buildings, a peat sauna and the house of the Onteri family built in 1970 are also worth mentioning.
Only one house of the Skoltebyen's building stock is currently inhabited; several families lived on the site until 1980.
The Skoltefossen, a rapids on the Neidenelv, is also part of the protected area. It is located on one of the rivers in Norway that is richest in salmon, and the usual fishing there with a net was introduced by Finnish immigrants and is called Käpälä - fishing.
The Äʹvv Skoltsamische Museum is responsible for the maintenance work on the site, special attention is paid to the preservation of the landscape, which is carried out through volunteer work by young people in summer.
literature
- Evgeny Khodakovsky, Siri Skjold Lexau (Ed.): Architectural Conservation and Restauration in Norway and Russia. Routledge Publishing House, London. 2017. 224 pages (English). ISBN 9781138279926
- Information brochure of the Äʹvv Saaʹmi muʹzei: Welcome to Skolt Sami Village. Self-published, 10 pages. Neiden, 2017. (English). Available at the entrance to the cultural monument.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Directorate for Cultural Heritage: Skoltebyen Neiden kulturmiljø. In: miljøstatus.no. June 26, 2014, accessed November 5, 2017 .
- ↑ Asgeir Svestad: What happened in Neiden? On the Question of Reburial Ethics. In: Norwegian Archaeological Review, Volume 46 (2013). November 12, 2013, accessed November 6, 2017 .
- ↑ Maja Sojtaric: Controversy over mass graves in the North. In: Science Nordic. April 7, 2012, accessed November 6, 2017 .