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2  
Atypical burials and variations in burial  
customs in the church of Renko, Finland
Ulla Moilanen & Markus Hiekkanen
Abstract
The stone church of Renko was built in the 16th century, abandoned and ruined in the mid-17th 
century, dismantled, and finally rebuilt in 1783. It was preceded by one or perhaps two consecutive 
wooden churches built at the same location since the beginning of the 15th century. Extensive archae-
ological excavations were conducted inside the church in 1984 when the wooden floor was replaced 
with a stone floor. Seventy-one graves dating from the 15th to the 18th century were found during the 
excavations. Grave sites under the church floor were expensive and usually reserved for individuals of 
high social status, such as priests, officials, and wealthy landowners. There is usually little variation in 
church burial customs, as they follow Christian traditions and contemporary legislation. However, the 
graves in the Renko church include a few distinctive burials in terms of burial position and treatment 
of the corpse. This chapter analyses these burials and explains them in the wider contexts of church 
burials and non-normative graves.
Keywords: Historical period, church burial, atypical burial, infant burial, autopsies, artefacts in graves
2.1. Introduction
The early 1980s can be described as a time of transition in church archaeology, which was officially 
acknowledged as a specific branch of archaeology in 1981 (Crabtree 2001: 336). Until then, excava-
tions at churches in Finland were almost exclusively carried out by art historians and architects, while 
scholars with an archaeological background and experience in fieldwork techniques were absent. This 
was part of a wider European phenomenon, but in Finland, the situation had its roots also in the 
complex structure of antiquarian work and the indifferent attitude towards medieval and historical 
archaeology – apart from building archaeology in the strictest sense – since the early 20th century.1
In the summer and early autumn of 1984, an archaeological excavation was carried out in the stone 
church of Renko in south-western Häme (Tavastia) (Fig. 2.1) in connection with plans to replace the 
wooden floor with a stone floor. It was one of the first church excavations carried out by professional 
archaeologists in Finland, and because of the exceptional history of the church, it was also one of 
the first excavations to focus on the careful excavation of historical graves located inside a church. 
1. In 1981, a professional archaeologist was appointed for the first time to carry out comprehensive field archaeological investigations in a medieval 
church in Finland. This was instigated by Antero Sinisalo, head of the Department of Building History and Architecture (Rakennushistorian osasto) of 
the National Board of Antiquities (today Finnish Heritage Agency). The site was the parish church of Espoo (Swedish Esbo; since 2004, the cathedral 
of the diocese of Espoo) (see Hiekkanen 1988, 1989, 2007).
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This chapter reviews the excavation in the context of church archaeology in general and reanalyses 
the burial practices and the most distinctive graves observed in the church. How well do the early 
modern church burials follow the Christian traditions and legislation? How can the variations in the 
burial customs be interpreted?  
Figure 2.1. The location of Renko and large modern cities. (Map: U. Moilanen.)
Only a few publications on the Renko church are available before the 1980s, most likely because of a 
lack of interest in the church due to its architectural history (see e.g. Aulanko 1913; Elovaara 1933). 
Even though a medieval stone church had stood on the site of the present church, it had fallen out 
of use in the middle of the 17th century apparently because of structural problems. After that, the 
locals had taken stones and other building materials from the church, accelerating its fall into ruin. 
According to historical documents, the walls of the ruined church were only a couple of metres high 
after that. In 1775, a decision was made to rebuild the stone church, but it was not until 1783 when 
a new stone church was erected on the foundations of the old stone church (Fig. 2.2). The construc-
tion of the new church followed the same octagonal nave, which was built between 1510/1520 and 
1550/1560 (Hiekkanen 1990: 247–254, 1993: 66, 2007: 323, 2020: 414–418). It is not clear where 
church services were held immediately after the abandonment of the stone church, but according to 
a tradition from the 1770s, an abandoned farmhouse near the churchyard was used as a temporary 
church between the mid-17th century and 1730. Between 1730 and 1731, a wooden church was 
built in the churchyard (Fig. 2.3). The original 15th-century churchyard around the old stone church 
was used for burials continuously during all this time, but after the abandonment of the first stone 
church, relatively few graves had been dug inside its walls.
Figure 2.2. The stone church of Renko, built 
in the 1780s on the foundation of a medieval 
stone church. View from southwest. (Photo-
graph: M. Hiekkanen.)
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Figure 3.3. The plan of the church and churchyard of Renko in the 1730s. A = Ruin of the medieval 
octagonal stone church. B = The wooden church built in 1730–1731 and in use until the ruin of the 
stone church was rebuilt in 1783. C = Plan of the octagonal graveyard of Renko, in use from the 
beginning of the 15th century to the 19th century. D = Belfry in the south-western part of the oc-
tagonal graveyard, demolished probably in the beginning of the 19th century. E = Boundary of the 
present graveyard. F = The arrow shows the approximate location where the first wooden church 
building might have stood immediately after the stone church was abandoned in the middle of the 
17th century. [Original reconstruction by M. Hiekkanen and drawing by A. Valo, Finnish Heritage 
Agency in 1992 (after Hiekkanen 1993: 83) with additions by U. Moilanen 2019.]
The architectural history of the stone church turned out to be archaeologically fortunate. Because 
only a few graves were dug inside the ruined church after the 1650s, older graves dating prior to 
this were partly intact. The proper excavation of older graves in Finnish medieval churches is usually 
difficult because of the enormous amount of graves from the late 17th and 18th centuries, as digging 
these later graves has mostly destroyed the older graves from the medieval and early modern periods 
(in Finland ca AD 1225–1560/1600).
The excavations took place in July–September 1984, during which time an area of 215.5 m2 was 
excavated in the nave. A total of 71 graves (Fig. 2.4) were carefully excavated, although not compre-
hensively documented due to the lack of time allocated for the excavation (Hiekkanen 1985b). In 
addition, 36 skulls and a large number of disarticulated bones from destroyed graves were found. The 
painstakingly slow excavation process was not expected by the parish of Renko or the National Board 
of Antiquities. Traditionally church excavations consisted merely of sieving the soil for objects, and 
excavating individual graves was not seen as productive.
The architectural history of the church provided the opportunity to establish a relative chronology 
for the graves. It was noted at an early phase of the work that the filling material in certain graves var-
ied from that in the others. In many cases, the grave fill consisted of the same material as the natural 
layers around the grave pit, namely clay or very fine sand, depending on the part of the church floor 
where the burial was made. In some cases, the fill also contained large quantities of broken mortar, 
fragments of brick, and gravel. According to the model formulated, the graves with pure natural clay 
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or sand were dug before the mid-17th century. Mortar and brick rubbish cannot have contaminated 
the grave fill at the time when the chapel congregation used wooden churches. Even during the use 
of the stone church, it is highly unlikely that there would have been mortar and brick gravel on the 
church floor from which it could have ended up in the grave fillings. It is more plausible that rubbish 
and gravel gathered on the floor of the nave when the building was in a state of decay and used as a 
quarry by the members of the chapel congregation between the mid-17th century and 1783. There-
fore, the graves containing rubbish in the grave fill were likely dug after the mid-17th century but 
before 1783.
Figure 2.4. Plan of excavated graves in the Renko church in 1984. The two parallel rows of stones 
in the east-west direction in the nave are part of the founding structure of the church floor and 
the gallery built in 1895. The stones along the inner walls of the nave and the porch are part of 
the foundation of the stone church. [Drawing by R. Peltonen and P. Savolainen, Finnish Heritage 
Agency in 1984 (after Hiekkanen 1993: 84).]
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2.2. Aims and methods
The primary purpose of examining graves at the Renko church was to find artefacts. During the 1970s 
and 1980s, the very few Finnish archaeologists who were interested in the medieval period were keen 
to establish an object chronology similar to that already formulated decades ago by Iron Age scholars. 
They hoped that the study of graves in medieval churches would open up possibilities in this area. 
The church of Renko was the first to present such an opportunity, and it was enthusiastically grasped 
by Markus Hiekkanen, one of the authors.
The skeletons and traces of coffin structures were documented by means of description, meas-
urement, and photography but left in situ, which meant that more detailed osteological analysis and 
further study of the buried individuals could not be carried out.2 However, in addition to the skeletal 
remains, also the presence of coffins and grave goods, the orientation of the graves, and the position-
ing of the skeletons and their limbs and skulls were fairly well documented, enabling the reanalysis 
of burial customs.
Burials were made inside churches from very early on since the introduction of the territorial 
parish system in Finland between approximately AD 1225 and 1250. The tradition gradually became 
more common after the 13th century, at first among the clergy and later among other wealthy and 
high-status members of society (Valk 1994: 62; Paavola 1998: 36; Mytum 2003: 801). The practice 
of burying the dead under the church floor lost its appeal already in the late 18th century when a 
royal statute against it was proclaimed in the 1770s. However, the tradition was completely aban-
doned only at the beginning of the 1820s (Gardberg et al. 2003: 63; Viitaniemi 2018: 53). Until 
the 17th century, church burials were regulated not only religiously and legally but also socially, as 
they were mainly practised by socially distinct groups of people. Gradually the regulations became 
less strict as parishes tried to cope with the dire economies of the 17th and 18th centuries. This was 
the time when economic status, rather than formal status, allowed families to bury their members 
inside churches. As a consequence, the number of graves under church floors increased significantly. 
This increase intrinsically carried the seeds of the eventual prohibition to bury inside churches. The 
smell of putrefaction from graves that were often left too shallow, as well as insects and their larvae 
spreading diseases, became increasingly poorly tolerated over time, and this development reached its 
peak in the 18th century.
Burial customs in churches have usually been perceived as rather uniform, following long-estab-
lished Christian traditions. Graves were usually aligned in the east-west direction or at least following 
the axis of the side walls of the churches3, and the corpses were placed in the graves in an extended 
supine position with their heads to the west, facing the rising sun (O’Sullivan 2013: 261). 
Rare features in graves, such as anomalous orientations or unusual body positions, have often 
been called ‘deviant’ or ‘atypical’ (Murphy 2010; Gardeła 2017). These atypical burials have tradi-
tionally been interpreted as signs of apotropaic practices or ways of punishment for immoral life and 
crimes committed (Purhonen 1998: 163; Riisøy 2015), or as reactions towards a ‘bad death’ (Mytum 
2017). However, current studies emphasize individual – and not only negative – interpretations, for 
example, the varied circumstances at the time of death and burial and the qualities of the deceased 
(Gardeła 2017; Harjula and Moilanen 2018: 164; Moilanen 2018a: 21, 29–30; Toplak 2018; Koski 
and Moilanen 2019: 84–85). In this chapter, we discuss how these kinds of ‘atypical’ features should 
be interpreted in the context of late and post-medieval church burials. We do not pay attention to 
arm positions, as previous studies have shown there to be considerable variation in arm positions in 
2. The prevailing direction of the stone or wooden churches is from east to west, but in practice, there is variation from church to church. When a 
grave pit was dug in a church or churchyard, it can be assumed that the orientation of the pit was based on the alignment of the side walls of the 
church. It would seem unpractical for a grave digger to have to calculate the correct east-west axis independently.
3. Two reasons for this were evident. First, the National Board of Antiquities was not interested in accepting skeletons from historical inhumation 
graves for storage in its collections (this policy is still followed by the Finnish Heritage Agency, but initially it was the view of the higher staff of the 
office of archaeology, mainly Aarni Erä-Esko and Paula Purhonen), and it was determined that there was no room for them in the storage. There 
was also a strong sentiment among the population of the parish of Renko that the remains of the community’s ancestors should rest where they 
were once buried. Thus the excavation leader decided to gather only one inconspicuous bone (right clavicle) from all the graves where it was still 
present. This was carried inconspicuously at night, as the excavation leader had access to the church. These clavicles were catalogued and are now 
stored in the archaeological collections of the Finnish Heritage Agency (formerly the National Board of Antiquities)
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general, making the interpretations difficult and problematic (Kieffer-Olsen 1993: 78; Gilchrist and 
Sloane 2005: 15–16, 156). Leg positions is not discussed as often as arm positions, and its significance 
is somewhat unclear. As there is one significantly different leg positioning in an otherwise ‘normal’ 
burial in Renko, we have included it in our list of atypical burials in the church.
2.3. Varied body positions and manipulated bodies
Most of the skeletons in the Renko church were found in an extended supine position. In only four 
cases out of 71, the position seemed to be different from the rest, and two of these can be explained 
by natural causes. During the excavation, the skeletons in graves 15 and 26 were interpreted to have 
been positioned partly on their sides (Hiekkanen 1985a: 19, 21). The interpretation was based on 
the slightly rotated upper bodies and skulls and the positioning of the upper arms. However, the 
photographs from the excavation show that the pelvic and thoracic areas, as well as the lower limbs of 
both of the skeletons, are in a horizontal position (Fig. 2.5). This indicates that the corpses were laid 
in the grave in a ‘normal’, supine position. The initial interpretation may have been a result of uneven 
bottoms in the grave pits, as both burials had been made without coffins. These two graves should 
therefore not be considered atypical.
Figure 2.5. Grave 15 on the left and grave 26 on the right. (Photographs: P. O. Welin 1984, Finn-
ish Heritage Agency.)
Four of the 71 graves were located under the floor of the porch and named A–D. None of these 
four graves contained mortar or brick pieces, indicating that they were likely dug before the abandon-
ment of the first stone church in the mid-17th century. It is possible that the graves were dug inside 
a wooden porch connected to this first stone church (Hiekkanen 2007: 323–324, 2020: 414–417).
Grave A was apparently made without a coffin, and the grave pit was only slightly larger than the 
corpse accommodating it. The skeleton was lying in a ‘normal’ supine position, but the lower limbs 
were crossed at the ankles, the left on top of the right (Hiekkanen 1985a: 27). 
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Grave B did not include a coffin either, but the exact size of the grave pit could not be determined. 
The skeleton was found in an unusual position with knees and elbows flexed (Fig. 2.6). The arms were 
tightly bent at the elbows, and the hands were on their respective shoulders, apparently palms upwards 
(Hiekkanen 1985a: 27). Based on the position, the grave was filled immediately after the interment 
of the corpse. If there had been a void, such as an empty burial chamber, the bones would have been 
displaced during the decomposition process. For the body position to survive, the grave fill must have 
provided support for the skeleton (see Duday 2009: 38, 40). 
Grave 2 was located between the vault pilasters. It contained the skeleton of an adult who was 
buried in a seemingly ‘normal’ position. However, the cranium of the individual had been sawn hori-
zontally in two – a clear sign of post-mortem examination (Fig. 2.7.) It is unclear whether the skeleton 
had other evidence of autopsy, namely traces of instruments on clavicles, ribs, and vertebrae (see Start 
2002; Mitchell et al. 2011). According to the mortar and brick pieces in the grave filling, the burial 
took place between ca 1650 and 1780. The official instructions on autopsies were taken into use in 
1734, and they stated that corpses should be examined in the case of sudden death and suicide, if the 
corpse had injuries, or if a crime was suspected (Eriksson and Jones 2017: 290). This description and 
time frame would narrow the grave’s dating to a period from the late 1730s to the 1780s, and it may 
also yield details about the death of the individual.
Figure 2.6. Grave B under the 
porch floor was made without a 
coffin. The flexed position has 
been supported by the grave fill. 
(Photograph: P. O. Welin 1984, 
Finnish Heritage Agency.)
Figure 2.7. The horizontally sawn 
skull from grave 2. (Photograph: 
Hiekkanen 1993: 88.)
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2.4. Infant graves and anomalous orientations
Twelve of the excavated graves belonged to infants. The infant graves are a minority, and it seems that 
no particular place in the church was reserved only for them. This contrasts with evidence for the seg-
regation of graves based on the age of the buried individual noted at the church of Espoo (Hiekkanen 
1988, 1989). There are also archival sources from some churches, such as Eurajoki, stating that certain 
areas in churches should be reserved for the burial of small children and juveniles.
In five cases, infants were buried close to older individuals. Grave 20 belonged to an adult indi-
vidual, and it was surrounded by three infant graves (34–36) (Fig. 2.8). Infant grave 34 was placed 
to the left and infant grave 36 to the right of the adult’s pelvis. Infant grave 35 was also on the right 
side, near the foot of the adult. This was the only grave complex with more than one child together 
with an adult. It was also the only one in the eastern part of the nave, near the altar area. The other 
children’s graves close to older individuals (8 and 47) were located in different, more westerly parts of 
the nave. Infant grave 8 was found beside an adult (grave 4), close to the adult’s left leg.4 Infant grave 
47 was also dug near an adult or a juvenile5 (grave 46). These graves were located in the south-eastern 
part of the nave.
4.  The age estimation is based on the field observation of the bones and the coffin size, ca 160 x 55–40 cm.
5. The length of the coffin is ca 150 cm and its width at the height of the chest ca 46 cm. The heels seem to have been ca 10 cm from the end plank 
of the coffin, but the distance between the top of the head and the end plank of the coffin could not be estimated. Thus, the height of the deceased 
should have been ca 140 cm or a little less.
6. Here the word ‘nave’ is used to mean the actual church building and not the room between the rows of pillars, as in cathedral architecture, for 
example. This is because the Renko church was vaulted as a one-aisle building, that is, it had no free-standing pillars with aisles between them.
Figure 2.8. Grave 20 
surrounded by infant 
graves 34–36. (Pho-
tograph: P. O. Welin 
1984, Finnish Herit-
age Agency.)
It might be interesting to note that according to the relative dating of the graves, all the adults bur-
ied approximately during the same time with children beside them can be dated to the period when 
the first stone church was not in use anymore, that is, after the mid-17th century. Five of the seven 
infant graves (3, 48, 50, 55, and 57) that did not seem to have a connection with an adult’s grave were 
also dug after the mid-17th century. This means that only two individual graves of children (37 and 
42) were dug earlier, either during the Middle Ages or soon after that. It is quite possible that some 
of the graves inside the walls of the stone church date to the earliest period of the chapel congregation 
and thus predate the first stone church, which was built between 1510/1520 and 1550/1560.
Another interesting feature of the children’s graves consists of anomalous orientations. Most graves 
in the church were dug according to the typical Christian tradition in the west–east (head to the west) 
direction with only minor deviations. The east–west direction seems to have been defined according 
to the long axis of the nave6 of the church. In practice, this means that the graves have been oriented 
according to the long walls of the church. None of the deceased were found with the head at the 
eastern end of the grave. In only three cases, the orientation stood out as remarkably different (more 
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than 70 degrees), and two of these graves belonged to infants. An infant (grave 47) and an adult or a 
juvenile (grave 46) were placed side by side but not in the same grave pit, as the distance between the 
deceased does not support such an interpretation (Fig. 2.9). The digging of these graves had destroyed 
two older graves (397 and 45). Grave 39 was destroyed from the chest downwards, and the skeleton in 
grave 45 was destroyed from above the chest. Both of the older graves seem to date from the period 
before the abandonment of the church because the filling material of the graves was clean clay. The 
orientation of the younger graves 46 and 47 is NNE–SSW. Thus, they were not dug exactly following 
the N–S-axis of the nave, but they did not follow the orientation of the SE wall of the building either.8 
Interestingly, in grave 47, the deceased was buried with the head in the north, while in grave 46, the 
head was in the south.
7. In the plan of the graves (Hiekkanen 1993: 84) erroneously marked as number 38.
8. The orientations of the graves were measured during the excavations following the assumption that that the nave was built strictly along the 
E–W axis. This was only to facilitate the measurements: there was no need to use more complex definitions. The actual orientation of the nave is 
WNW–ESE (See Hiekkanen 1993: 55, 57–58).
9. In the churches of the medieval diocese of Turku, the main portal was in the southern wall, whereas churches in mainland Europe mostly seem 
to have had the main portal in the western wall (Hiekkanen 1994: 47–48, 361–364).
The third infant grave with an anomalous orientation (grave 50) was placed along the western side 
of the foundation structure of the southern vault pilaster. Thus, the grave was situated quite near the 
main portal of the church but in the ‘shade’ (as seen from the east) of the massive vault pilaster.9 The 
head of the individual was pointing to the south.
2.5. Artefacts in the graves
Artefacts are quite rare in post-medieval burials, and they are often coins or parts of burial garments, 
clothes, or shrouds, such as buttons or pins (Kuokkanen and Lipkin 2011; Ruohonen 2018: 8). 
Sometimes more personal items, such as rings, beads, or tobacco pipes, are found (Varjola 1980; Ko-
ski and Moilanen 2019: 72). In Renko, the artefacts consist of coins, beads, and rings, and they were 
only found in adult graves. It is interesting that even though some remains of fabric were observed 
in some of the graves, no buttons or pins were found in contact with the skeletons. All the pins (11 
in total) and buttons (12 in total) found in the church were stray finds and could not be associated 
with any specific graves. 
A total of 48 medieval coins (mostly bracteates) were found during the excavations (NM Rahakam-
mio 85003). The number is comparatively high compared to many other Finnish medieval churches, 
especially taking into consideration the relatively late (beginning of the 15th century at the earliest) 
Figure 2.9. Infant grave 47 and 
adult or juvenile grave 46 with the 
heads to the south and the north. 
The digging of the grave pits have 
destroyed two older graves that 
have been aligned from east to 
west. The upper part of grave 46 
was most likely damaged in 1895 
when foundation stones were put 
to place to support a new floor 
structure. (Photograph: P. O. We-
lin 1984, Finnish Heritage Agency.)
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founding of the first church at the site. The number of post-medieval coins is 38. Twelve or thirteen 
coins were found in grave fillings (graves 9, 17, 18, 19, 23, 30, 33, 15, 49, 51, and 58, as well as grave 
A in the porch). The number is partly ambiguous because the original list contains two references 
to grave 49.10 Still, the find contexts show that none of the coins can be used to date the graves, and 
none of the coins was deliberately placed in a grave with the deceased.
Beads (NM 86041) were found in graves 4, 17, and 23, all from the area of the cervical vertebrae 
and mandible of the deceased (Hiekkanen 1985a, 2006a, 2006b). No remnants or traces of a thread 
linking the beads were found, indicating that it must have been made of organic material. Grave 4 
contained 39 white transparent beads, while 30 black faceted beads were found in grave 17. A total 
of 54 beads were found in grave 23 (Fig. 2.10). Most of them are black and faceted, but there are 
also four red faceted beads, as well as one blue and one light blue bead. One of the beads was made 
of bone or horn. The three graves with beads were located in the south-western part of the nave, but 
they did not form a group. In grave 4, also fragile textile remnants were found in the skull area. Grave 
4 also had an infant buried (grave 8) next to the adult’s left leg.
10. This might have been a mistake made during the excavations in 1984, if the wrong grave number was written on one of the find bags.
Figure 2.10. Beads found in 
grave 23. Most of the beads 
are faceted and made of 
glass. One round bead is 
made of bone or horn. (After 
Hiekkanen 1985b: 304.)
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In addition to the beads, a ring was found in grave 17. According to the stratigraphy, it must have 
been around the ring finger of the deceased, but it could not be determined whether it had initially 
been worn on the right or left hand. The finger bones were intermingled after the soft tissues had 
decayed, and the hand bones had fallen into the abdominal area. Two rings were also found in grave 
56, presumably originally worn on the same ring finger of the deceased. Here, too, no distinction 
can be made between the left and right hands. All the graves with beads and rings date from between 
1650 and 1783, according to the chronology based on the material in the grave filling (Hiekkanen 
1993: 77, 83, 89).
2.6. Discussion 
The most distinct graves in the Renko church are the ones with anomalous body positions (two out 
of 71), a skeleton with signs of post-mortem examination (one out of 71), the infant burials (twelve 
out of 71 – two of which also had an anomalous orientation), and the graves with artefacts (four out 
of 71). Statistically, all these graves are a minority, and in that sense, they may be considered atypical. 
Another question is whether these graves and features convey other kinds of ideas, messages, sym-
bolism, and meanings than the seemingly ‘normal’ burials in the church. In previous research, it has 
been suggested that the variations in burial customs after the Reformation can be explained by the 
decreasing influence of ecclesiastical authority and the increasingly varied attitudes to human bodies 
and the afterlife among families and individuals, as well as the fact that it became more acceptable 
to show emotions in public during the 17th to 19th centuries (Mytum 2017). In this context, we 
argue that all the different features in the burials should be approached individually. Because of the 
distinct history of the Renko church, it is also essential to know how the abandoned stone church 
was perceived as a burial place.
A few burials in the old church in the first half of the 18th century are mentioned in the histor-
ical records of deaths and burials in the parish of Renko.11 According to these archived sources, the 
price for digging graves in the old church was almost thrice as much as the price of a grave site in the 
churchyard. This proves that the old stone church was still considered a respected place and was used 
by wealthier families. In 1745, the mistress of the Pietilä house was buried inside the old church, 
where Pietilä’s young son had already been buried a year earlier and the house’s old master four years 
earlier. This indicates that at least some of the families who had already been burying their dead inside 
the stone church continued doing so after the church was abandoned.
Two skeletons that were initially interpreted as bodies buried in an atypical position were upon 
later examination concluded to be ‘normal’ supine burials in a grave-pit with an uneven bottom. 
Distinctive body positions were observed in graves A and B, both of which were dug under the porch 
floor before the stone church was abandoned in the mid-17th century. Grave A belonged to an adult 
individual whose legs had been crossed at the ankles. Different arm positions have been an object of 
interest in archaeological research, although nothing conclusive has been found in studies related to 
them. Arm positions do not seem to correlate with the chronology of the graves or the age or sex of 
the buried individual (e.g. Kieffer-Olsen 1993: 78; Gilchrist and Sloane 2005: 15–16, 156; Holbrook 
and Thomas 2005; Atzbach 2016). Leg positions have been given less attention, although crossed 
ankles, for example, seem to be a rare feature everywhere. However, crossed ankles have been observed 
in different areas and periods from Anglo-Saxon execution cemeteries (Reynolds 2009: 209) to me-
dieval monastic cemeteries (Holbrook and Thomas 2005: 16; Gilchrist 2012: 206). A similar way of 
crossing the ankles has been noted occasionally also in Late Iron Age Finland. In the Crusade-period 
11. National Archives of Finland, Records of deaths and burials in the parish of Renko from 1730 to 1750.
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(ca AD 1025–1200) Toppolanmäki cemetery, grave 3/1937 contained an individual whose legs had 
been crossed at the ankles, the right leg on top of the left (Moilanen 2018b: 18–19).
Crossing the ankles has sometimes been viewed as exceptional treatment of the corpse and perhaps 
an indication of the exceptional status of the buried individual. In the medieval Lichfield cathedral in 
England, crossed ankles were found in a grave that was interpreted to belong to a priest, as the grave 
was equipped with a chalice and linen cloths (Gilchrist 2012: 206).12 Sometimes crossed ankles have 
even been suggested to indicate that the legs were tied together (Nilsson 2013: 11).
Grave A in Renko did not contain artefacts or any other features that could provide more clues 
about the buried individual, and nothing in the grave or its location points to the clergy. The location 
of the burial in the porch does not support negative interpretations either. As crossed ankles occur 
at different times in a wide geographical area, the feature may not carry consistent meanings, and in 
general, the interpretation is not likely to be very dramatic. According to Mui (2018: 178), crossing 
the ankles may simply indicate a desire to maintain consistency in body positioning. The position is 
still a deliberate arrangement, and therefore should not be entirely overlooked, as it provides infor-
mation about the preparation of the deceased for a funeral in a wider context.
The most distinctive body position was observed in grave B in the porch area, with flexed knees 
and extremely flexed elbows. However, it is not clear whether the corpse was deliberately placed in this 
position or whether it represents the actual position in which the individual died. It is still possible 
to conclude that the position has been preserved in the grave because the internment had been made 
without a coffin and the pit was filled immediately after burial. The grave fill has provided support 
for the bones, and therefore the anatomical connections have survived.
The flexed position of the skeleton in grave B slightly resembles the so-called pugilistic pose, which 
is often found in bodies exposed to flames and high temperature, for example in house fires. The posi-
tion is caused by shrinking and contracting muscles (Ubelaker 2015: 215), and it is characterized by 
the flexion of elbows, wrists, hands, knees, hip, and neck (Symes et al. 2012: 379). From the records 
of deaths and burials in the parish of Renko, one mention of an adult fire victim in the 18th century 
can be found. According to the record, the 52-year old Matts Christersson from Oinaala Hakkola 
had burnt to death in January 1789.13 However, as mentioned earlier, grave B should be older than 
that. The pugilistic pose also includes the abduction of the shoulders and arching of the back, which 
cannot be observed in the buried individual. The flexed elbows and the hands over the shoulders 
have sometimes been interpreted as a symbol of prayer or supplication, especially in Catholic con-
texts (Gilchrist and Sloane 2005: 156; Atzbach 2016), although they could also be a sign of either 
death occurring in a constricted space or the presence of a medical condition. Severe elbow flexion, 
which can be observed in the skeleton of grave B, could indicate a spastic position caused by paralysis 
(Gharbaoui et al. 2016: 39). An illness is supported by the fact that other flexed burials have often 
been found in hospital or monastic cemeteries and mass burial pits connected with epidemics. These 
burials are usually thought to belong to individuals who had died in the position and who had been 
buried while rigor mortis was present (Gilchrist and Sloane 2005: 154–155; Jonsson 2009: 97). It is 
unknown why the individual in grave B was not placed in a ‘normal’ supine position. If the individual 
was paralysed, the person might have died in that position and the burial might have been performed 
quickly before rigor mortis had disappeared. The archived records of deaths and burials in the parish 
of Renko in the 18th century reveal that sometimes the deceased was buried on the day after death14, 
meaning that rigor mortis may well have been present during the burial. Paralysis is usually caused by 
malfunction and damage in the nervous or circulatory system or brain, and the same conditions that 
lead to paralysis may also cause convulsions and personality changes. Even as late as the early 20th 
century, these symptoms were sometimes considered mental illnesses (Kinnunen 2012: 59), which 
traditionally provoked fear and superstition (Virtanen 1988: 260; 266‒267). All individuals react 
differently to medical conditions, meaning that reactions to the same illnesses have likely varied. The 
12. In Finland, chalices have been found in two graves. Both were made for a priest, perhaps even a bishop. Both are from the bishop’s church in 
Koroinen, Turku, and can be dated to the late 13th century. (See Immonen 2009: 125–126, 2018: 169, 171–172).
13. National Archives of Finland, Records of deaths and burials in the parish of Renko from 1730 to 1790
14. National Archives of Finland, Records of deaths and burials in the parish of Renko from 1730 to 1790.
MOILANEN & HIEKKANEN 
- 47 -
desire for a quick burial even in the blessed context such as the church porch may well have been a 
reaction to death after terrifying symptoms, such as paralysis.
Grave 2, which shows signs of a post-mortem examination, is also a compelling case. Autopsies 
were often performed on a distinct group of people, namely those who had committed suicide or 
who were murdered. These were usually also socially marginalized people, who were often considered 
unsuitable for burial in consecrated ground or were interred in less respected places in the cemetery 
(Rimpiläinen 1971: 275‒276; Oravisjärvi 2011; Tarlow 2011). During the 18th century, it had 
become common for even these individuals to be buried in the churchyard, as their burial place 
was usually determined by the secular court (Moilanen et al. 2018: 7–8). Burying a dissected corpse 
inside a church is uncommon, but the historical records from the parish of Renko may provide an 
explanation. In April 1778, the peasant and churchwarden Christer Laurila had ridden from home 
alone and was found dead the next morning at Teikari bridge. His corpse was opened and examined 
by a medic, but nothing pointing to a crime was found, and the cause of death was determined as a 
lung disease. The corpse of the suspected murder victim could therefore be buried in the usual way.15 
The exact location of Laurila’s grave is not mentioned in the records, but it can be speculated that 
a churchwarden, as someone with a respected position in the community, could have been buried 
inside the old church. As mentioned earlier, the Renko parish records do show that the grave sites in 
the abandoned stone church were expensive and therefore comparable to ordinary church burials.
During the excavation, twelve infant graves were also found. Infants and sometimes even prema-
turely born infants have been buried in churches in Finland and Scandinavia since the Late Middle 
Ages (Sellevold 2008; Gren 2012: 45; Lipkin et al. 2018: 74–78). Unbaptized children had a dis-
tinctively different social status than baptized children, but their burial customs changed after the 
Reformation. Although unbaptized children were allowed to be buried in remote parts of the ceme-
tery already in the 16th century, they were still sometimes buried in secret even in the 17th century. 
According to the Church Law of 1686, a remote location was no longer compulsory (Itkonen 2012: 
11–14), and nothing in the official regulations prevented their burial inside churches.
As the skeletons in the Renko church were left in situ, it has not been possible to determine the 
ages of the buried individuals more accurately. It is therefore unknown whether the infant graves also 
include prematurely born infants. An interesting note in the parish records is from May 1740, when 
the 30-year-old Agneta Jöransdotter was buried in the old stone church “with a foetus”.16 Perhaps she 
is the skeleton in grave 4 with the white beads around the neck and a very small child – perhaps a 
prematurely born infant – buried next to the left leg.
In one case, three infants were found with an adult buried near the altar. A similar placement of 
infants and prematurely born infants has been noted in other churches in Finland and Scandinavia. 
The usual and logical interpretation, based on the Church Laws, is that the children were buried close 
to their relatives and according to the social status of their father (Lipkin et al. 2018: 74, 78). As the 
members of the clergy were often buried near the altar, the infants in this area may even have belonged 
to priestly families (Lipkin et al. 2018: 74, 78). On the other hand, burying children close to the most 
sacred place in the church could also be seen as a symbol of emotion and care (Sellevold 2008: 69). 
According to the Renko parish records, small children from Mannila, Pietilä, and Iso Palavainen were 
buried in the old church in 1744, 1745, and 1746.17 The ages of the children have not been listed, but 
as digging graves in the old church was expensive, these children likely belonged to wealthier families, 
who nevertheless used the old church as their burial place. This is already known in the case of the 
family living in the Pietilä house.
The infant grave (grave 50) seems different from the others in terms of placement. As mentioned 
earlier, the grave was located in the shade of the southern vault pilaster and was aligned from north 
to south. If the grave was older than the others, it could have been dug in secret. However, the dating 
based on the grave fill material does not support this interpretation, as it suggests that the grave dates 
15. National Archives of Finland, Records of deaths and burials in the parish of Renko in 1778.
16. National Archives of Finland, Records of deaths and burials in the parish of Renko in 1740.
17. National Archives of Finland, Records of deaths and burials in the parish of Renko from 1730 to 1750.
MOILANEN & HIEKKANEN 
- 48 -
after the mid-17th century. The question remains: how should the similarly aligned infant and adult/
juvenile graves be interpreted? If the relative chronology holds true, then these two graves were also 
made after the church fell out of use. Thus, there should not have been any prohibitions to dig the 
graves against Christian tradition. Although the two graves (46 and 47) with an anomalous orienta-
tion seem to be located in the nave of the old church, they may have been dug in the graveyard on 
the northern side of the wooden church, which stood only a few metres to the south from the 1720s 
onwards.
Graves aligned from north to south in historical cemeteries have often been interpreted as a form 
of punishment (Jordan 1982: 30). In Renko, the location on the northern side of the wooden church 
would, in theory, be suitable for this kind of burial, but it would still be a peculiar choice, as the area 
of the old stone church was considered an expensive and therefore ‘better’ place to be buried. In the 
17th and 18th centuries in Great Britain, Ireland, and North America, north-south oriented graves 
are sometimes found in Quaker cemeteries (Tarlow 2011: 56–58). In Quaker cases, the traditional 
orientation was deliberately rejected in order to exclude the members from the mainstream religion. 
In Finland, a Lutheran revivalist movement called ‘knee-praying’ (rukoilevaisuus) spread in the 18th 
century (Pentikäinen 1975: 92). The followers would have been individuals instead of large congre-
gations. Could the Finnish examples also be deliberate actions to emphasize different beliefs, such as 
sympathies towards a revivalist movement or a more secular world view? On the other hand, if the 
north-south orientation was a deliberate choice for an individual with a more secular world view, the 
same burial custom could have been perceived as a punishment from the church’s perspective for the 
same reason.
Beads and rings were found in four graves likely dating after the abandonment of the stone church 
(after the mid-17th century). This is interesting, as the Church Law of 1686 had forbidden the use of 
exquisite burial garments and accessories, including beads (Rimpiläinen 1971: 198–199, 207–208). 
However, similar artefacts have occasionally been found in other contemporary graves (Hiekkanen 
2006a, 2006b). The relatively higher status of those buried in churches compared to those buried in 
the cemetery explains why rings have more often been found in church burials (Ritari-Kallio in this 
book). The artefacts may have been perceived as an integral part of the deceased individual and a sign 
of their social status (Kuokkanen and Lipkin 2011: 149‒150; Ritari-Kallio in this book). Personal 
items in graves can also be a way to show respect and remembrance towards the deceased. Still, it is 
interesting to note that while it can be presumed that most of the adults buried within the walls at 
greater cost than elsewhere were married, only two of them had a ring or two with them in the grave. 
This might lead to the conclusion that wedding rings were taken from the deceased before burial.
2.7. Conclusions
The excavation of late medieval and early modern graves in the Renko church in 1984 was one of the 
first excavations to lay the groundwork for future archaeological investigations in churches and other 
contemporary burial places in Finland. The excavation was carried out during a time when standards 
for the excavation and documentation of historical graves had not yet been established. Although 
more modern osteological analysis and scientific methods, such as stable isotope studies,18 could 
yield more information on the buried individuals, it may be viewed as an ethical choice to leave the 
skeletons in situ, especially as the graves are quite recent and some of the buried individuals may be 
identified by name. The graves were documented meticulously, enabling the reanalysis of the burial 
practices at the site.
18. As some of the clavicles were catalogued, it might be possible to perform stable isotope and DNA studies on them.
MOILANEN & HIEKKANEN 
- 49 -
Graves under the church floor were expensive and usually reserved for individuals of high social 
status, such as priests, officials, and wealthy landowners. Historical records prove that the first stone 
church in Renko was occasionally used for burials even after its abandonment and that it was still 
considered a respected and expensive burial place. The graves are therefore comparable to ordinary 
church burials. A few of the graves were distinctive, with unusual body positions and orientations. 
Also a number of infant graves, graves with artefacts, and the burial of a dissected corpse were found.
The seemingly atypical graves represent a wide variety of meanings. The different body positions 
may be explained by the deliberate actions of those who prepared the body for a funeral or by the 
manner of death or medical conditions. The majority of the infant graves do not represent marginal 
or secret burials but can instead be explained by the fact that these children were born to wealthier 
families. The artefacts found in some of the graves are personal accessories, which can perhaps be in-
terpreted as an intention to leave something of the person in the grave. The deviant grave alignments 
are the most problematic to study, as their interpretation depends on the perspective taken, namely 
the identity of the buried individual, those responsible for the burial, and also the church and society. 
In general, the different orientations may represent deliberate choices to convey feelings, ideas, and 
ideologies. Some of the seemingly atypical features in body positions can be explained by natural 
causes, such as taphonomy and medical conditions, but the deliberate actions that can be distin-
guished may be seen as varied symbols of communication, remembrance, and emotions. Altogether, 
every atypical feature emphasizes the individual, both the buried person and those responsible for the 
burial, in various ways.
Ulla Moilanen is a PhD candidate in archaeology at the University of Turku. Her thesis deals with 
atypical burials and variations in burial customs. She is also interested in the application of scientif-
ic methods in archaeology, new ways to produce holistic interpretations of the past, Late Iron Age 
and medieval Finland, and community archaeology.
Markus Hiekkanen, retired, Professor (honorary title), has studied  medieval and Early Modern 
churches since the 1980s with emphasis on their structures, paintings, and interiors. His interests and 
areas of expertise also include urban archaeology, dating methods, burials, and archaeological objects, 
as well as Christianization and early ecclesiastical organization.  
MOILANEN & HIEKKANEN 
- 50 -
Bibliography
Archives
National Archives of Finland, Records of deaths and burials in the parish of Renko from 1730 to 1790.
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