Skip to content

The axe of Kuusamo

A silver treasure of ten items was discovered by chance in Lämsänkylä in connection with road repairs in 1953. The treasure was discovered by Arvo Määttä. First, a pendant with a chain and four necklaces were found. Two bracelets and three horseshoe buckles were found later. Both findings were wrapped in birch bark. All the findings were intact, the surface only had a patina brought on by time. The value of the entire find is remarkably high. The total weight of the silver treasure was 0,8 kg.

There is no exact time to which period these belong, but this and all the other jewellery and money treasures discovered in Kuusamo have been dated in the years 1050–1150.

An axe-like piece of jewellery with a pendant emerges. This axe-like piece of jewellery inspired Kuusamo’s axe in the summer of 1974. Anna Salminen of the Kuusamo-Seura was behind the idea. The idea was to make it the size of the original piece of jewellery, but it would have been too expensive. So, they ended up with a reduced version of the axe, without pendants. The jewellery was made by Kalevala Koru, and it was one of their best-selling jewelleries.