Verifying an ancient relic and the boundaries of the related protected area

According to section 4 of the Antiquities Act, ancient relics include land areas that must be preserved to safeguard the relic and the necessary space around the relic in terms of the quality and scope of the relic. This land area is called the protected area (suoja-alue) in the act.

According to section 5 of the Antiquities Act, the Finnish Heritage Agency may verify the boundaries of an ancient relic and its protected area either upon application by the landowner or at its own initiative.

Furthermore, the Finnish Heritage Agency may verify the boundaries of an ancient relic and its protected area in the Sámi homeland specified in section 4 of the Act on the Sámi Parliament (974/1995) upon request by the Sámi Parliament and in the Skolt Sámi area specified in section 2 of the act on the Skolt Sámi (Kolttalaki 253/1995) upon request by the Skolt Sámi siida council.

The matter concerning a decision on an ancient relic and its protected area can be initiated by submitting a written application to the Finnish Heritage Agency record office

• by e-mail kirjaamo@museovirasto.fi
• or post Museovirasto, PO Box 913, FI-00101 Helsinki.

Information given on the application

The application must contain a necessary and sufficient account of the ancient relic and its location, land ownership and the land use in the area.

1. Account of the ancient relic and its location

• The application must contain information on the ancient relic in question and its location.
• The applicant may make use of the Finnish Heritage Agency Ancient Relics Register or any research reports on the ancient relic as well as the Ancient Relics Register map service, for example.
• If no information is available, the ancient relic must be itemised with the help of other available material and information, e.g. by photographing the relic.
• In order to verify the location of the relic, the applicant must report the location of the relic in the form of a marking on a map and, if possible, the coordinates of the location of the relic.

2. Account of land ownership

• The applicant must determine which property the area that the relic is located in belongs to, along with the owners of the property in question.
• Real property identification is available in the Ancient Relics Register, for example.
• Both the identification and ownership data are also available in e-services related to real property.

3. Account of land use in the area

• The application must contain an account of the land use in the area the application pertains to.
• This account may be drafted by explaining what the area is used for at the time of the application or providing an assessment of any future use of the area.

The boundaries of the ancient relic and the related protected area must be marked on a map and attached to the application.

The applicant must state their name, address and telephone number on the application in order to receive any notifications concerning the matter.

Processing time

The processing time of a matter concerning a decision on an ancient relic and its protected area is determined case-specifically based on the location and characteristics of the ancient relic. Primarily, we strive to process applications within 120 days.

The processing of the decision on the protected area usually requires an on-site inspection, which can only be conducted when the ground is unfrozen, which means that the prerequisites for organising the inspection affect the processing time. You should prepare for extended processing time when submitting applications concerning comprehensive ancient relics in particular.

Processing time is the period starting from the time of initiation of the matter and ending in the decision. The application process is initiated when the application arrives in the Finnish Heritage Agency’s registry office. If the application is incomplete, the Finnish Heritage Agency will ask the applicant to provide the missing information within a certain time period. Any missing information will extend the permit application processing time.

The decision on verifying an ancient relic and the boundaries of the related protective area is free of charge.