The lithic industry from layers IV-V, Susiluola Cave, Western Finland, dated to the Eemian interglacial

The excavations (1997‑2000) of the Susiluola cave site in Western Finland yielded a stratigraphic sequence of seven gravel layers of different characteristic including one interglacial soil horizon. The four lower layers contained archaeological finds. The uppermost archaeological horizon (layer IV‑V) was dated to the Eemian interglacial (TL‑IRSL‑dating, geomorphological comparisons to Eemian paleosols, an interglacial sea level transgression). The site is in many aspects interesting as well as problematic. It is the first archaeological site within the area of the Fennoscandian ice shield, which has produced evidence for human activity in Northern Fennoscandia predating the last glaciation. The cave, functioning as a sediment trap, preserved Pleistocene deposits and their archaeological find material. But littoral and glaciofluvial processes had disturbed partly even these deposits, and the lithic material suffered by abrasion. Because of the acidity of the bedrock and the gravel layers, no Pleistocene faunal material was preserved. Several rock types were used as lithic raw material: mainly small pebbles, collected in the surroundings of the site (quartzite, quartz, sandstone), a part of the material is not local (red siltstone, fine‑grained quartzite). Rock species of good fracture qualities, as flint, are missing. A noticeable characteristic in the material is the coexistence of different operation chains with differing reduction techniques, depending on fracture qualities of the raw material. The lithic assemblage from Susiluola layer IV‑V shows several technological and typological features, which belong to the early (Eemian) Mousterian technocomplex.