Methodological perspectives for applying spatial point pattern analyses to Finnish Iron Age remote sensing data

Remote sensing technologies and spatial analytical approaches hold proven potential for generating completely new quantitative information on, as well as assisting the qualitative interpretation of, archaeological phenomena. They have been, however, under-utilized in Finland. This paper presents an illustrative case study of applying a sequence of well-established computational spatial analyses to data derived from a very precise LiDAR survey of the Nuuttilanmäki Iron Age site near the village of Kalho in Päijät-Häme. Previous fieldwork has identified a group of several stone cairns on a field and forested area near the settlement. Many more cairns, hidden by vegetation and almost invisible to fieldwork inspection, are revealed by the LiDAR data and add to our understanding of the area. Initial fieldwork assessment has suggested that the cairns in the field area and the cairns in the immediately adjacent forest have been produced by different historical processes, with the former presumed burial cairns and the latter the result of agricultural land clearance. An archaeological excavation to verify this interpretation would be prohibitively expensive and might yield uncertain results. But a computational examination of the cairn pattern shows that the spatial interactions between the two groups significantly differ from each, thereby supporting the interpretation. Such methodological approaches will assist future archaeological surveys and fieldwork, and can be applied flexibly at multiply spatial scales of study.