The research team was granted three-year funding last summer.
For researchers like Koivisto, the Järvensuo archaeological site continues to be a godsend of preservation. From human remains to this staff of a slithering reptile, the marshland’s peat has worked wonders in freezing objects in time, according to Ancient Origins.
The site was accidentally found by workers in the 1950s trying to build a drainage ditch who found a wooden paddle dating to the Neolithic era. While fishing tools and pottery were found in the 1980s, a full excavation was never launched — until the Academy of Finland granted archaeologists three-year funding in 2020.
The staff itself was excavated within months of this and appears to depict either a European adder or a grass snake opening its jaws. Koivisto described the find as a “thought-provoking glimpse from far back in time,” while peripheral discoveries have made this object all the more fascinating.
Experts have long noted that North European rock art of the era in question has depicted humanoid figures holding snake staffs such as this. From Lake Onega and the White Sea in Finland’s border town of Karelia to sites in the Kola Peninsula, these rock carvings show curiously similar features to that staff unearthed here.
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