Helsingin yliopiston anatomian laitoksen kokoelmiin talletetut saamelaiskallot saivat Metsähallituksen 1990-luvulla teettämän selvityksen myötä laajaa julkisuutta. Arkeologi Aki Arposen laatimasta raportista kävi nimittäin ilmi, että antropologisiin tutkimuksiin liittyviä kaivauksia oli tehty ainakin Inarijärven Vanhassa Hautuumaa-saaressa, ehkä myös muillakin pohjoisen vanhoilla hautausmailla. Tutkimuksesta tuli lisäksi julki, että Helsingin yliopistolla oli pääasiassa 1800-luvulla ja 1900-luvun alussa kerättyyn anatomiseen kokoelmaan liitettynä ainakin Inarista, Utsjoelta ja Muoniosta koottua historiallista luuaineistoa.%In the heyday of physical anthropology, researchers were interested in historical cemeteries in Lapland during two different periods. During the first period, the 19~(th) century, cemeteries were mainly excavated in connection with a project organised by foreign researchers and the director of the Department of Anatomy at the University of Helsinki, Mr. Konrad Hällsten. The second period of interest spanned the 1930s, when the Anthropological Committee of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters organised a wide-ranging programme resulting in extensive investigations, and finally, also in excavations at the cemetery of Vanha Hautuumaasaari island in Inari. Both waves of research can be regarded as part of a larger research tradition in anthropology. In the 19~(th) century, for instance, researchers focused on craniometrical data, while in the beginning of the following century, other bone material was also collected for analysis. The incentives for both of these waves of research came from abroad; however, the Department of Anatomy at the University of Helsinki and Finnish researchers played a pivotal role in them as well. Ultimately, the research projects were national endeavours, although the data on the Sami people were of interest to researchers all over the world. Similar physical anthropology data were collected all over Finland during the same period. However, the geographical focus of this paper is on Lapland. Even if the excavations in the North were not a separate phenomenon in physical anthropology, researchers had certain special emphases and detailed research questions particularly regarding the Sami people. Data on the cemeteries excavated in Lapland for anthropological purposes have not been compiled before, and only some of the excavated locations have been precisely known to researchers. By combining various sources it has been possible to obtain a more reliable picture of the number, location, and nature of the examined research sites and the actual investigations carried out there. From the late 19~(th) century until the 1930s, over 300 craniums classified as Lappish (Sami) were collected at different cemeteries in Finnish Lapland. The figure excludes craniums gathered by foreign researchers. Collecting ancient bone material proved to be more challenging than researchers had anticipated, and far fewer sites were excavated than was originally planned. Furthermore, research was purely anthropological: researchers merely collected bone material and paid no attention to the details of the graves. There are therefore no scientific records on the depth, direction, or structure of the graves or the finds in them. Cooperation with archaeologists began as late as the 1930s, and even then it was not systematic. Some of the excavations were conducted on ecclesiastical sites, such as churchyards and graveyards, and some at local cemeteries. Excavated graves were dated to the 18~(th) century, mainly by methods of settlement history. The collected material, however, is ethnically not as Sami as was originally assumed. The anthropological measurement data from different projects in Lapland were, nevertheless, widely used in publications on medicine and human physiology, and the large amount of data acquired for theses was analysed and even published until the 1950s.
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