Ukonkivi ("

Ukko (), or ( Finnish for 'male grandparent', 'grandfather', 'old man'), parallel to Uku in Estonian mythology, is the god of the sky, weather, harvest, and thunder across Finnic paganism. , the Finnish word for thunder, is the diminutive ...

's rock") is located on the island of Ukonsaari in lake Inari,

Finnish Lapland Lapland is the largest and northernmost Regions of Finland, region of Finland. The 21 municipalities in the region cooperate in a Regional Council. Lapland borders the Finnish region of North Ostrobothnia in the south. It also borders the Gul ...

. The

Inari Sámi Inari Sámi may refer to: *Inari Sámi language *Inari Sámi people Inari or Aanaar Sámi (Inari Sámi language, Inari Sámi: ''anarâšah'') are a group of Sámi people who inhabit the area around Lake Inari, Finland. They speak the Inari Sámi l ...

name for the island is Äijih. The area of the lake is called Ukonselkä. Ukonkivi was considered by the local

to be an extremely important '' sieidi'' (, ), or sacred natural formation, and was used as a sacrificial site, perhaps as recently as in the 19th century. The names "

" and " Äijih" refer to

sky deities The sky often has important religious significance. Many polytheistic religions have deities associated with the sky. The daytime sky deities are typically distinct from the nighttime ones. Stith Thompson's ''Motif-Index of Folk-Literature'' ...

in the Finnish and Sámi mythologies, respectively. The island is about high, broad and a long. The distance from the village of Inari to Ukonkivi is approximately . There are guided tours to the site during the summer from the harbour of the Sámi museum,

Siida A is an organisation of humans traditionally present in Sámi people, Sámi societies consisting of several families of reindeer herders whose reindeer graze together. s traditionally encompassed more resources than reindeer, but after changes ...

. There are two known siedis at Ukonsaari. The first one to be studied was a sacrificial cave. One of the most important

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

findings in Lapland was made at Ukonkivi in 1873 by the British archaeologist

Sir Arthur Evans Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. The first excavations at the Minoan palace Minoan palaces were massive building complexe ...

, when a silver jewellery fragment was found in the cave. An additional siedi was discovered in 2007 by Finnish archaeologists. The names of some of the numerous islands adjacent to Ukonsaari may suggest other religious sites, for example: * Palo Ukko (Finnish: ''Fire-Ukko'') * Pikku Ukko (''Little Ukko'') * Ukonkarit (''Ukko's

skerries A skerry is a small rocky island, usually defined to be too small for habitation. Skerry, skerries, or The Skerries may also refer to: Geography Northern Ireland *Skerries, County Armagh, a List of townlands in County Armagh#S, townland in Coun ...

'', a series of islets close to Ukonsaari) * Hautuumaasaari (''Burial ground island'') * Aviosaaret (''Marriage islands'') * Tissikivisaari (''Breast-stone island'') * Junttisaari (Juntti is a complex word approximately meaning a yokel or hillbilly.Finnish word juntti
/ref>) * Vanha hautuumaasaari (''Old burial ground island'') * Ristisalmensaaret (''Cross sound islands'')

See also

References

Further reading