Returned skulls reveal unexpected origins
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Researchers at the University of Turku discovered that some human skulls recently returned to Finland from Sweden do not belong to Finnish people.
The Karolinska Institutet in Sweden returned 82 skulls to Finland in August 2024. These skulls had been taken from Finland to Sweden during the 1800s for anthropological research, with some excavated from Finnish cemeteries and others sent from the University of Helsinki.
Most of the skulls identified as Finnish have been reburied, but scientists are still working to determine the origins of those from outside Finland. The research is complicated by a lack of records for some skulls and by fires at the Karolinska Institutet in the 19th century that destroyed some documentation.
Dosent Ulla Nordfors from the University of Turku stated the skulls do not originate from the Sami people, but researchers are currently unable to share further details as the investigation continues. They hope to eventually return the remaining skulls to their original homelands.
