Finnishness | The museum revealed that the people of Vantaa from the Stone Age were probably dark-skinned – Some went crazy

“Maybe researchers, green-left commers who want to destroy history????”

At the turn of the year, there was a small uproar in social media, which was related to what the early inhabitants of Vantaa looked like in the Stone Age. Some comments immediately slipped into inappropriateness.

The starting point of the commotion is Vantaan Sanomat article, whose main image shows a dark-skinned girl with a dog in her arms on the beach. In the text of the story, an archaeologist from the Vantaa City Museum Andreas Koivisto wrote that the early people of Vantaa who lived around 9,500 years ago most likely had dark skin and black hair.

This information was clearly too much for many commenters.

HS has seen comments under the Facebook update, some of which were openly racist. In some cases, for example, the researcher's professionalism or political orientation were questioned. The story garnered more than a hundred comments on Vantaa Sanomat's Facebook page.

“Propaganda.”

“Fake studies, bullshit!”

In the end, the comments pondered whether the “green-left communist researchers” really want to “destroy history”.

Archaeologist Koivisto's claim about the early people of Vantaa is not made up of wind.

It is based on dna studies conducted in Scandinavia, the Baltic countries and Russia, as well as archeological artefact discoveries made in Finland.

By studying the skeletons, it has been possible to find out what color hair, eyes and skin an ancient person had.

The researched information suggests that the early people of Vantaa may have had a relatively dark skin color. Koivisto also wrote about it in mid-January blog post.

Koivisto tells HS that he was not surprised by the reaction his writing caused. He says he was prepared for this kind of feedback.

“Colleagues had warned me in advance,” he says.

However, Koivisto wonders where people's strong and even prejudiced attitude to the matter comes from. When he goes around schools talking about the same things, there is no similar reaction among the children.

“In schools, we can have a really reasonable discussion about the matter. Partly it may be due to the fact that Vantaa is very multicultural and that is also visible in the schools,” he says.

On the other hand, according to Koivisto, the topic easily causes shocked reactions in social media. He believes that it stems from the fact that the idea of ​​dark-skinned early Vantaans simply does not fit the worldview of many.

For Koivisto, this is a funny idea, especially when the people of Vantaa from the Stone Age have almost nothing to do with the genetic inheritance of modern Finns.

As a result of the cooling of the climate and the migration of peoples, the current Finns are mostly inherited from people who arrived here about 2,500–3,000 years ago. That is, from the immigrants of that time.

“Here we are talking about people who lived thousands of years ago, but still it seems to be a hard piece for some people to swallow.”

Koivisto according to it is true that no Stone Age human DNA has been isolated from Finland so far. Assumptions about the appearance of early Finns are based on discoveries from other countries.

Still, he reminds us that dna studies conducted in neighboring countries strongly suggest that the first inhabitants of the Finland and Vantaa region were very likely to have been largely dark-skinned.

Koivisto hopes that people would not start commenting on a matter based on scientific research on the spur of the moment.

“You should even try to get to know the information and be open to new things.”

If you wish, you can learn more about the early people of Vantaa in the exhibition at the Vantaa City Museum, which is open until February 25. The exhibition is based on Andreas Koiviston and by Tom Björklund to be published in a children's information book Ikikallio's stories. From mammoths to our time (Aviator 2023).