A 4,400-year-old snake has recently been discovered in a southwest Finland lake, and this, according to an archeologist, may have been used for magical purposes by a shaman.
According to archeologist Satu Koivisto, ScienceAlert reported, she has seen a lot of extraordinary things in her work as a wetland archeologist, but this figurine's discovery made her utterly speechless, adding it gave her the shivers.
Koivisto, a Finland-based University of Turku postdoctoral researcher who leads research at Järvensuo, the site where the 4,400-year-old snakehead was found, also said the discovery is 21 inches in length and roughly one inch in thickness. It was carved from a single piece of wood, she elaborated.
In the study, Between earth and water: a wooden snake figurine from the Neolithic site of Järvensuo 1, published in the Antiquity journal, the study authors wrote, the figurine is quite naturalistic and is similar to a grass snake also known as Natrix natrix, or a European adder or Vipera berus, in a swimming way or the act of slithering.
Representing a Viper
Postdoctoral researcher Sonja Hukantaival, from the Nordic Folkloristics at Abo Akademi University in Finland, who's not part of the new research, suggested, the artifact may represent a viper.
He added, a similar Daily US Post report specified, he would say that a viper is more proper because of the shape of its head, the short body, not to mention, distinguishable tail.
This, the researcher added, is interesting, as the viper has an essential role in much later historical folk religion, as well as magic.
Such a carving could have been used as an ornamental figurine, or probably, it was a staff a shaman used, explained the researchers in their study.
Snakes Loaded with Symbolic Meaning
The researchers explained, as an initial hypothesis, it appears reasonable, though, to place the artifact in the religious sphere.
Based on historical records that explain pre-Christian beliefs, the study authors said snakes are loaded with symbolic meanings in both "Finno-Ugric and Sami cosmology," and shamans were believed to transform into snakes.
Nevertheless, the artifact dates back to long before Finnish people started to keep written accounts, and scientists cannot be sure that people were holding the same beliefs roughly 4,400 years back, said Koivisto.
A Captivating Discovery
Experts who are not part of the study said the 4,400-snake stick discovered in Finland is a fascinating discovery. According to Vessa-Pekka Herva, archaeology department head at the University of Oulu in Finland, such a marvelous discovery shows that people in the Neolithic had a great over the subterranean world that people today are mostly not aware of.
Meanwhile, Kristiina Mannermaa, a professor in the department of cultures at the University of Helsinki said, a few scholars have raised the idea that such an artifact could be an offering. The fact that it was discovered in a wetland by a lake backs the notion that this precious object was an offering and not an unintentionally lost item.
Mannermaa noted that the acidic soil of Finland does not frequently preserve wooden artifacts for a long time.
This is a notable sign for Finnish archaeologists that such wetland areas need to be investigated before they are destroyed by, for instance, drainage and peat extraction, a process in which peat is taken out and sold as fertilizer.
Related information about Sami people is shown on Visit Norway's YouTube video below:
Check out more news and information on Archeology in Science Times.
