Northern Europe, 09 Finland: Bronze Age (1500-500 BC)

At the beginning of the Bronze Age the Finnish southwest coast became part of the Nordic Bronze culture which then spread to most of coastal Finland, whereas inland Finland and the rest of Eastern Fennoscandia (Karelia, Kola Peninsula and northeastern Norway) was influenced by the bronze-using cultures of northern and eastern Russia.

Traders from the west introduced bronze in exchange for amber, furs, skins and possibly seal blubber. Bronze artefacts consist of daggers, swords, jewellery, combs and razor blades. 

Contacts with the west brought an increase of German loan words into Finnish and the adaptation of Scandinavian burial mounds. In addition to receiving bronze goods, the people of northern and eastern Finland adopted the use of textile ceramics (pottery having imprints of textiles or fabric), a style of pottery that has links with the cultures of the upper Volga and Oka rivers in Russia.

During the Bronze Age, the sporadic practice of agriculture spread into places in Finland’s north and east. In the south and west, evidence suggests that agriculture began to take an equal position to hunting, fishing and gathering, at least in some places. The institution of the farm with specific plots for farming, stables for animals, and buildings for the storage of grain begins to appear.