The medieval village of Mankby was deserted in the sixteenth century. A team of researchers examined the history of the unique site in a project that spanned several years.

The story of Mankby unfolded gradually. The village turned out to have been a diverse whole, and the results of the project were surprising.

– At the very beginning, we discovered a fossilised medieval village, with most of the buildings constructed during its final stage more or less visible to the naked eye. Excavations provided us with access to its earlier stages. There are not many fossilised villages of this type in Finland, and it is already safe to say that an equally large and well-preserved medieval village can hardly be found anywhere else in Finland, says Georg Haggrén, an adjunct professor of historical archaeology, about Mankby, a village that used to be located in what is now Espoo.

Haggrén and his team have been examining Mankby since 2007. A book, Mankby – A deserted medieval village on the coast of southern Finland, was published as a result of the long process in May 2016.

The oldest buildings discovered in Mankby are from the thirteenth century. By Finnish standards, Mankby was a large village, with its eight houses and around 50 inhabitants. All of the houses were relocated in 1556, when Espoo Manor was established. Some of the buildings were transferred by peasants, while others were used by the Crown for purposes related to the manor.

– This means that there is a sense in which time stopped for Mankby 500 years ago. In some respects, land use has been practically non-existent since then, which makes Mankby a unique site, says Haggrén.

– There is very little information about medieval Finland. Archaeology provides us with better access to daily life than written sources, which focus more on administration. There is more information about the period beginning in the seventeenth century, but Mankby had already been abandoned at that point.

However, written material has been discovered about the very final stages of the village, and this material indicates the number of houses and also provides some information about farming, mostly consisting of the names of farmers.

Researcher Tarja Knuutinen was in charge of the excavations in the lower part of the village. This area covered around 100 square metres in the eastern part of the village and included sites of buildings, ancient fields and roadbed.

– I examined a building that was only slightly visible above the ground when we started. It was a building from the final stages of the village that had probably been taken down when the village was abandoned. In addition, we discovered earlier structures dating back as far as the fourteenth century.

According to Knuutinen, the building from the early sixteenth century is very similar to later smoke cottages. It is part of a building tradition that continued almost until our time. Another building examined in Mankby turned out to be a double cottage – that is, a markedly larger house. According to the researchers, it was not the home of an ordinary peasant, but the home of a member of the rälssi class, which was exempt from taxes and enjoyed many other privileges.

The artefacts discovered in Mankby are varied and indicate an active culture of trading that provided even peasants with items from as far as Central Europe.

The development of the village and its layers can be seen in its lower part: the village was first used for cultivation and then for construction.

– The fossilised fields have now been dated to the fourteenth century, and their cultivation may have continued until the early fifteenth century. In terms of research, they constitute an interesting whole, as there are not many similar fields located in the middle of a village. In Mankby, we have gained access to a system of fields and its ditches and foundations.

The artefacts discovered in Mankby are varied and indicate an active culture of trading that provided even peasants with items from as far as Central Europe. These artefacts include fragments of glass goblets, three-legged cauldrons made of red clay and jugs made of stone clay, as well as pieces of horse accessories, such as stirrups, and jewellery and buckles and other items related to clothing.

– From the very beginning, we found an exceptionally large number of knives: sheath knives used for daily work and eating, as well as fine table knives that reached Finland along with influences of Central European culinary culture in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. These influences clearly had found their way to Mankby as well, says Elina Terävä, who was responsible for the examination of artefacts.

The varied artefacts also indicate that people living in modest homes had items that are not traditionally associated with the austerity of peasant life. This came as a surprise to the researchers as well.

– The artefacts are quite fine. We discovered a surprisingly large amount of imported goods, which is a sign of trading. Small ornamental items made of iron, for example, indicate that life was not only about necessities. The people wanted a little luxury, which was provided by items used in Central Europe, for example.

Photo: The knives attracted the researchers’ attention. With its length of more than 20 centimetres, this knife was exceptionally large, as well as being unusually ornate. The knives were decorated using bronze and bone, among other materials.

The image of the taciturn Finns is a much-repeated stereotype that is still common. At the same time, Finns are automatically subject to being compared with other nationalities.

“However, no one has actually studied the nature of this taciturnity,” says Anna Vatanen, who is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Helsinki. “In what situations are Finns reticent and compared to whom?” Vatanen decided to take on the task herself.

Vatanen looks at how people who are acquainted with each other behave in natural interaction situations. She studies how they react to moments of silence during a conversation and how they create such moments: what marks the beginning and the end of silence and what happens in between. Is the silence natural or awkward? Do the persons involved feel the need to busy themselves with something else during the silence? Vatanen bases her analysis on videotaped conversations.

Is the silence natural or awkward? Do the persons involved feel the need to busy themselves with something else during the silence?

Vatanen looks for pauses and repetitive patterns in the pauses. Her aim is to find any general strategies and relate them to the common suppositions about Finnish taciturnity and findings from studies in other languages.

Moments of silence

Although it is early days, Vatanen already suspects that there is something unique to the way Finns relate to silence. Earlier research has shown that pauses occur even among English-speakers. However, during these pauses, the parties typically focus on something else, like petting a dog or fetching a book. In conversations between Finns, there are moments when nothing happens at all.

“They just remain there, quite relaxed,” Vatanen explains.

“The most interesting thing is not necessarily how long the pause is, but what happens during it.”

Vatanen’s research material includes discussions while eating breakfast, driving in a car, playing board games and visiting a friend. Naturally, some pauses occur when a speaker focuses on something else, such as the next move in the game. But, as Vatanen points out, such situations do not always require everybody else to stop talking.

“Even a couple of seconds of silence may feel like a long time. If there are many such moments and they don’t seem awkward, it probably means that the people involved are alright with them.”

What is silence?

“As a matter of fact, ‘silence’ only means that nobody is speaking in a situation,” says Vatanen. “But there are other kinds of interaction, such as nods and looks, which makes silence slightly misleading.”

It is also a matter of how people manifest their connections. Words are not always required; just being there is sometimes enough.

“As a matter of fact, ‘silence’ only means that nobody is speaking in a situation,” says Vatanen.

“Maybe it’s characteristic of Finnish-speakers to refrain from saying anything at all. It may be a normal way of being together. On the other hand, even if Finns have a different attitude to silence than other nationalities, it does not mean that Finns are always, or in general, ‘taciturn’. Furthermore, you mustn’t treat ‘Finns’ as a homogeneous group with just one, common way of doing things.”

In spring, Vatanen will travel to Australia to work with her colleagues there. She is eager to learn about the Australian researchers’ views on the subject and if they see it as something strange or anomalous.

“I don’t think I will be able to establish where the notion of the taciturn Finns originates, but I hope and believe I will be able to reveal something about the reality behind the stereotype.”

Text: Jenni Heikkinen

“Artistic freedom is everything for a film-maker. Maybe it’s easier to ask for it once you have proved yourself to be trustworthy”, wonders film director Juho Kuosmanen.

His movie The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki won the prize of Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, and great success has been predicted for the movie and its director.

The overall effect of the publicity the movie has got thanks to Cannes will only become clear later, but Kuosmanen says that at least the partners in the movie have liked the attention. According to Kuosmanen, The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki seems to be selling well overseas, and the director is also happy if other Finnish film-makers receive attention thanks to the film.

“When one film-maker from a country is noticed, it usually means that people start looking at the whole country.”

An exceptional man, an exceptional movie

The idea for The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki came in 2011. Kuosmanen tried to write a couple of scripts, but they just did not seem to progress. Taulukauppiaat (The Painting Sellers), the movie Kuosmanen directed as his graduate work, had won best student movie award at Cannes earlier.  This meant that Kuosmanen’s first full-length feature film would also be shown at the festival, putting even more pressure on the work. The Kuosmanen came across the story of boxer Olli Mäki.

“I thought that through it I could address the same feelings, i.e. pressure and success, and what it means to different people.”

The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki depicts Mäki’s preparations for his upcoming world title fight. At the same, he realises that he has fallen in love.

Kuosmanen was interested in how before the fight Mäki was built up to be a national hero, even though the boxer himself was expecting something less than heroic.

“Olli Mäki was a good boxer, but his kind nature was in conflict with the harshness of the sport.” As he was an exceptional boxer, it was necessary to make an exceptional boxing movie.

Recreation from silent movies

Now Kuosmanen is working on two scripts, and over the winter he is shooting a silent movie for the Loud Silents festival. In store is a new version of Finland’s oldest film, Salaviinanpolttajat from 1907.

Kuosmanen has previous experience of making silent movies; in 2012 he made the movie Romu-Mattila ja Kaunis Nainen. It is being shown again in Paris, at the film archive in conjunction with the premiere of  The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki.

“The periods between films are long, as are the processes, especially when you want to be involved in everything. For this reason it is good to have some shorter projects in between, so that there is still that feeling of doing things together and a bit of playfulness. Silent movies are refreshing projects and they also bring with them ideas.”

The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Mäki is in theatres from 2 September 2016.