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Archipelago National Park

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Archipelago National Park (Swedish: Skärgårdshavets nationalpark, Finnish: Saaristomeren kansallispuisto) is a national park in Finland Proper. It was established in 1983 and covers 500 square kilometres (193 sq mi) of land areas[1][2]. Which is a huge land area considering that the area mostly is outer archipelago with few islands even 1 km² - and the big ones are inhabited and mostly privately owned and thus not part of the national park. The park's webpages gives that number as non-qualified "area"}} It is part of the UNESCO biosphere reserves and received a PAN Parks certificate in 2007.

The National park encompasses all state-owned land and water areas owned by the state whitin the borders of the co-operation area surrounding the park. This is more or less the entire outer archipelago of the Archipelago Sea on the eastern side of the Åland Islands and south of the Korpo, Nagu, Pargas and Kimitoön main islands.[3] The Archipelago Sea Biosphere reserve consists of the national park's co-operation area and the rest of the islands in the Åboland archipelago only accesible by boat or ferry. These areas are mainly situated in Nagu, Korpo, Houtskär, Iniö, Hitis and southern Pargas.

There are considerable areas of traditional agricultural landscapes within the national park. One of the objectives of national park besides protecting nature is to protect the archipelago culture and different cultural landscapes. The co-operation area plays a great in this. The National park by itself encompasses about 2000 of the 8400 islets and skerries within the co-operation area. The larger islands are mainly owned by their inhabitants.

You may move around freely by boat in the National park,with the exception of some protected areas. Shuttle ships operate the inhabited islands and many entrepreneurs offer transportation by agreement. Camping is allowed only in designated places (allowed on privately own lands in accordance with the freedom to roam, remembering to respect the domestic peace. Building campfires is allowed only in designated places, unless a force majeure situation arise. Firemaking is prohibited if a forest fire warning is in effect. One may pick berries and mushrooms. Mind roosting birds when landing on islets. Islets with many nesting birds should only be visited in autumn and winter. The Blue Mussel visitor center in Kasnäs, (Kimitoön) and the archipelago center in Korpoström (Korpo) offers information on the Archipelago Sea ant the Archipelago National park. There are bus conenctions to both. There are nature trails on some of the islands. There is a underwater trail for divers on Stora Hästö in Korpo (and one in shallower water for snorkelers).[4][5]

History

Man settles in the Archipelago

The archipelago of Finland proper has been populated since the neolithic (roughly 2000-1300 BCE). The rich natural resources attracted people to the post-glacial archipelago in the stone and bronze ages. The Baltic Sea was much more saline in those days, thus offering large catches of Atlantic cod among other fish. A large population of grey seal inhabited the area. The humans utilized the rich populations of sea birds as a source of eggs, meat and down. Because of the warmer climate, the conditions for small-scale agriculture and cattle herding were even better than nowadays.[6]

Due to Post-glacial rebound the islands in the Archipelago Sea suitable for habitation have risen from the sea and inhabitants have moved farther out in the archipelago as large enough islands have surfaced. The ground still rises in the Archipelago Sea at a rate of approximately 3-4,2 mm per year.[7] During the Stone Age and the Bronze Age, the islets of the present-day outer archipelago were 20 - 25 metres below the sea level. Then outer archipelago was located around the present main islands of Nagu, Korpo and Houtskär. Nowadays, the Stone Age settlement of Bötesberget in the municipality of Dragsfjärd, from 6000 BCE, is located 55 metres above the sea level, on forested upland. In the old days, the landscape surrounding its inhabitants was quite different from today: the settlement was situated on an isolated island in the middle of large open water areas.[8]

Inside the actual co-operation area of Archipelago National Park, no Stone Age settlements have been found so far, but there are about forty burial mounds from the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Two fort islets from the prehistoric times have also been recognised in the archipelago, possibly dating back to the Iron Age.[8] Trade, handcraft and navigation were practiced already in the early times in addition to the basic sources of livelihood. Sailing began in the whole of the Baltic Sea region latest in the Bronze Age. The southwestern archipelago became a part of the northern Baltic Sea region cultures, which had common means of livelihood, use of metals, and burial customs. The present National Park area became inhabited in the Iron Age (500 BCE-1150 CE). Many ancient remains of the Iron Age settlements have been found in the National Parks co-operation area. Pollen analysis has shown that the agriculture in the coast has been continuous since the Iron Age until these days.[6] The most characteristic antiquities of the archipelago are relics from the historic times, from the end of the Iron Age until the 1700s and 1800s. These immovable relics are also protected by the Antiquities Act.[8]

The most impressive relics in the archipelago are the cairns. These cairns have been built during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age from stones which “a man is able to lift”. The size of these barrows varies, the diameter of some low cairns is a few metres, but some are tens of metres long and a couple of metres high. In the beginning of the Bronze Age, dead bodies were buried in these barrows, but later it became the custom to burn the dead body. In some of the graves, there are jewellery or weapons. In others, there are no artefacts, or they have not been preserved. The Finnish folksy name for these cairns translates literally as “Devil’s sauna stove”.[8]

Burial mounds have been found in all parts of the archipelago, on islands of various size. However, most barrows have originally been built on larger islands, which have later become even bigger due to the land uplift. Often the burial sites have been chosen so that they stand out from the surrounding landscape, such as rocky hills or tops of the islands, with a view to the sea. The burial mounds in Archipelago National Park are low and quite small heaps of stones, which have been built near the highest place of the islands, but not on the very top. Some graves are near the shore, and some are organised in groups of several cairns. Most of the burial mounds in Southwestern Archipelago, if not all of them, are from the Iron Age. Inside the co-operation area of Archipelago National Park, most graves have been found on the large islands of Nötö and Hitis. Already in the Iron Age, these areas bristled with islands, from which it was not a long way to go fishing or seal hunting in the outer archipelago. This area, with its favourable natural conditions, may well have been inhabited already in the Iron Age.[8]

The Swedes settle in the archipelago

Skärgårdshavets befolkning började öka märkbart under 1200-talets senare hälft, då svenskar flyttade dit från Svealand, södra Norrland och Götaland.[9] Av de nuvarande byarna i Särgårdshavets nationalparks samarbetsområde var över hälften bebodda redan på medeltiden.[10]

Skärgårdshavets invånarantal fortsatte växa till mitten av 1500-talet, varefter det började minska snabbt. Befolkningsmängden hade blivit för stor och alla kunde inte försörja sig genom den tidens tekniker. Livet i skärgården hade blivit svårare och även krig och farsoter plågade samhällena. Stora ofreden och pesten spred en skugga över skärgårdsbornas liv i början av 1700-talet.[10]

Största delen av ytterskärgårdens arkeologiska fynd är kopplade till fiskenäringen. Exempel på sådana fynd är tomtningar, labyrinter, båtuppdragningspaltser, stenugnar samt märken som huggits i berget. Tomtningarna har att göra med enkla övernattningsskydd eller förrådshyddor, som våra förfäder byggde för att skydda sig under sina säsongbetonade fiskefärder. Man var tvungen att vistas länge på fiskefärder och man behövde något skydd i de stränga förhållandena i skärgården. Av dessa tillfälliga skydd har det ofta bevarats en vågrät, röjd golvyta som omgärdas av en mur av uppstaplade stenar. Ibland har man som en del av skyddskonstruktionen använt sig av terrängformer såsom bergväggar.[11]

På Jurmo i Korpo hittas några av Skärgårdshavets mest undersökta fornlämningar: så kallade munkringar. Dessa fyra stenringar försökte man tyda redan på 1700-talet, då man trodde att de gjorts av munkar från Kökar. Om den tolkningen är riktig kan stenringarna dateras till medeltiden. Forskningen har visat att franciskanerbröder verkligen levde i Kökar från 1300-talets slut fram till 1530-talet. Munkarna kan alltså mycket väl ha byggt stenringarna till exempel i samband med sina fiskefärder. Varför munkarna byggde stenringarna är kunskap som man ännu inte har lyckats gräva fram från medeltidens dunkel. En tolkning är att ringarna skulle vara just tomtningar som är lämningar från tillfälliga bostäder.[11]

I mitten av 1800-talet förändrades livet då tekniska nyheter underlättade anskaffande av uppehället i den yttre skärgården. Nya fiskemetoder såsom drivnät och krokskötar, krävde inte längre bybornas gemensamma insats och de möjliggjorde även bosättning utanför skärgårdsbyarna. Ny bosättning ledde till en snabb ökning i invånarantalet.[10]

Inkomstmöjligheterna på fastlandet och i städerna började locka folk från skärgården redan under 1900-talets början. Först övergavs de allra torftigaste torpen. Trots möjligheterna som fastlandet erbjöd förblev den yttre skärgården bebodd ända fram till 1950-talet. Till följd av utflyttningen slutade kor, hästar och får beta på öarna och de tidigare åkrarna, ängarna och torrängarna förskogades gradvis. Även det gamla byggnadsbeståndet förföll.[9] Under 1970-talet började nya invånare slå sig ner i skärgården, då stugfolket fann det sommarparadis som Skärgårdshavet erbjöd.[10]


See also

References

  1. ^ [1]
  2. ^ Nationalparken regleras av Lag om Skärgårdshavets nationalpark (645/1982) och förordningen om Skärgårdshavets nationalpark (1123/1994) samt parkens ordningsstadga
  3. ^ karta över samarbetsområdet
  4. ^ http://www.outdoors.fi/destinations/nationalparks/archipelago/instructionsandrules/Pages/Default.aspx Archipelago national park rules
  5. ^ http://www.outdoors.fi/destinations/nationalparks/archipelago/activities/Pages/Default.aspx Archipelago national park activities
  6. ^ a b [2]
  7. ^ Lindgen, Leif 2000: Island pastures Oy Edita Ab, Helsinki. ISBN 951-37-3272-X
  8. ^ a b c d e The Prehistory and the History of the Outer Archipelago
  9. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Skärgårdens betesmarker was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  10. ^ a b c d Cite error: The named reference Skärgårdshavets historia was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Den förhistoriska och historiska tiden i ytterskärgården was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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