Mourning and remembering : mortuary monuments and graves for horses in Finland

Abstract

<div lang="en" class="abs"><p class="abs_header">Abstract</p><p>Contrary to socially and legislatively controlled human burial grounds with organized maintenance at some localities, pet cemeteries and graves with their inherent do-it-yourself character are often stages for more spontaneous expressions of grief and longing. The evidence of remembering varies from unmarked graves to elaborate memorials with headstones, epitaphs, flowers, and personal objects. The many-faceted memorials of animals kept for company and the material culture associated with them enable the study of issues like human-animal relations and acts of mourning and remembering. These aspects will be discussed here first, in relation to the long-term changes and variation in horse burials from the end of the nineteenth century to the twentifirst century. In agrarian society, horses were buried most often in the farms and woods, sometimes also in village horse cemeteries. Famous trotters were memorialized by burying them near a trotting track. Second, we will discuss the use of the Mikonkangas Pet Cemetery (established in 1993), in Oulu, Finland with c. 200 horse burials and ca. 4,500 smaller companion animal burials. The researchmethods developed for this paper have included designing bespoke archaeological documentation, analyzing historical documents and newspapers, interviewing the horse caretakers and their relatives, periodic visits to the cemetery, and excavating early twentieth century horse burials. This chapter discusses the use of these different methods in documenting horse burials and exploring the ethical aspects of such research.</p></div>