Memorialization and heritagization : investigating the site of the last execution by hanging in Finland
Ikäheimo, Janne; Äikäs, Tiina; Kallio-Seppä, Titta (2019-06-12)
Ikäheimo, J., Äikäs, T. & Kallio-Seppä, T. Hist Arch (2019) 53: 393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-019-00183-x
© The Author(s) 2019. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi-fe2019080623573
Tiivistelmä
Abstract
This article focuses on the processes of memorialization and heritagization through a case study from Oulu, Finland, where a cast-iron rail encircling a pine tree constitutes a memorial marking the site of the country’s last official execution by hanging in 1916. The memorial and its immediate surroundings are examined here through historical documents and maps, tree-ring data, interviews, and the results of small-scale archaeological excavations. The evidence indicates various modes of interaction—crosses carved on the memorial tree, a magical cache, finds pertaining mainly to the consumption of intoxicating substances—exposing a lesser-known and more intimate side of the site biography than is evident from written records. Finally, both individual and national practices of remembering and forgetting related to the memorial highlight the way memorialization transformed the death of an ordinary man into a nationalistic symbol to be used and exploited in various quarters during the past century.
Kokoelmat
- Avoin saatavuus [34329]
