The church in Kiihtelysvaara, built in 1770, was set on fire on 23.9.2018. The ruins were cleared shortly after the fire supervised by Ark-byroo’s archaeology team. The work included documenting the church’s construction methods, materials, modification phases and structural engineering solutions. The soil layers below the church floor were examined for possible burials, but none were found at the site.
In 2021, trial excavations were carried out to investigate the areas where the new church building was planned to be built. At that time, seven burials were found along the southern wall line, which were documented. A dark layer of soil, mixed with charcoal and iron slag, was found on the east side of the church. The radiocarbon sample recovered from the layer at the time dated to the 1300-1400s.
In 2022, the stone vaulted cellar and staircase under the church’s vestry was laser scanned and documented from inside the chamber and from the stairwell. The research areas of the previous year were extended, revealing two lake ore smelting furnaces, sources of dark slag. Samples of charcoal from the furnaces dated between 1430-1530 and 1270-1390, up to 400 years older than the church. Three children’s graves were found on the southern wall of the new building, one dating from the 1700s-1800s, but another from as early as the 1400s-1500s.
The laser scanner’s point cloud can be used to produce visualisations, and enables the measurement of different features. Image of isometric visualisation of a basement façade and doorway with measurements.
In 2023, when the new church was already under construction, the vault cellar structures were also documented from the outside, after the layers of earth protecting the cellar had been removed.
Documentation of the demolition work in 2018 was carried out by measuring, photographing and taking notes. Trial excavations were carried out by removing surface layers with an excavator under the supervision of an archaeologist, followed by shovel and trowel excavation of sites of interest. In the 2022 trial excavation, the slag layer on the east side of the church was excavated all the way down to the subsoil sand using a trowel, and around 120 kg of iron slag was recovered from the same site. At all stages of the work, the ruins and excavation areas were also photographed from the air, using a drone. During the fieldwork in summer 2022, the basement vault and the stairs leading to it were also laser scanned.
The predecessor of the church, the chapel of Mary, was built in the 1680s, and the village of Kiihtelysvaara was established in the mid-1500s. Trial excavations in 2022 revealed that intensive lake ore smelting activity was already taking place at the site from at least the 1200s to the 1500s. Two lake ore smelting furnaces were built at different times on the eastern side of the highest point of the peak of the dam, presumably to take advantage of wind conditions. In addition to iron smelting, there were other activities on the summit, as evidenced by an older child’s grave from the 15th centuries.
