Turun unohdettu kolerahautausmaa - Arkeologisia tutkimuksia Kakolanmäen länsijuurella

Abstract

<p>In 2011–14, the Museum Centre of Turku conducted archaeological excavations at the site of a 19th-century burial ground. The excavations were connected with building work done at the site. During the excavations, 45 graves were detected of which 37 were thoroughly documented. Eight of the observed graves did not coincide with the construction site and these where left untouched. <br />The graves were preserved to different degrees: some were almost completely decomposed while others were quite well preserved. The bodies had been placed in simple wooden coffins. Some of the coffins were placed in the same pit side by side and on top of each other in two layers. Some of them included plant remains such as straw or twigs that had been placed under the body, especially under the head. Three of the burials contained a small metal Orthodox cross pendant and two of the graves showed signs of amputated legs. One of these was a young man whose left lower leg (tibia) had been amputated. He had died before the amputation had begun to heal. Still, the off-cut part of the leg had not been included in the burial. The other case was an amputated femur that was found in a grave where the buried individual had two whole legs. It seems that the off-cut part was buried in another person’s coffin. However, it is possible that the femur belonged in the coffin on top of the one it was found in, since this quite decomposed coffin had partly collapsed into the nether one. This burial ground has not been marked on maps. Human bones and burials were first found there in the early 21th century, when the area was constructed into a residential zone. In the 1970s, when bones were again found, the museum was informed that this was a Cholera burial ground. Indeed, historical sources confirm that a Cholera burial ground had been founded somewhere in the area in 1831, during the first epidemic. However, two major questions remain. First, why was the burial ground forgotten so soon after its use period? In 1905 when the residential area was being built, newspapers reported the finds of mysterious human bones as if there was no recollection of a burial ground founded there only around 70 years earlier. Moreover, only ten years earlier, in 1895, a local newspaper reported that funds were appropriated for building a fence around the Cholera burial ground, since relatives of the deceased were distressed about the neglected state of the graves. <br />The second question might provide a clue for the first one. All 14 of the deceased whose sex was possible to estimate were male. All were adults, except one was juvenile. Moreover, the Orthodox cross pendants and amputated legs (together with earlier observations of soldier clothing) seem to point towards Russian soldiers. The Cholera burial ground of the Russian military hospital did indeed situate close to the area. However, if the area excavated was mainly in use by the Russian troops, it would mean that the burial ground of ordinary townspeople is still to be located. Continued excavations in the area may shed more light to this question.<br /></p>