The Aland Sea is part of the  Baltic Sea  bordered by the Gulf of Bothnia to the north, the Gulf of Finland to the east, and the main part of the Baltic Sea to the south.

This article is written at a definitional level only. Authors wishing to improve this entry are inivited to expand the present treatment, which additions will be peer reviewed prior to publication of any expansion.

The Aland Sea and the Aland Archipelago, at the east of the sea, occupy a strategic position at the mouth of the Gulf of Bothnia; however, the Aland Archipelago is an autonomous demilitarised part of Finland.

Earliest of evidence of human habitation on the perimeter of the Aland Sea was on the Aland islands, dated to approximately 6000 years before present.

Geography

The Åland Archipelago comprises somewhat less than 300 habitable islands, of which only approximately 80 are actually inhabited; the remainder of the archipelago topographic features are around 6400 large rocks or skerries. The Aland Archipelago is approximately 38 to 40 kilometers from the Swedish mainland; thus that is the effective width of the Aland Sea.

Prehistory

The Aland Islands of Orrdalsklint and Långbergen in Saltvik represent the highest topographic points in the Aland Archipelago, but these elements only began to emerge above the sea near the beginning of the Holocene.

The earliest evidence of Homo sapiens on the archipelago is linked to the Comb-Ceramic Culture dating to an era of about 6000 years before present (BP). These dates are somewhat later than man was evident in mesolithic cultures on the island of Oland (notably at Alby on the east coast of Oland), somewhat further to the south in the Baltic Sea. Approximately 4500 years BP pitted ware artifacts started appearing in Åland. From around 3800 BP, elements of the Kiukainen culture become evident.

Further Reading

• C.Michael Hogan. 2006. Prehistory of the Alby people, Oland, Sweden. Lumina Technologies.
• Pauli Virrankoski. 2001. Suomen historia. Ensimmäinen osa. SKS. ISBN 951-746321-9.
• Marek Zvelebil. 2004. Pitted Ware and related cultures of Neolithic Northern Europe, in P. Bogucki and P.J. Crabtree (eds.), Ancient Europe 8000 BC–AD 1000: Encyclopaedia of the Barbarian World, Vol. I The Mesolithic to Copper Age (c. 8000-2000 B.C.)

See Also

• Baltic Sea
• Ecoregions of Sweden
• Seas of the world