Bronze Age

Miniature stamp sheet

A miniature sheet comprising two stamps featuring the Bronze Age (ca 1500-500 B.C.) burial site at Sammallahdenmäki was issued on 8 September 2004. The miniature sheet was designed by professor Erik Bruun. The site is located at Kivikylä in the municipality of Lappi, province of Satakunta. The unique area, featuring 33 burial cairns within less than a kilometre, is situated on a high ridge.

Stamps designed by Erik Bruun

Erik Bruun designed the miniature sheet in co-operation with the National Board of Antiquities. - We are talking about burial cairns, but stones were piled on the then coastline for other reasons as well, he says. When the cairns were made some 3000-3500 years back, they were intentionally big and easy to spot from the sea. They marked sovereignty over the coastal area.
At the beginning of the Bronze Age, the sea level was some thirty metres higher than today. At that time, Lake Saarnijärvi to the west of the burial site was a bay.
Professor Bruun iIIustrated the one stamp with lichen-covered stones, the other with a burial cairn. In the upper margin the artist drew a fictitious view from the time the cairns were built.
The stamps were printed by De La Rue in Great Britain. The issue of the miniature sheet is 500,000.
Issue: Finland, 8 September 2004

More information

Postage Stamps 2004
Stamps of Finland
Gulf of Finland 2004 Stamps
Customised stamp
Beloved work of art
Aeroplanes from different decades