Forbidden History - The Warrior of Janakkala

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

In 2013, a team of metal detectorists in Janakkala, Finland, stumbled upon something astonishing - a mysterious grave dating back over a thousand years. Buried with two swords, the extraordinary find suggests a link between Christians and Pagans.  Cast List: Tim Sutherland: Archaeologist  Simo Vanhatalo: Archaeological Field Services, Museuivirasto Paul Macdonald: Sword maker, MacDonald Armouries Rachel Wood: University of York Raila Altonen: Landowner Mikko Mäkelä: Metal Detectorist  Eric Meyers: Narrator  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to the Forbidden History Podcast. This program is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. It contains adult themes. Listener discretion is advised. A chance discovery. The Earth reveals a secret. The grave of a man buried with steel. Wild lands far to the north.

No records remain of lives lived here, nor battles fought. moments lost to history but preserved in the earth. In this episode of the Forbidden History podcast, we explore a fascinating story from the medieval world between the 5th and the 15th century. This is the warrior of Yonakala. We have a classic view of the storybook medieval life. We don't hear the stories about the common man trying to keep his family alive.

In our stores there are hundreds, if not thousands, of skeletons. Archaeologically speaking, we can now focus in on the medieval dead people. You're looking for clues in the skeleton all the time. You couldn't help almost look through their eyes thinking, what did they see? How did they die? 60 miles north of Helsinki in Finland lies Yana Kala. In 2013, it was the location of an amazing archaeological find. The grave of a man buried more than seven centuries before.

It's unusual in Finland for a skeleton to be found like this, away from any known burial ground. But there was something else. The man had gone to the grave with not one, but two swords. And it didn't stop there. What made the find completely unique was that the swords were separated in time by hundreds of years.

One blade, like the skeleton, was medieval. The other, unbelievably, was from at least two centuries before. A Viking sword. It was completely unprecedented in medieval archaeology in Finland and the whole of Europe. We're joined by Tim Sutherland, who is one of Britain's most experienced archaeologists. He and a team of specialists tried to understand. medieval life by exploring the realm of the medieval dead. You couldn't fail to be captivated by the whole story.

Two swords found in a single grave, in the middle of a field, in the middle of nowhere, with archaeologists excavating it. It has a bit of everything. There was an option of going over there to carry out as a geophysical survey and hopefully get some sort of information to put this person and the swords into a context

that we could understand. The story was like a medieval fantasy. fantasy, except it was real, and it spanned not only medieval times, but also the preceding era, the pagan Dark Age, the time of the Vikings. Even today, Finland is beautiful and remote. In medieval times, it was a wilderness, endless forest, hills, and rivers. Western Europe was steadily civilizing and evolving, but here, On the edge of the Arctic Circle, the wild lands of ice and snow,

Finland was the edge of the world. Finland in the medieval period is a bit of a blank canvas. We don't know much about it. Its history is now being driven by the archaeology. There isn't a lot of medieval history around. And so by finding new sites, by finding medieval archaeology in which to interpret, you can add to the history of the background of the country. Vannitalo is one of the most experienced archaeologists in Finland, a veteran of more

than 500 excavations and the man who found himself in charge of the dig at Yanakala. It was one of the most important in Simo's long and distinguished career, and it came about through the work of local metal detectorists. The metal detectorists made a series of small finds across a field before they unearthed the burial and alerted Muso Verasto. Finland's National Board of Antiquities. Simo and his team came out to check what they'd found and immediately mounted an excavation. The main enemy was the weather.

The skeleton was badly preserved, degraded by the acidic soil. If it weren't for the metal items picked up by the detectorists, it probably would never have been found at all. The archaeologists come along, excavated it properly in the correct manner, realizes it's more than just an artifact, it seems to be a grave. And it's more than just a normal grave.

There seems to be two swords in the same grave. Now that's really unusual, and very important. The swords made the finds so compelling. The first, the one initially unearthed by the detectorists, was a Viking Age blade. It seemed at that stage that the burial dated to Viking times. Then the second blade was revealed. a type much larger and much later, a medieval sword.

It couldn't be a Viking burial. It had to be medieval. But for some reason, the earlier sword had been placed in the grave. This was unique and hadn't been seen before. Two swords separated in typology by hundreds of years, yet buried together. There were many questions to be answered. Analysis showed the Viking sword had signs of fire patina. It had been burned.

Also, Simo's team found fragments of burnt human bone much earlier than the skeleton. It seemed the grave contained remnants of more than one body. Two swords, two warriors. As the news spread, it drew interest not only from archaeologists. Paul MacDonald has been learning and teaching the art of sword for more than two decades. He's aware of the sword's place in history as a symbol, without losing sight of its visceral purpose. The sword is a weapon first. It's designed to be practical first, and every different type of sword is a very particular tool for a very particular job.

Some are more cutting-based, some are more thrusting-based, and some have an element or combination of both. So every weapon must be practical first, because it's designed to do a job. Along the way it is symbolic also. When you strap a sword onto your side, it's no light undertaking. You're making a declaration to anyone that claps eyes on that sword is saying that you're prepared to back up your word by your skill and by your steel. Paul is also a swordmaker. The McDonald Armouries specializes in fighting quality historical

blades. He's come to Helsinki to see for himself the swords of Yanakala. He intends to bring these blades back to life. I've always been drawn to unique and interesting project. So to make something that rare, that's special with the blade length as it is as such, it's been so unusual. It's, yeah, they're both pretty fascinating. The swords are kept in stable conditions at Musso Verosto. They're covered with oxidation, but beneath this, the steel has survived. It's the first time Paul's seen them for real. By now, the skeleton burial has been carbon-dated to approximately AD-1300, quite late for the type of medieval long sword he was buried with.

Meaning that this particular sword, or its type, was still in use in Finland, when designs elsewhere in medieval Europe had moved on. the Viking Age sword might be as much as 300 years older than the medieval sword. The Viking sword is the better preserved of the two, possibly due to having been cremated. Fire patina can protect steel against oxidation. It's a very recognisable style, one of a range of types recorded from every sword from this period found to date. Dan Peterson published a work on the Norwegian Viking swords and established a typology of known

different types of helts and blades. And this would be concurrent with a type Z, known to be from the mid-10th century to mid-11th. So it's a fairly accurate time frame. Paul carefully records both swords. Each dimension is critical as characteristics vary over the different parts of the blade. He also has to take into account the layer of oxidation on every surface. The National Museum in Helsinki is home to the finest Viking and medieval swords ever found in Finland.

Hundreds of years ago, these blades were ground from steel that had been forged, folded, and hammered over time. All will work in modern stock steel, but the form and weight will be as close as possible to the originals. It will still require all his skill and experience. I do have to look at the weapons with a couple of different perspectives. One, a technical perspective, I have to look at it in terms of realistically how am I going to make this by stock removal, how do I grind this blade, how do I form the hilts, but then I also

have to look at the weapon through the original maker's eyes, the medieval sword in particular, because it's so unique. They'll be constructed with materials and they'll be constructed for use. So there'll be more than just something to hang on a wall. Yep, it's literally take those specs from today to the armoury and turn them into a lot of sparks and a lot of stewer. Tim Sutherland heads to Finland to join Simo and the original excavation team, back where they uncovered the grave in 2013. They'll carry out a geophysical survey across the whole site. The grave is just one find among possibly many more. They know this because the metal detectorist who originally found the grave also recorded

several other significant readings across the field before, making the find of a lifetime. My metal detector gave me a pretty good solid iron signal and I started to dig it up. And what I found was a small spare blade tip. So I tried the hole again and in about 40 centimeters there was an axe blade. It is a really, really good find. It's really rare. And I removed the earth more.

And suddenly in the bottom of the hole I saw a silvery plate with the text. And I realized just at the moment, moon was shining that the silver blade, it was a sword. Discovering a sword like this was so rare that it affected Miko's reaction. This was a physical reminder of Finland's distant past. It was a shocking and stopping moment because we didn't actually know what to think. It was so weird, so not possible.

It wasn't, it should not be here in the place, but it was. but it was. And I think that our history is much more than we now know. Miko reported the find and cleared the way for Simo's team to make the excavation. By that time, the weather had closed in. Clear moonlight had given way to freezing wind and rain. When we started digging, we just started it was one sword that was broken in two. But then after we, especially after we lifted the first piece up, we realized that we realized that we just saw that it was broken in two.

We realized that there was actually another sword, a whole sword, lying beneath the... Excavating not one, but two swords is special for any archaeologist. So I must admit I've never found or excavated a sword. So that must have you ever excavated a sword before? Or anything like that. So that must be quite an unusual feeling as well, because I know I've found some important things in the past. But when you see something as evocative as a sword,

sword, obviously, and an individual with it. That must be quite a good feeling. Yeah, and especially when we lifted the longer sword, the complete sword, the thing that went through my mind was, don't break, don't break, don't break, because it's quite fragile, so you have to be very careful when lifted. The swords were gently cleaned and left with respect. In Nordic folklore, it said the soul of the swordsman resides in the blade. Tim gets moving. He and Rachel Wood from the University of York will carry out the survey.

This is the first time they've seen up close the geology of the site. The warrior of Yanukala, it seems, was buried in soil rich in magnetic red granite. And it may be that this is a problem. Using magnetometers in a magnetic terrain like geological granite is notoriously

difficult or interesting to put another way sometimes you can put a lot of effort into a survey and there are a known place in the world very igneous areas where the rock is just so strong

magnetically you can't do a magnetic survey with any good results so there's a bit of a gamble we come all the way to Finland to survey this field and we didn't know that there was big chunks of granite line around

nobody told us that So potentially we could be wasting our time. There's nothing else they can do but try. They start the first few grids of the magnetometer survey. Unfortunately, it seems there's enough overburden soil to mask the effects of the granite. There's a huge relief because if this was... The whole site was heavily magnetic

because if you work in a landscape that's basically underneath his igneous rock like granite, it can trash the whole data. And that's the problem. And we've potentially faced by coming here. So it's really nice to see we can see something else. In Edinburgh, Paul has started work on his sword replicas. At this point, the blade has been distal tapered.

It's been profile cut, that is. It's got the basic shape of the width of the blade tapering. Not quite a point, still rounded here. And the thickness of the blade has been ground down from 5mm up by the shoulders, by the guard, right down to the point here where it's 2 millimeters, and it's a very constant even taper down there. Time to grind.

The next stage is to add in the fuller. This is the curved groove along each side of the flat of the blade. It's sometimes called the blood groove. The biggest myth in the sword world really is that the fuller is a blood groove or a bloodlet. That supposedly when you stick your blade in a body is somehow let's air enter the wound and let's blood drain out. That's a wonderful gory idea but it doesn't really comply with the laws of physics.

The fuller down the length of the blade, it lightens the blade down the length and it does not compromise the flexibility and its strength. While the blades are taking shape, Paul also has to work on the other components of the swords, the pommels and crossguards. For the medieval sword, the heavy disc pommel and crossguard are forged. For the Viking sword, both pieces will be cast.

For this, Paul uses one of the last existing foundries in Edinburgh. The process is known as grueless. green sand casting. The materials that we're using today are these, do we know that these are really the same materials that they're using historically? Yes, it possibly goes back as far as iron age that we've been using the green sand process.

Possibly there might be one or two minor changes, but from what I've gathered through experience, I believe it's exactly the same. Paul now has to set about the trickiest part of the process. of the process. A blade tapers in thickness in two ways. First, in its profile, and second, along its length from the base at the hilt to the point. This is known as the distal taper. Slowly, Paul works the stock steel into blades with a life of their own. Yeah, every stage of making a sword is it? It's interesting, it's exciting as well. You are

bringing the steel to life, you're giving it something more than just being a piece of material, giving it back something of its original soul. I suppose when you're making something that's paying tribute to an original piece. It's these stages when the blade actually takes form, you see it come alive. In recreating the swords, Paul has learned much about how the originals must have felt and handled. In particular, the medieval sword, unusually long for its single hand grip. There are three categories or sizes of two-handed swords that developed from the medieval period onwards. And this is really a blade length that lies right in the middle of what we would call a great sword. You would expect a grip on this of around 12 inches or so for a proper

two-handed sword. But having a single-hand grip is highly unusual. I've never seen a sword like it. But the more steel that comes off this blade, the more it's making sense. The sword tip won't be pointed, and there's a reason for this. It was more usual for blades of this type, especially blades that were designed to cut primarily for the point here to be rounded. It's rounded but it's certainly not blunt. Your edge, your sharp edge would continue all the way around there, and that assists or aids at a slicing action against flesh and bone because this is designed to be done. because this is designed to be used in the saddle with force and speed. So even a tip with the last inch to two inches of the sword itself

would cut and travel through target much more easily with a rounded point. The biking blade is remarkable in the sense that the original is only four millimeters thick here and what we call the distal taper, the taper the thickness, it tapers all the way to 0.8 millimeters here at the tip. and it gets remarkably thin and it's quite thin overall which makes it remarkably light and fast to wield. But the pommel itself is what balances out the length and the mass of the blade itself and it moves the balance point without a pommel. You have a balance point sitting sitting down here sitting really about a hand span or so forward of the guard

but once that pommel weight is added then it takes the whole balance back to really within about three inches or so forward of the hand and this means that in the hand you can whip that blade about rapidly which is exactly what you want for a sword where

your life could depend on how effective this blade wields Back in Finland, the survey has attracted interest. Rila Altenan is the landowner who's kindly granted access to the current survey. And she was here back in 2013 when the grave was discovered. Because I was very excited. I was looking at them from my kitchen window and I saw these guys be gathered together on this muddy field. And then I thought now they must have found something.

something and as I got a call from then and they were very very excited themselves so I have quite often think about that the people who have been walking here and have seen just the same about the same landscape as I see today and I think it's there's something really soothing Rachel has covered most of the site with magnetometry and now she's found something As if there's a boundary there, we can vaguely see something down there. We add on another line, we've definitely caught the edge of it. Yeah, I think so. One way or the other.

This is very important because it's covering the area we're interested in, isn't it? That's basically the top of the hill. We need to date this, and is that medieval, for example, or is it much earlier, or, in fact, much later? Yep. I can't imagine it being too much later because it's a nice curvilinear feature, and those are generally earlier rather than later. It's a fantastic discovery, and it's a fantastic discovery, and it's a very much later. prompts Rila, the landowner, to check her family archives.

She's found a map which helps make sense of the features the survey shows in her fields. It's dated 1692, although roughly 400 years later than the grave, the features it records may well have survived in the landscape from earlier times. And they bear a strong similarity to Rachel's enclosures. Miko and the other metal detectorists have returned to help out, and they've brought with them new equipment. The metal detectors were met on site. We're not your average common-of-garden metal detectors.

These people were tooled up to the max. They had these pulse induction meters. Now that is a very, very heavy-duty metal detector, and it can see through the ground quite deeply and find very large pieces of metal very deeply buried. And of course that was essential for this site. Rachel has asked them to locate again the fairest contacts they made in 2013, only this time using the pulse induction meter to pinpoint them.

They mark the finds in the stubble with red flags. Several of these contacts seem to display similar characteristics shown by the pulse induction meter in depth, length, and general size. Well, Miko has just been over this ground with his pulse induction meter. It's such a large coil that he's using that it's very, very difficult to define exactly where it is. So if we can come along afterwards and use a normal metal detector with a smaller coil, we can just scan the ground and make sure that he's in the right place. And then what we can do is try to define some sort of limits to it.

So it's quite big objects because when we get near it, everybody starts thinking, right, this is a bit strange now. Huge pieces of metal in the ground. Just behind us, somebody's found a grave with two swords. We look at this metal object in theory, and it appears to be sword-shaped, the right length. And everybody's going, this is interesting. But it's not just one.

There are several in this field. All the same sort of length, a bar of metal. Now, this is getting a bit weird because there's not many bars of metal just lying deeply buried under a normal field. But we know that somebody's found two swords just behind us. The obvious conclusion is beginning to dawn on everyone. It would be spectacular if this was another grave with swords in it.

And there's no reason to think that it can't be at the moment. In which case, if it is, there's a good chance that this field is full of swords. Paul has almost completed the swords. It's been hard work, but a fascinating time. process. He's learned a new respect for both these types of sword. The people who made them and the men who wielded them. They're both remarkable blades. The Viking sword is a purest weapon, the swordsman's sword. Yeah, I think in closely studying the original and replicating it, I think I've personally learned a lot along the way about these weapons,

about the craftsmanship that's gone into them, about the technology, which for the period is quite advanced. The blade technology, making a blade this remarkably thin and light, requires it to be remarkably well-tempered. So it's clear evidence that their steel-making abilities were very advanced at this time, looking at 10th, 11th century. And the sword itself, it's remarkable light and fast. It's just over a kilo in weight.

It's remarkably well balanced as well overall. And even this grip, I believe, has been ergonomically designed around the hand so that it can be used with either edge very efficiently as well. Many have the idea that Viking blades are simply held in a hammer grip and crude hacking swords, but this allows, this grip allows great, flexibility for really cutting and maneuvering both edges in fluid motion, real swordsmanship. The medieval sword is in a category of its own. Brute force, reach and power. This sword is very much a different beast altogether than the Viking sword.

This is a sword that undoubtedly has been designed primarily for use on horseback, first and foremost, it screams cavalry. It's a cavalry sword, no question. This sword carries a blade that is literally almost a foot longer than you would expect for a sword of this period. So I believe that this sword stands alone at the moment in the world of swords from what we know. It's quite unique. Reason for that length and that mass in the blade is for use in the saddle first. It's designed for cutting at troops, at enemy on the deck. This would really create remarkable cutting power. There's just over three and a half pounds of weight in the hand and the blade is just over 41 inches in length and so that gives you a tremendous reach not just to meet targets but with this sort

of mass and steel meeting targets you'd be you'd be cutting through your targets. with this. This is ideal for a man looking to cause some damage on horseback. It has been quite special to replicate it exactly to the same dimensions and if we use the same mass in the steel overall then we have the same weight, we have the same balance and it will move the same as that original sword has and it moves remarkably well for a cavalry. sword. I think this was made for a warrior who knew exactly his job. He knew his job very well, and this has been a custom tool for his job. But why were these swords in the burial? Who was this man they were buried with? New information comes to light. At Muso Varasto, the swords

have been x-rayed and it's revealed something. Letters, inscriptions, fragments. He's little in detail can be seen on the Viking sword, but on the medieval blade, the sign of the cross. The sword, perhaps of a Christian warrior? The survey is almost complete. Tim and the others try to figure out what they can about the burial. The man was buried around 1,300 AD with the Christian inscribed sword, plus an axe, a spear, and a few other simple items.

but also in his grave, carefully and deliberately placed, with the much older pre-Christian remnants of a cremation, the burnt Viking sword and burnt human bone. But significantly, there was not enough bone to represent a whole cremated burial. There were just a few pieces. It actually might just be a symbolic act of taking a handful of cremation burial remains from all the site and just scatter it over the disease so it might actually not be a single person that is being made.

And if they're taking the sword from an earlier important grave and they may think right it's important that we take part of that individual and then put that in the grave as well. So what appears to be happening is they've dug a grave, they've put somebody in it, and that's late medieval and you can tell by the sword and you've dated the bones

or something from that medieval grave and then for some reason they've put a sword an earlier sword on the top and have put cremated remains back on the top of this individual so if it was a Christian burial

one it wouldn't really be buried with a sword because you're not supposed to put artifacts in with an old Christian burial. So the fact that he's got a sword with him is interesting. Is this an east-west burial?

Yes, yes. He was laid east-west quite strictly. So that indicates, of course, that there are Christian elements to it. And also that it is a skeleton burial. It's a change from the old pagan ways of doing the cremation burial. But it would of course be very interesting to see if the two persons buried in the same grave are related in some way. Maybe it is his father or his forefather that is.

So it's almost as if the person who was buried, the first person who is buried, or the later Christian person, we're assuming it's Christian. But there are elements of an older religion to it because he's got a sword with him, which is not a Christian thing to be buried with really. He's got his another person buried with him and his sword, which is really unusual. So it looks like as important that this later individual wanted to form some sort of connection with the other person, either the small amount of human remains, but specifically the sword. And the sword might have been a family heirloom that his family had had for hundreds of years, or it might be something that was seen as a symbol of power, to a local chieftain or somebody else who was a local person of importance

and therefore he was claiming that power and putting it in his grave. So we don't know do we? It could be family related, it could be a political situation. So again that's another question that... Yes, because in this time when this barrier has taken place it's a time of change here in Hawaii. It's the time of the Christian area getting started and I was also a power struggle between basically east and west, between Naguard and the Swedish realm. So it's a really interesting time period also.

It's fast changes. Well, that is almost reflected in the grave itself because if it is a Christian burial, but it contains swords, especially a pagan sword, that it's almost as if the person who is dying is hedging his bets and saying, yes, I'm a Christian, my family have always been pagans,

and therefore I'm not too sure yet which way I am going to go. Yes, there are examples I know from Sweden where they have barriers with a cross and also a tors hammer in the same grave. So they have made sure that they have both radiance. Yeah, I think so. And then later when the Christianity dominates completely,

then of course you shouldn't have the sword in the grave, because you're not really allowed to have grave goods. That is a very pagan thing to do. And so this person is a bit of both, isn't it? Especially looking backwards onto something that was obviously very pagan into the Viking sort of period. Little is now known about the incursions made into Finland in the late 13th century by both Novgorod and Sweden. The pagan dark ages were being transformed by the spread of Christianity. What I found interesting is trying to get into the head of this man who was buried there.

We're talking about a Christian cemetery that potentially is on the cusp of becoming Christian from the old-fashioned paganism. In which case, what is this man doing there with a sword being buried in his grave? And it's almost certainly connected to the fact that he was a warrior. He was somebody who used a sword.

And also, what were the warriors doing there? He's probably related to the armed conflicts related to the Crusades. The Crusades to the Middle East, which began in the late 11th century, opened the door for religious campaigns wherever Christianity sought to prosper or expand. The pagan lands of Finland were the object of much attention. Back in York, Tim and Rachel have processed the data. They're comparing the results with the 1692 map.

If you look at the old map, right in the middle of it, in the place we're interested in, there's an enclosure in the middle of the field. But we don't know what it is and it doesn't tell us what that enclosure refers to. But what's really good and very interesting for us, if we superimpose the magnetic data and then we can zoom in, we can see that coincides absolutely exactly with this feature, this enclosure, that you found on the magnetometer. survey, which can't be a coincidence. It's got to be the same one, I think.

The feature Rachel located is some kind of enclosure, ditch or embankment. It's a fantastic find. But what it was, a settlement, a fort, a burial ground, or something else entirely, it won't be certain until the site is one day excavated. Only then will it be known if the 2013 skeleton was the only warrior of Yan'an. to have been buried in a grave of swords. One thing we don't know is what these pieces of metal relate to. Now we know that some are quite large, but we also know that some of these are linear, in that, you know, they're about that long, and a solid piece of metal.

Now that's coincidental because there are two swords that we know of in this location. Does that mean that the whole of this field is full of swords? is full of sorts. Is this a large burial ground full of individuals that were buried with their swords? It does go through your mind about the person, the real person behind the skeleton and the artifacts or whatever. And so you try to put yourself in their position a little bit

because you think, well, why they're here? What were they doing? What was their life like? And especially if they've died in under traumatic circumstances. And of course you can visualize their death. And that makes you think. Definitely makes you think. Thanks for exploring the past with us today.

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