In 2015 a discovery was made on the ancient Orkney islands of Scotland where a team of archaeologists have found various neolithic stone-built structures used for habitation to protect the proto-European inhabitants from their usually harsh sub-arctic climate. It has indicated that the locals used this relatively unique innovation to incorporate these areas for storage, general heat for bodily warmth, hygiene, and cooking. It is feasible some of these enclosed structures also included the use of steam, similar to the modern Finnish sauna, this alone would infer that this finding marks one of the oldest possible uses of this method as the site is dated to be approximately 6000 years old.
Rod McCullagh, the former deputy head of archaeology strategy at heritage body, explained: “We know this was a large building, with a complex network of cells attached to it and a sizeable tank of water in the central structure which would likely have been used to produce boiling water and steam - which could have been used to create a sauna effect.”
Officially speaking, the oldest actual saunas were developed in ancient Scandinavia, specifically Finland in the aftermath of the Ice age (though these original ones were dug out holes in the ground and made into a pit which was then covered by an animal skin roof to create some form of insulation to maintain a usable high temperature. It is worth noting this detail as to compare these embryonic versions of the sauna were not permanent structures compared to the ones in Orkney.
However, these Finnic saunas were used for seasonal habitation during the winter and did include a primitive fireplace where stones were heated with water being poured on these hot stones to produce the steam needed to create the sensational feeling of an increased heat. Also, the first Finnish saunas were always of a type now called the savusauna or literally "smoke sauna". These slightly differed from the common present-day saunas in the sense that they were operated by burning large amounts of wood for about 6 to 8 hours prior and then allowing out the smoke before enjoying the löyly, a Finnish term meaning, collectively, both the heat and steam within the sauna. If done correctly properly heated and insulant savusauna generates heat for up to 12 hours use.
It must be stated that Finland’s geography of sporadic lakes and wild forests made it easy for the local inhabitants to obtain easy access to what would seem to them an endless fuel for extensive sauna use, thus making it unsurprising to be enshrined into Finnic culture and later spearheaded for wider use across the continent in the modern age.
So, in the age of the Industrial Revolution the sauna will evolve to now use a wood-burning metal stove, kiuas, again with heated rocks on top with a chimney attached to allow for some temperature ventilation and control. The air temperatures now were able to reach around 75–100 °C more easily and could sometimes exceeded 110 °C with little effort in the new but currently traditional Finnish sauna. With this simple technology it would have made saunas more accessible and user-friendly and not purely a seasonal pursuit but also a pastime and an increasing cultural tenet of Finland. This national custom would be used to help differentiate them from their neighbours and historic rulers; Sweden and Russia, and thus will enshrine it into Finnish national identity as stereotypical factor of their ethnic character.
Interestingly, the explosion of war in Europe during the 1940’s helped expand the popularity of the sauna. Since food became scarce, theatres and other forms of entertainment were closed and life for the average citizen became less eventful. The sauna was one of the few pastimes people could enjoy.
For the military, they found the sauna essential. Soldiers used tents with added special sauna heating units as means of cleaning and delousing the soldiers while also boosting morale on the frontlines. Saunas were so important to Finnish soldiers that they built them not only in mobile tents but even in bunkers, even a sauna that was left by evacuated villagers were usually repaired and expanded to heat the freezing troops. Once the Germans commenced Barbarossa in ‘41 and later helping Finland to start up another front through their own Continuation War against Stalin, the German soldiers were now experiencing Finnish saunas during their shared fight Soviet Bolshevism while stationed in Karelia and the other northern Finnish fronts.
Immediately after the war’s conclusion, the German soldiers that were based in Finland and Estonia brought back with them the custom where it became increasingly popular in the second half of the 20th century. The German sauna culture then seeped into their neighbouring countries and were later picked up upon by Swiss, Dutch, and Belgians, later with sauna sites popping up across Europe and soon the wider world at an exponential rate in all sorts of leisure and health venues. It itself being a core element of the northern European way of life.
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