Cup-marked and sacrificial stones of Finland

Cups in the stone

A cup-marked stone is an erratic boulder or rock face ground with round hollows 3–10 centimetres across. One stone may carry a handful of cups, or over a hundred. They date from the Iron Age (roughly 500 BC–1200 AD), and more than 300 are known in Finland – most densely in Häme, Southwest Finland and Satakunta, on the fringes of old fields and cemeteries. Folk tradition called them sacrificial stones, and the name has stuck.

What the cups were used for

There's no certain answer, since no written sources exist. The most common interpretation is that offerings were left in the cups: grain, milk, the first of the harvest, food meant for the dead. The stones often stand next to cemeteries, which links them to ancestor worship. The cups were probably ground by rotating a harder stone; the work took hours per cup, so the stone was no passing spot.

The custom lived on in folk belief for a long time. As late as the 1800s, offerings were still brought to cup-marked stones for luck with livestock and the harvest, and some stones were said to cause trouble if moved.

Sacrificial springs and sacred groves

Cups aren't the only form a sacrificial site takes. Bones of almost a hundred people from the Iron Age have been recovered from the Leväluhta spring in Isokyrö: the dead were laid in the water. It is Finland's only site of its kind, and its purpose is unknown. The Uhrilähde spring in Kemijärvi and the Uhrilehto grove in Raasepori show that water and trees were sacred too. Pirunpöytä in Kitee is a flat-topped boulder whose cups folklore explains as the devil's dinner table.

Where to see cup-marked stones

The area around Hämeenlinna, Hattula and Janakkala has dozens of cup-marked stones within a few kilometres of each other; the stone on Uhrikivenkatu in Hämeenlinna is the largest of them, with over a hundred cups. The Silvu stone in Parikkala has split in two, and natural steps lead to the top. At Padasjoki, the cups are ground into bedrock. The map also includes smaller stones named after a farm or village.

Before you go

• A cup-marked stone is an ancient monument. It must not be moved, carved into, or dug around. Candles and fires are prohibited, since heat damages the stone.
• The cups show up best after rain or in low, angled light. In the dry midday sun they disappear into the stone's surface.
• Many stones sit at the edge of a field on private land. Walk the verge, not across the crop.
• Leaving a coin isn't prohibited, but don't leave anything that won't decompose.