The Kvarnbo Hall : Reconsidering the Importance of the Late Iron Age Åland Islands

This article accounts for and contextualizes a newly discovered monumental longhouse, a potential hall from the Late Iron Age, on the Aland Islands, Finland. The 45m long building and its location are discussed in regional and historical context, in comparison to the full data set of coeval houses on Aland, and are argued to signal a social stratification, manifesting a higher level of achievement in this Late Iron Age society. This is further examined in the context of Iron Age settlement development. A rapid and large-scale colonization to Aland, evident in the middle of the first millennium AD, is for the first time explanatorily discussed, addressing the question of why this process occurred. Sudden population growth is linked in part to large-scale climatic disturbances, with fatal consequences in those areas of heavy agricultural dependency, forcing population movement to Aland driven by the presence of maritime resources, particularly seals, and available land.Peer reviewe