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New peer-reviewed article by me, Timo Muhonen, @MinervaPiha, @jhrant & Jasse Tiilikkala about historical bear skull tree sites has been published in SKAS, the publication of the Society for Medieval Archaeology in Finland! It's in Finnish, so I will summarise it in this🧵1/16 
The importance of #bear in Finnish folklore is highlighted in the bear-hunt ritual. It included a feast with the removal of flesh and cleansing of the skull, which was ceremoniously nailed on a pine tree. 19th-C visitor accounts and folk poems describe several of these trees. 2/
Some folklorists have linked the trees with bear rituals and ancient beliefs of Finno-Ugric peoples. However, there are several issues that we address in our article. We did a survey of 10 sites that can be linked to skull trees based on place names and historical records. 3/16
