Challenging Old Truths : Viewing Cultural Hybridity from the Perspective of the Tarand-Graves

Abstract: A phenomenon during the late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age which in its simplest form could be called ‘a culture of the Baltic Sea’ is an idea which many archaeologists have favoured. However, the term ‘a culture of the Baltic Sea’ is not the most ideal to use when discussing the Baltic Sea during this time in prehistory, as the term is rather simplifying from what would be the more diverse truth. The term entails that there should have been a cultural homogeneity across the Baltic Sea as it most certainly was not. This thesis complicates this otherwise simplified term and calls the cultural phenomenon ‘a cultural hybrid of the northern Baltic Sea area’ (i.e. the northern part of the Baltic Sea including its neighbouring gulfs). A cultural hybrid, in this sense, allows there to be cultural differences within an area. These differences are accepted by the people within the cultural hybrid which in turn allow people to live among each other, rather than to become a social obstacle making the people separate into smaller and more homogenous cultural groups. This assumed existence of a cultural hybrid is put to the test as a hypothesis. To answer the hypothesis, the cultural hybrid is studied from the perspective of the tarand-graves (an Estonian originating grave type erected and used around the shores of the northern Baltic Sea area during 500 BC–500 AD) which in turn is interpreted according to ritual practice theory. The hypothesis is proven to be true which makes it possible to apply the concept of cultural hybridity, and its connection with tarand-graves in the northern Baltic Sea area, to the Åland Islands. Although the islands have a very promising geographical position in the middle of the northern Baltic Sea area, interestingly, no tarand-graves have been registered there. Grave field Ec 6.6 on the western side of the Åland Islands becomes the object of study mainly due to grave 14, which placed on that particular grave field, carries a high tarand-grave potential. The material is partly collected from two field visits to Ec 6.6 and partly from an excavational report from 1949 of the same grave field. The result shows that the Åland Islands, as well as Ec 6.6, have a very high likeliness of being hosts for tarand-graves.