Tracks, Paths and Roads: Infrastructure and Transport in Finland and the Baltic Sea Area from the Viking Age to Medieval Times (800-1500 AD)

Translation: Sari Hänninen. The study of early road history in Finland is a synthesis based on indirect archeological evidence, retrospective interpretation of historical data, topography, and the general economic and transport history of the entire Baltic Sea. The economic importance of the Baltic Sea area increased in the early 9th century with the opening of the eastern and western navigation routes of the Vikings. Regular trade began, and uninhabited trading and market places, as well as transport routes became established. For Finland, this meant the establishment of land routes between the inland and the regions inhabited by the coastal tribes. Rights of way were defined, and the upkeep of these routes was organized by the tribal parish system. The Viking Age land routes can be outlined on the basis of the links between the centers of production and the analysis of human geography. The trade links of the Baltic changed in the beginning of the 11th century. In the east, Novgorod was interested in expanding its sphere of influence at the cost of the eastern Finnish tribes. The cultural area of the Western Finns had by then gained a more western orientation. In the 12th century, the affinity between the east and the west was turning into a conflict of interests involving trade policy and political ambitions, which was made all the more acute by the struggle for power between the churches. This new stage of development also involved the introduction of the concept of 'ancient towns' or merely trading villages with permanent and regularly used routes between those towns and their spheres of influence.