FINLAND 2004

                               UNESCO WORLD - SAMMALLAHTI

The Bronze Age ruins site at Sammallahdenmaki is in the village of Lappi in Ala - Satakunta.

The area of ancient ruins is a unique concetenqation. A cliff - top area of less than a km has more than 30 Bronge Age burial mounds of different shares and sizes. The best - known ancient ruins in the area are the almost rectangular mound called "Church Floor" and the wall - like, 24 - metre " LOng Ruin of the Whistle".

When the mounts were built thousands of years ago, they were sited on a seashore cliff top as memorials. They were made big and highly visible so that the area was inhabited. sice those days, the land has risen some 30 meters; the Gulf of Bithnia is now more than 10 km away. This is why it looks as if the monument is on top of a small mountain. The stone the mounds are made of are now conered in beautiful lichens.

One of the two stamps of the miniature sheet shows three stones adorned with lichen, and the other bears a drawing of an ancient ruined stone wall. The upper edge of the sheet dericts an artist's conception of the past when the mounds and barrows were on a seashore cliff top.