Hi everyone,

I was wondering what was going on in Finland during the Iron Age, and more specifically in the 6th and 7th centuries. What sorts of swords and axes were being made and/or imported there? And how settled were the Finns at this time? My understanding is that they were adopting farming in the early Iron Age, whereas the rest of Scandinavia had adopted it in the Bronze Age. But I really don't know! :D Any input you have is great.

Also, could anybody give me the rundown on these two early swords? They're forged to that shape, no? Or were they bent for burial? By the way, I am aware of this post on Finnish swords (http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=13390) but I was more interested in any axe finds and also in the general mode of living these people had adopted.

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Come on! :) I know there are some Finns on this forum!

Sirs-I agree that the swords look as though they were bent for burial. Also they do look like anakies of the scythian period.

They are akinakes, and the only info I have is that they were from 300 B.C. Finland. They were just a curiosity of mine. :) I really want to find out more about Migration and Pre-migration Period Finland. Any info on the sword below? It's a reproduction from a maker in Finland, who says it's a "merovingian period" find from Finland. This is closer to the period I'm interested in, so any info would be awesome!

Here's the Migration sword that I mentioned.

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It looks well preserved for a sword that old. Nice.

There is a brief description of the prehistory of Finland in Christiansen's The Northern Crusades , which is well worth looking at. Basically, the economy of the people varied from the southern and coastal areas to the harsher inland climate; but all of the people were to varying degrees dependent on hunting/trapping as opposed to farming. They might be mostly settled in a territory, or partly or almost fully nomadic. Even the more settled groups were sparsely distributed. Finland was only marginal farming land, it seems, given the techniques of the Iron age. I have no idea of what the indigenous Finnish weaponry was, but settlement by Swedes led to the use of the kind of weapons found elsewhere in Scandinavia.